The Bishop
A bishop crosses the whole board in a single move and yet spends the entire game on one colour - half of all the squares there are, permanently out of reach. Both halves of that sentence are on the board below.
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The bishop's rule takes one line: it moves diagonally, any distance, and stops at the first piece in its way.
It is the consequence of that rule that takes a page. Move the bishop below a few times - there is a black pawn on h6, seven squares away up the long diagonal
- and then look at the colour of every square it has stood on.
The bishop on c1. Move it anywhere it may go - and one of those moves crosses the whole board to take the pawn.
Every square that bishop can reach is dark, and every square it will ever reach is dark. There is no sequence of legal moves, however long, that puts it on a light square. Half the board is closed to it for the entire game.
Which is why you have two of them
That is the reason each side starts with a bishop on c1 and another on f1 - one on each colour. Separately they are worth about three points each; together they cover every square on the board, and that is worth more than the six the arithmetic suggests. Players call it the bishop pair, and giving one of them up is a real concession even when the material stays level.
| can reach | can never reach | |
|---|---|---|
| the light-squared bishop | all 32 light squares | all 32 dark squares |
| the dark-squared bishop | all 32 dark squares | all 32 light squares |
| the two together | everything | nothing |
What stops a bishop
A bishop is stopped by the first piece on its diagonal, and that is far more often one of its own than one of the opponent's. Here is the bishop on its starting square with two of its own pawns beside it, exactly as a game begins.
The bishop on f1, with its own pawns on e2 and f2. Tap every square it can still reach.
A bishop like that is not worth three points. It is worth three points later, once the e-pawn moves - which is a real part of why openings spend their first few moves pushing the e- and d-pawns before developing anything.
Good bishops and bad bishops
Since a bishop only lives on one colour, the pawns that matter to it are the ones on that colour. They block it, and it can never capture them, because they are its own.
- A good bishop has its own pawns on the other colour, leaving its own diagonals clear.
- A bad bishop is shut in behind a wall of its own pawns on its own colour. It has a full three points on the score sheet and does nothing.
That is the whole reason you will hear "put your pawns on the opposite colour to your bishop". It is not a stylistic preference; it is the difference between owning a piece and owning a decoration.
The bishop against the knight
They are worth the same and they fail in opposite conditions, which is what makes the trade interesting rather than automatic:
| bishop | knight | |
|---|---|---|
| open position, few pawns | crosses the board in one move | needs three or four |
| closed position, locked pawns | can be walled in completely | jumps over everything |
| reach | half the squares, always | every square, eventually |
| stopping it | anything on its diagonal | nothing at all |
Try it
The bishop stands on c1. Three of the squares touching it are squares it can never stand on, in this game or any other. Tap one of them.
Common questions
- How does a bishop move in chess?
- Diagonally, as far as it likes, in any of the four diagonal directions - and it stops at the first piece in its way. If that piece is an enemy it may capture it and take its square; if it is one of yours, the bishop stops in front of it.
- Can a bishop change colour?
- Never. Every diagonal move keeps a bishop on squares of the colour it started on, so a bishop that begins on a dark square will be on a dark square for the whole game. It is the only piece with half the board permanently closed to it.
- Why does each player have two bishops?
- So that between them they cover every square: one starts on a light square and one on a dark. That is why the pair together is worth noticeably more than two of the same piece would be, and why losing one of them is worse than the three points suggests.
- What is a bad bishop?
- A bishop hemmed in by its own pawns - specifically pawns standing on its colour, which it can neither capture nor move past. It keeps its full value on paper and does almost nothing in the game, which is why players will happily push their pawns onto the colour their bishop does not use.
- Is a bishop better than a knight?
- They are both worth about three points and which is better depends entirely on the position. Open positions with pawns out of the way favour bishops, because a bishop crosses the board in one move. Closed, blocked positions favour knights, because a knight jumps over everything a bishop has to go around.
- Can a bishop jump over pieces?
- No. Only the knight can do that. A bishop travels along its diagonal square by square, and the first piece it meets stops it - so a bishop shut in behind its own pawns can be worth less than a pawn until those pawns move.
