"The Battle Between Bishops And Knights"

In a chapter in Jeremy Silman's "Amateur's Mind," Silman analyses and compares the bishop and knight. In this article I will discuss important notes of this chapter.

The rank on which the knight resides can determine its strength.

"Knights are not effective on the first rank. Here they act in a purely defensive role."

"A Knight stuck on the second rank is also defensive, and is considered to be inferior to a Bishop."

"A Knight on the third rank serves many defensive functions and is ready to jump further up the board at a moment's notice."

"A Knight securely placed on the fourth rank is considered to be fully equal to a Bishop."

"A Knight on the fifth is a powerful attacking unit and is usually stronger than a Bishop."

"A Knight reaches the zenith of its potential on the sixth rank. Here it eats most other pieces alive and the defender is often happy to sacrifice a Rook for the offending horse and the pawn that protected it."

"A Knight on the last two ranks offers diminishing returns since it does not control as many squares as it does on the sixth."

In this chapter Silman lists ten rules. I found RULE 9 to be particularly important.

"RULE 9---Knights are superior to Bishops in an endgame if all the pawns are on one side of the board. This is because the Bishop's long range powers no longer have meaning while the Knight's ability to go to either color square means that there is no safe haven for the enemy King or pawns."