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A note on good Bishops vs bad Bishops
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 A note on good Bishops vs bad BishopsIf you were to ask most senior masters or GM's which pieces(Knights or Bishops)are overall more statistically valuable with the majority bulk of their games,you will more than likely hear that Bishops,not Knights have a bit more personal value to the ultra strong players.I tend to agree with that.Many games that are closed,eventually open up and then the Bishops shine more with open positional strategies. Theoretically speaking,I have read in a few books that the Bishop has an open game value of approx 3.1 or 3.2 as compared to the Knight at approx 3.0 or perhaps 2.9 if it is positioned on the a or h file.Subject to change of course. Then obviously,the Bishop can attack more squares simultaneously at longer distances.In a closed game there are limiting factors,but eventually the Bishops,with careful play and not exchanging your good Bishop,can eventually shine at that "3.2" value that may have been analyzed by a program to be 2.9 or 3.0 a few moved prior. Well more about good vs bad Bishops: A bad Bishop is generally defined as a Bishop that moves on squares of its own color where most of the same color pawns are fixed centrally on the board.Or secondarily,by any of the same color pawns that are blocking/locking in the same color Bishop in a fixed position,or temporarily. A good Bishop does not have its diagonals blocked and has much more freedom of movement. Generally speaking,too many pawns,including the bishop on the same color squares usually leaves the opposite color squares insufficiently guarded. Position of too many light squared pawns blocking in a light squared Bishop making it a "bad"Bishop: Above...it does not matter where Black's Bishop moves to,it'll either be blocked in by its own pawns or blocked in by the threat of capture,from White's Queen and light squared Bishop. In the next position below,this is an example of too many pawns on the same color squares.Black's Bishop isn't blocked in,since it can move to f5,but look at the Black pawns... they're all on the same light-color squares,making Black weak on the dark-squares,which result in making Black's Bishop "Bad",since any enemy pawn or piece is able to sit comfortably on a dark square without fear of capture: f the position can unlock itself relatively quickly,then the Bishop is not considered "bad",but a good Bishop in delay factor.You must weight this all in before feeling that you should exchange that bad Bishop. In summary: When you have an option of exchanging Bishops where you have a Bad Bishop whose weakness is unlikely to be rectified in a few moves,make every attempt to keep the good Bishop!Or,if you notice your opponent has a Bad Bishop,aim to take his Good Bishop and leave him with his Bad Bishop. One final note is that a good Bishop that has a theoretical value of 3.1 can be easily diminished to a point value of 2.8 or 2.9 if it is positioned for any length of time on a flank file such as the a or h file,even if it is categorized as a good Bishop.This is due to positionally limiting the amount of movement and attacking squares in that Bishops domain.So,in essence,it can be a good Bishop with decreased value.In a case like that,if it is forcibly frozen,it may be a better idea to exchange that Bishop for a Knight,even in an open game....but usually it will be locked or frozen on a flank file in a semi open or closed game statistically speaking. TA One more point on statistics: Which defense offers one of the most statistically prone "bad Bishop"scenarios? Answer:The French Defense. The French Defense is an opening, which most players either love or hate.With the very first move, Black tells the problemchild Bishop at c8 that it is going to be a while before that piece will play a active role in the game,at least on the king side(because it is locked in the pawn chain by blacks first move).White will generally have an advantage in the center and an advantage in space,at least in the opening. So the French is not everyone's piece of pie.It can take great patience to first defend then go on the offensive later on...which is characteristic of this defense.The subtle maneuvering can easily block in ones Bishop(s)long or short term,leading to swift victory for white if not handled correctly by black.This is why I usually do not recommend the French for early learners.But the French Defense does offer some extreme value in defensive study/play,including practice on how to develop your Bad Bishop into a good Bishop! |
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postion,but Bishops can have a theoretical value of higher than 3 points....say,3.1 or 3.2!While your opponents Knights may be 3 points or even 2.9 if they are frozen or temporarily placed on the edge files of a or h. |
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 game |
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Yes and no Blacks white square Bishop still has pretty good diagonal control space as you can see,with good attacking possibilities,while his black square Bishop is mainly hemmed in and almost useless,at least for that position.White,however,must keep defending his f3 pawn,that is if black could have untangled his black squared Bishop and attack your King.But that was probably not going to happen.I give a value of about 2.7 for that Black squared Bishop.What black SHOULD have done,earlier in the game was MUCH MORE pawn exchanges,thus opening up the board much more rapidly and leaving both Bishops with much more open space to attack.When you have two Bishops in an endgame,that is the key thing to do,but plan ahead of time. Blacks disconnected pawn on h5 is another bad weakness of his and could have been avoided about 10 moves back.You were about to probably take that h5 pawn of his anyway,giving you a 2 point value lead.At least he resigned.Some players would have continued on. In the game,white compensates himself with much more pawn spatial control vs blacks white square control with his open Bishop on the white squares.White only has one pawn on the black square,which lessens any volume of attack with blacks Bishop which is hemmed in and of much less value.I am sure you know that already. I did not go into the game and back it up to see all the salient tactical strategies that sssernie could have done to equalize or win,but just wanted to give you a quick viewpoint of his two Bishops.I probably would have had moves that were far different from move #3! With YOUR move #2.Bg5...are you aware that you went into a Trompowski Attack style? That is actually MY favorite opening for white!In your case,however,you did not need my help in destroying your opponent with theory.He killed himself off. I have a Trompowski post somewhere in the club,you will have to find it. |
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Oh,I found some of the post... Take a look at that 3rd and 4th link.Drpatron was shocked and confused,even at his high rating and lost quickly to the Tromp!Out of book strategy helped me infinitely.Its kind of a lesson for black as well on what NOT to do! |
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The Trompowski is one of my favourites too, I used to play the Torre, but black would reply by moving the knight again, so I found it too ‘slow.’ Sometimes, black panics at that Bishop snarling so close to their pawn wall and plays a self-weakening pawn kick. I also like the Trompowski because it seems to offer violent attacking opportunities while making my own position reasonably safe with a Colle/London system style pawn wall. Will check out that thread! |
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Richter–Veresov Attack which also has benefits,atleast for equality.More on that at a later date. I tend to say,for the advantage because many opening books will not run deep with either the tromp or the Ricter,which can give you a winning strategy....just like I had with that DrPatron game link you now have. You will notice,right at the beginning of that video that.."people do not know it very well" which should be a big hint ahead of time.But I perfer to NOT transpose and use some of my own Tromps.I have a small paperback that I refer back to many times.Later on that as well. www.youtube.com |
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Actually....4.Bxf6 and doubling blacks pawns on the f file after he captures your Knight is a real Trompowski!And depending upon WHICH pawn black captures with...his K pawn or his N pawn can give added midgame attack strategy for you.Plus blacks doubled pawns on the f file can and will give him future problems,if he does not know how to follow through on the proper defense in a pure Trompowski Attack.I could write much on the Tromp,but not in this thread. |
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I will look at the benefits of doubling black’s pawns, I need to be more flexible sometimes! |
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1.d4,d5 2.Bg5,Nf6 3.Bxf6,gxf6 or 1.d4,Nf6 2.Bg5, then...any other move but 2...Ne4 like h6 then 3. Bxf6 As to the Ne4... 2.Bg5,Ne4 then 3.Bf4 Nd2 is fine!As you do.But I was just speaking of what many of us call a pure Tromp which involves early exchange.Stopping the Ne4 response is fine,but keeps the tromp "in book" longer.That is also good but not "as good"if you can train on earlier out of book strategies that a book will not teach you. For some reason,I have always loved the cheap paperback book,132 pages long called: "The Trompowsky Attack"....by GM Andrew Soltis.It has many theoretical lines to be discovered.A MUST HAVE if you want to see some interesting short games and variation play. Here is the book: www.amazon.com I have won countless games using that inexpensive gem.One of my 12 dollar secrets. |
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Getting out of your comfort zone sometimes works better than using the same opening variation that works for you,even quite often.But it takes MORE work.The early exchange variation and ones that are presented in that book(and other books)tend to statistically go into what is called "uncharted waters".This is what makes the Tromp so special.Some quick visual sample studies can be done with no paperback book reading but using a common tool of the GMs.What tool? Most chess programs with a decent GUI like Fritz and Arena and using Kommodo(or others) AND most importantly...a very good opening CTG book like Fauzi 3.3,Hiarcs,Chessbase and some Polygots are extremely in valuable.Without getting into detail here...there is another post for that,you simply play other opening variation moves in the Tromp(or other openings)and you can visually observe the "subvariant tree lines"/stats on those opening moves.You click on say,that doubled pawn situation I showed above,then a series of other "next move" lines appear.Then repeat.Eventually,you will go out of book.When that happens your program will show you what pawn value % you are at as a +,- or 0.00 for equality.Its a GM tool and one to train on with new variation lines in a traditional openings.Studying your new frontier beyond that Nd2 makes it easier to steer your ship in uncharted waters...much easier! Perhaps you already have these tools?I do not know.But using the tools and properly handling those tools is key.And that is where I can help in the future.When you begin to see the colorful format of Hiarcs(for example)it is far from boring!It brings to light some very interesting key positions both in book and out of book. |
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I deliberately bought a ‘used’ copy, in the hope that a previous owner had left useful scribbled notes. They had! And stapled an old Leonard Barden newspaper cutting about the Trompowsky on a page. I’m looking forward to checking it all out properly. One thing the previous owner pointed out was the importance of exploiting Black’s d5 pawn weakness on the Kingside after the bishop is retaken with their e pawn, if I’ve got that right… |
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You picked up that little gem!Hope all the pages are there! It not a big book,but then,there are not many books written about the Tromp! Exploiting the d5 pawn is key in many of those var.We can get into that later,but not just right now.Going out to dinner. Did you notice that on page 15,last paragraph that..."the capture on f6(B x f6) is the only line true to the spirit of the Tromp.... ?? Meaning that doubled pawn situation I mentioned previously. Have a good read and experiment!Use a computer program if you can,plug in some of the lines in that book and OBSERVE the pawn value flux in each position.Try plugging in some variant moves of your own and watch again.The Tromp,as you know,moves out of book quickly which is an advantage against many opening books....well,in many ways! |
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