Bishops and Pawns

Bishops can be quite versatile pieces. But many times your bishop's strength is determined by your pawn placement. In this blog, I'm going to show you where to place your pawns and how to figure out which one of your bishops is better.

Bishops in the Opening/Middlegame

Here's a middlegame position:

Black's dark-squared bishop is better than their light-squared bishop because, well, the light-squared bishop is blocked by a pawn, but more importantly almost all of Black's pawns are on light-squares, making it harder for Black's light-squared bishop to move around. On the other hand, White's bishops are equal. White can exploit this by playing Bh6, trading off the dark-squared bishops and leaving Black with a bad light-squared bishop.

In the opening and middlegame, the bishop that is on the opposite color squares of your pawns is better.

Bishops in the Endgame

Now let's look at an endgame position - 

In this position, Black has the better bishop because most the pawns on the board are on light squares, and Black's bishop is a light-squared bishop while White's is a dark-squared bishop. Since there are not many pieces on the board in the endgame, you actually want a bishop on the same squares as the pawns so that your bishop can attack enemy pawns and defend its own pawns. White managed to trade the bishops like so:

In the endgame, the bishop that is on the opposite color squares of your pawns is better.

Test your Knowledge

How can White trade off Black's better bishop?

Black has the better bishop. How can White try to trick Black into getting the bishops off the board?

And that concludes this blog. See you in the next one!