Why the Bishop has cut on it's head?

If you like Wikipedia, the Bishop name for the piece didn't appear until the 16th Century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_(chess)

Why would a queen be in the middle of battle? No one is arguing with the origins of the pieces. But the modern names come from England. They adapted the Arabic and Indian names to fit the roles of the royal court, which would include the bishop.

No, no, no! From Spain!

It may be significant that the 14th century French translation ("La Vieille") of  "De Vetula," a 13th century morality book that described, among other things, games with chess being one of the games described mentions: "L'aulphin portant d'evesque mitre."

"Chess is a noble game as long as it is played in moderation and not playd to amass money." —"De Vetula"

shows where viking axes fell on monks heads

A couple of articles on the history of chess pieces.....the articles consistently posit that the Staunton bishop design is based on the Bishop's mitre.  Also note the design of the Bishop with mitre in the Isle of Lewis (one of the Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland) chess pieces in the first article below.  The set is believed to have been made in the 12th century.

Also in the same article is a discussion of the Charlemagne chess set which the article says was probably made in Italy, and which includes a King elephant as one of the pieces.  This piece has an Arabic inscription by the carver, but its origin is from India.  The article goes on to say that that particular piece may not in fact have been a chess piece at all.  In any event, the set is not a Staunton design.  But it is clear from the articles that Indian chess sets included an elephant.  However, there is no mention that there is any relationship between the design of the Indian chess pieces and the Staunton chess pieces.  In fact the articles say that the Staunton design was based on purely English personages of nobility - the King, Queen, Bishop and Knight (not on Indian chess set pieces).

http://www.chesscentral.com/pages/chess-sets-pieces-boards/a-history-of-chess-pieces-and-chess-sets.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20091028082830/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/staunton.htm

ahahahahahaha best post ever..... dude!!!!

 Mitre?  I thought that was a type of saw.

I am not disputing anything with regard to Indian or Arabic chess pieces.  I am contending, based on everything I have read by those who are considered "experts" on the history of chess, that the design of the Staunton pieces were in no way based on the design of pieces from India or any other country.  Instead the pieces are based on the historically most respected and powerful personages of English society up to that time - the King, Queen and the Bishop (with his mitre) and the Knight.  Not much more I can or wish to add to the discussion.  

The Bishop has a cut on his head as a result of the Wars of Religion back in the 1600s. The Catholics vs Protestants vs Cathars vs Jensenists vs Hussites vs Calvinist cluster-**** left festering wounds.

It is also possible he had seen some of the pieces like the one posted by TRextastic and that influenced his decisions. Whether that piece was influenced by prior abstract elephant pieces, fools/jesters (which may also have been based on the elephant/tusk design), the bishop's mitre, etc is a different story/supposition.

But yes, by Staunton's time, the bishop was certainly associated with the church (and in sets prior to that too). The Wikipedia article also mentions the Icelandic piece name even predates the general English naming of Bishop (with a similar name).

One might suspect that a creative designer that loved chess would incorporate both ideas in his design...

Despite the discussion, I'll always imagine an elephant trunk when I see the bishop design. 

hehehehehehehehe

triff!!! :-)

 Tracing the history and development of the Bishop in chess is a very complex matter. Below are concepts from two entirely different sources, both of which predate the Staunton design.  They are rather long for a forum post but, if one takes the time to study them, he will see the ecclesiastical connection to chess dating back to the 12th century and the use of the mitre dating back to the 1500s or earlier. 
Pardon any typos as well as the many latin quotes.

In his 1804 book, "An Introduction to the History and Study of Chess," Thomas Pruen [Curate of Cheltenham] wrote:
THE BISHOP.—The third piece at Chess, to which the English give this name, was, by our old writers called alphyn, awfyn, and alfin; and by the old French romancers, aufin, and sometimes fol. Hyde says, that the Spaniards, who borrowed many words from the Moors, formed the word alfil from the Arabic fil or phil, the name of this piece on the eastern chess-board, which signifies an elephant.

Rabelais calls it the archer; the Danes and Portuguese term it, with us, the bishop; the Germans, lauffer, the hound or runner; the Spaniards and Italians, alfil, alfiere, the standard bearer; and the Russians and Swedes, the elephant.

There is no end to conjecture on the subject of this word, which presents itself under the successive forms of fil alfil, alfin, elphinos, (Gr.), delphinos, elephas, &c.

What was the original shape of this piece it is also difficult to judge: Damiano, whose book on Chess was printed in 1524, calls it delfino, alfil, and alfino; and gives a cut of it, as does likewise the Italian translator of Ruy Lopez in 1584. In both their representations it resembles an urn. The French, at a very early period, called this piece fol (fool). It is natural to derive the word as a Chess term from the original fil; for it is unreasonable to suppose, that that nation, till lately, so devoted to ecclesiastical establishments, would have introduced the word as a satire on the clergy, however some few of their writers might be disposed.

From this it is probable, that the ancient term was retained after the change in the form took place. But even if otherwise, to account for the change is no difficult matter, when it is considered what a favorite personage the fool was in those times.  Kings and Queens seldom appreaded without their fools.  Regnier sarcastically says:
                         "Les fous sont aux Echecs les pus proched des roi."

A further proof that the figure of a fool constituted one of the pieces on the ancient French chess-board, occurs in a curious spiritual romance, Le Pèlerin de la vie Humaine, composed in the beginning of the 14th century.  In this book the author has described the chess-king, at the head of his pieces, attacking and undermining the foundations of a church.  In an edition of the translation, printed in 1504, there is a cut of a chess-board, with a fool among the pieces.  The French yet retain this name.

It is uncertain when this piece was first called an "archer," or for what reason.  Rabelais, in his allegorical description of the game, had termed it; and Colonna, the author of "Poliphilo," wom Rabelais copied, has called it the "secretary."  Archers were formerly the body-guards of monarchs, and might have been thought by some more proper in the game of Chess than fools, especially if they were inclined to give it a military turn. Vida, in his poem on Chess, describes this piece as an archer; and Beale, who published a translation of Biochimos's [Gioachino Greco -batgrl] Royal Game of Chesse-play, in 1656, makes the "bishop" and "archer" the same, with a cloven head.

It is, perhaps, impossible to trace the first appearance of this piece with a forked or broken head. It is represented something in this manner in Caxton's translation of Jacobus De Cessolis [1474 -batgirl]; but his rook is given as still more so. The English and Danes alone, in modern times, call it the bishop; and the first mention of this term in England is in Saul's famous Game of Chesse-play, originally published in 1640, who says, "The game resembles a well-composed commonwealth; the bishops representing the clergy, with high cloven heads, like a bishop's mitre."

The word "cornua" was used in the middle ages for a mitre; but whether the cornu formed a separate piece in the ancient European game, or whether the term was synonymous with the alfin, is not quite clear. There is, however, great reason to think that the "alfin," the "cornu," and the "bishop," were in fact the same.

In a very old Latin poem upon Chess, printed by Dr. Hyde, "De Ludis Orient," p. 179, from a MS. in the Bodleian Library, the piece next the king is termed "calvus" ; and, if this denotes a monk with a shaven crown, it is another very early instance of the introduction of priests among the chess-men.

Sir Frederick Madden, F.R.S. wrote a scholarly treatise on the Isle of Lewis Chessmen a decade after their discovery after having given them a deep study.

The Bishops. Five of these are represented sitting in ornamented chairs, like the King and Queen; but the remaining' eight are in a standing posture. Their dress is of two descriptions. All of the sitting figures, and four of the standing ones, wear the chasuble, dalmatic, stole, and tunic, of the form anciently prescribed, and corresponding with representations of much greater antiquity. The remainder have a cope instead of a chasuble, but omit the stole and dalmatic. On the back both of the chasuble and stole are various crosses or ornaments. The mitres are very low, and in some instances quite plain; but have the double band or infulae attached behind. The hair is cut short round the head. They hold a crozier with one or with both hands; and, in the former instances, the other hand holds a book, or is raised in the attitude of benediction.

Here again, as in the preceding instance of the Queen, we learn with certainty the introduction of the Bishop into the game of Chess at so early a period as the middle of the twelfth century. The original name of this piece among the Persians and Arabs was Pil, or Thil, an Elephant, under the form of which it was represented by the Orientals; and Dr. Hyde and Mr. Douce have satisfactorily proved that hence, with the addition of the article al, have been derived the various names of alfil, arfil, alferez, alphilus, alfino, alfiere, aufin, alfyn, awfyn, alphyn, as used by the early Spanish, Italian, French, and English writers. Aben-Ezra, in the twelfth century, retains the original term of Phil, but in the "Roman d'Alexandre," composed before the year 1200, we find it in the form of Aufin, and from the French Romances it was borrowed by the English. With regard to the period when the Bishop first took the place of the Elephant, authors are silent, nor has any evidence occurred to determine. But that such a change is of great antiquity, not only is apparent from the figures before us, but from the Latin poem before quoted of the twelfth century, in which the piece is termed "Calvus," an evident allusion to the monkish character.

          "Juxta illam (Reginam) Calvum pone, quasi pro custodia."
And again:
          "Cedit Culcus per transversum, tertiam ad tabulam."
So also in the poem attributed to amphilius Maurilianus": "
          Rex est Sol, pedes est Saturnus, Mars quoque Miles, Regia virgo Venus,
          Alphinus Episcopus ipse est Juppiter, et Roccus discurrens Luna."

And in the "Moralitas de Scaccurio," we read, "Alphini sunt Episcopi non ut Moyses, ex colloquio divino, sed pocius regio imperio, prece, vel precio sublimata, et sic promoti. Isti Alphini oblique currunt, et tres punctos pertranseunt,"  A later copy in MS. Reg. 12, E. xxi., lias this remarkable variation. "Alphini prelati sunt ecclesiis proprii, scilicet archiepiscopi et episcopi cornuti."

[Madden gives several more literary examples which I'll skip, but finally:]

"Now comes the game of the Alfins,
 Which is neither poor nor ...... i

Every hody knows that he is a Cornute,
And ought not to be taken for a Fool,
For the Alfi.ii on the Chess-board
Possesses very great power."

The allusion is here made to the cornuted or forked heads of the mitred Chess-man, which served as an epitome of the Bishop, and this form has been retained down to the present day. Mr. Douce believed that the earliest instance of the use of the term Bishop, in English writers, occurred so late as the time of Charles the First, in Arthur Saul's "Famous Game of Chesse Play." f But it was certainly used as the usual form in England in the time of Elizabeth, as appears from Rowbotham's "Pleasaunt and wittie Playe of the Cheasts renewed," Lond. 1562.  He says of it, "The Bishoppes some name Alphins, some fooles, and some name them Princes; others call them Archers, and they are fashioned according to the wyll of the workman;" and again, Of the Bishop or Archer, "In the auncient tyme, the Frenchman named him Foole, whiche seemeth unto me an improper name. The Spaniardes named him Prince, with some reason, and some name him Archer;" and of its form among the English, he tells us, "The Bishoppe is made with a sharpe toppe and cloven in the middest, not muche unlyke to a bishops myter." And in a MS. belonging to John Gage, Esq., [1538-1595 -batgirl] of the time of James the First, is the following passage, apparently taken from an earlier writer: "In prima acie collocatur peditatus; his proximus est equitatus. Hos vero sequuntur Satellites, qui a forma mitrae episcopalis Episcopi nominantur."

As a Catholic who, in my youth, frequently served mass as an altar boy for the Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore, I've always realized the cut in the chess piece represented the mitre or "hat" of the Bishop!

La leche.

The bishop's hat is a symbolic fish head. It represent the 'Age of Pisces'. Interestingly

“A man will meet you carrying an earthen pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he goes in” Luke 22:10. The coming 'Age of Aquarius'

the precession of the equinoxes  etc etc

Have you ever seen a bishop without a cut on his head? 

mais pas la crème?