What is your favourite piece and why?

what is your favourite piece on the board? And why?

My favourite is the Queen obviously, but apart from that the horse (this is what i call it lol) because if u have them at the very end of the game, they become really useful and can help u win it, where other pieces can't.

Obviously the castle (again what i call it), is very important but can it win u a game if your opponent has a castle and a horse and u only have a castle?

Which is more powerful, a knight or a bishop? 

I have a freind who says it's the knight but I think it's vice versa.  I'm sure you can guess which peices get traded when we play each other. 

They are both worth three points, but they are both so diferent.  Bishops are better in the endgame and knights are better in the begining, kind of like how pawns become more important in the endgame.

I think the bishops are more powerfull but also harder to use because their movment is restricted.  But the real reason I like them better is because I think bishops are better for checkmates.

 depends of the postion off the piece,there booth useful in there own right,tight suituation is say knights

The pawn....it is the soul of chess. (Philidor)

Knights drive me crazy. Rest of the pieces are ok.

thanx 4 the comments guys keep them coming. im finding them very interesting

I love rook ...

it's like queen but in a smal range

 My favourite piece is whichever one just checkmated my opponent's king. 

Edziak wrote:

Which is more powerful, a knight or a bishop? 

I have a freind who says it's the knight but I think it's vice versa.

 The answer is (according to all of the world's best players): it depends on the position. If there are lots of pieces on the board (and particularly in positions where the center is blocked up by pawns) knights are better due to their ability to jump other pieces. In positions where the center is open (i.e., not cluttered up by pawns) or where there are very few pieces on the board (e.g., in an endgame) bishops have an advantage over knights due to their long range.

However, since bishops are restricted to one color, having both bishops is better than having a bishop + knight or 2 knights. Generally the rule of thumb is that in an open position, if one side has both his bishops and the other doesn't, then the guy with 2 bishops is winning by the equivalent of 0.5 pawns (assuming everything else is equal).

 I think your teeth's not cut out for fruit cakes !

Yeah hellrazor I think it's silly to pick a favorite piece. They all have their own roles to play. I would say thought that, for all the talking people do about which piece is the best piece, the rook rarely gets mentioned. After someone manages to swap his/her bishop/knight for my rook I'm always quite upset-and the position is more often than not lost. Bishops and knights can be exchanged for each other or even pawns; but with rooks you usually don't want to be down two rooks to one. They dominate the end game.