how much are 2 bishops worth?
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Bishop pair better than any other pair of minor pieces?
It’s most likely dependent on the situation. Generally, probably so. Knights tend to be better in closed positions, whereas Bishops tend to do better in open positions where they can bear down their respective diagonals. Bishop pairs work particularly well together, though, and of course it’s much easier if you manage to keep them into the endgame (rarely happens) because you can checkmate the opponent’s king much easier than other minor piece endgames.
The general rule of thumb is a bishop pair is worth about .5 a pawn.
At the start of game I think of bishops worth ~3.5 and knights 3. If one bishop is destroyed, then I drop the value of remaining bishop to ~3 or a bit less depending on position. But keep in mind this thinking comes from an impotent noob patzer
It depends on the state of the economy and overall demand for them, but about 10 dollars give or take.
Dec 7, 2018
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#6
madratter7 wrote:
The general rule of thumb is a bishop pair is worth about .5 a pawn.
This is the most accurate answer. Having the two Bishops (if your opponent does not have their two Bishops) are valued by about 0.5 pawns more by humans and computers alike. So if all other pieces were equal in value, but the opponent has a Knight and a Bishop, but you have the Bishop pair, then you are effectively up about 0.5 pawns in material. Of course, this is only a rough material count and has little to do with who is winning. Bishops tend to like open positions and Knights closed positions, so maybe a really closed position can turn these Knights into monsters on the board. Petrosian was renowned for doing this I believe. He would close up the position, sacrifice his Rooks for he opponent's Knights, and his Knights would be monsters on the chess board. He would do this and systematically get win after win - maybe people today (looking back at those games) estimate that Petrosian's Knights were worth about 5 points each in these positions! The Knights would just maneuver around and gobble up pawns by ganging up on them positionally.
Obviously, every piece value is relational to its position, activity, role in play, coordination with you other forces and so on. But generally speaking, the "Bishop Pair" is worth half a pawn more than if you did not have this pair.
Dec 7, 2018
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#7
Under the right circumstances the bishop pair can be equal to rook and knight
Dec 7, 2018
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#9
I just set up a game with Kings on e1 and e8, white with 2 bishops on g1 and g2, and black with 2 knights on g7 and g8. Stockfish says that white's advantage is .08 at depth of 40.
Taking into account AlphaZero games, bishop pair is worth st more than a queen
Dec 7, 2018
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#12
forked_again wrote:
I just set up a game with Kings on e1 and e8, white with 2 bishops on g1 and g2, and black with 2 knights on g7 and g8. Stockfish says that white's advantage is .08 at depth of 40.
Even adding a rook and 2 pawns to each side, I get around .08 if you set it up fairly. At that point you have to consider protection of the pawns, mobility of the pieces, attacking opportunities etc, but with approximately equal mobility and pawn protection it is still about an equal game 2 bishops vs 2 knights. (If you are a computer).
More than a queen in the endgame
I talked to the queen and she says 1 bishop isn’t enough.. u gotta have 2
It depends heavily on the color of the bishops. If they are of same color, they won't achieve much in the endgame, but might be useful in some hypothetical early game situations (eg fianchettoed bishop battery pointed at corner king, preferably with a third adjacent -thus of opposite color- bishop helping). I would say 2 same colors bishops might be worth (say half a pawn) less than a knight and a bishop in an open end game.
If the bishops are of opposite color, they might be monster at times (endgame) and let you prevail over other combinations of 2 minors.
Dec 7, 2018
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#16
4xel wrote:
It depends heavily on the color of the bishops. If they are of same color, they won't achieve much in the endgame, but might be useful in some hypothetical early game situations (eg fianchettoed bishop battery pointed at corner king, preferably with a third adjacent -thus of opposite color- bishop helping). I would say 2 same colors bishops might be worth (say half a pawn) less than a knight and a bishop in an open end game.
If the bishops are of opposite color, they might be monster at times (endgame) and let you prevail over other combinations of 2 minors.
Thanks for pointing out a situation that happens about once in a trillion years. We really needed to consider that.