Wikibooks: Chess Strategy/Minor pieces

• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Subjects: Reykjavík; Thumb
• Online Access: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess_Strategy/Minor_pieces

=Differences between the minor pieces= Understanding the relationships between minor pieces is crucial to chess. It s more important than most other things including space pawn structure and sometimes even material. It s also one of the most misunderstood. For example for many years the position in [[Spassky Fischer Reykjavík 1972]] would have been classified as great advantage for White . After all he had the two bishops. No one questioned the authority of two bishops until the modern players like Botvinnik Tal Smyslov and Bronstein realized that chess is too dynamic to say things like the bishop pair is always good . =Rules of the minor pieces= First here are some rules of thumb regarding the minor pieces. They will not work in all situations as discussed above but they will provide a good general guide. =Rules of knights= 1. Knights need advanced support points to be effective. A support point or outpost is a square supported by a pawn that no enemy pawn can attack or if it can it cannot attack it without incurring some weakness. Remember that the knight must affect the area of the board where the play is happening otherwise it s useless! Here are some rules governing a knight s activity depending on the rank it sits on. A. Knights on the first or second rank are purely defensive and are usually on their way to a better square. B. Knights on the third rank are useful defenders and are ready to jump to the fifth. C. A knight on the fourth rank is equal to a bishop and can withdraw for defense or venture even further for attack. D. A knight on the fifth is a superb piece constituting a powerful attacker and is often better than a bishop. E. A knight on the sixth is often cause for the opponent s resignation. It creates disharmony in the enemy camp and the Exchange is often sacrificed to get rid of it. (See [[Botvinnik Flohr Moscow 1936]] for an example of such a knight) F. A knight on the seventh or eighth often diminishes in value because it controls fewer squares than a knight on the sixth. 2. Knights thrive ...