GameKnot: Chess related, To develop a bishop

Chess related: To develop a bishop

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blake78613
20-Nov-10, 10:32

To develop a bishop

In an annotated game Eric Prie quoted a saying that I had never heard before in the following position:

>>The saying that states: "To develop a bishop, you just need to advance the pawn in front of him" is well illustrated here. The bishop is more active on f8 than g7!<<

I started to notice that GMs often leave their good bishops on the original square. This happens often in the Ruy Lopez. In the following position from the game Geller- Mecking
Palma de Mallaca 1970. Here Geller moves his queen knight for the fourth time while the bishop still sits on c1.

In this typical classical KID position, well into the middle game Black's c8-bishop is about to make it's first move 19...Bxh3:

I published these examples on another website and was universally criticized and ridiculed for putting forth such heresy. What do you guys think?

black_cat_hamlet
20-Nov-10, 22:21

Universally criticized?

Wow, that was kinda harsh...

I can see what you mean, when other moves are more useful than developing the bishop, but then again, another good tip is to get your rooks connected... I guess that's a hard one

blake78613
22-Nov-10, 10:47

Deleted by blake78613 on 22-Nov-10, 10:48.

blake78613
22-Nov-10, 10:48

Connecting your rooks is nice, but is it a priority or a necessity? Connecting the rooks is a possible middlegame goal, but in both the Classical KID and closed Spanish maneuvering the knights to good staging points for an attack might have a higher priority. The Classical KID is a pure race situation and Black simply doesn't have time to connect his rooks, because he must break through on the kingside before Black breaks through on queenside. Also notice in the Spanish and KID above examples that the center is fixed, and there is a two front war going on. If you have two fronts and a fixed center there is a logic to keeping a rook on each front.

lighttotheright
26-Nov-10, 17:19

It's highly situational. I've sometimes found that an undeveloped bishop is already on its optimal square, but this usually happens on the queen-side and is quite rare.

As far as connecting the rooks, that can be done by moving one of them up so that you can double them along the file. So the queen-side bishop on its original square is really not necessarily that much of an impediment. A simple rook lift solves any problem.

I find "universally criticized" rather harsh too.

tactical_abyss
27-Nov-10, 01:42

Bishop development/control/capture

When it comes to Bishops,many players in the lower rating levels fail to initiate either light/dark positional square control or Bishop/Knight exchange at the right timing moment in a game.While piece movement can change rapidly from light to dark squares,this may not always be the case.I call it freeze framing the position for the initiative.In other words take a "mental picture" of the position on both sides of the board.Take for example the last diagram directly above.Notice anything?One should immediately recognize that most of whites pieces are on and controlling the white squares and most of blacks pieces are on and controlling the black squares.Always take count of how many of your pieces and your opponents pieces occupy a particular number of colored squares.It may not be easy in the example above,but one of the key ways to control the game better is to rid the board(in the example above)of whites dark squared b4 Bishop if you would be playing the black side.Why?Because most of blacks pieces are on the dark squares and by taking away whites Bishop through exchange,capture or by blocking and/or minimizing the line of sight or attacking possibilities of that b4 Bishop,black can then get much stronger initiative and eventual winning control of the game.

So,in the diagram above,if I were playing the black side,one of my tactical "plans"would be to attack whites b4 Bishop.Maybe by moving c5,dxc3 e.p.,Nxc6.If white does not retreat the Bishop because it is protected by the d3 Knight,capture whites b4 Bishop with your Knight.
Now,with that nasty white Bishop eliminated,it can no longer threaten any of the majority of blacks dark squared pieces!

Again,there may be better ways to do the job as I mentioned above,but you get the idea!Placing pressure on your opponents Bishop that has more of a potential threat to the majority of your sides light or dark square control is key.It even works in reverse,for example,if you plan to suddenly occupy and switch most of your pieces from dark to light...then try to exchange your opponents light squared Bishop AHEAD of time before you initiate that plan!

If you see your opponent trying the same against you,it is very important to protect your Bishop that has the much more powerful reign over your opponents light or dark square piece majority....do not exchange it unless the position radically changes with shades reversed!

Most players will say,ya,ya,I know all this stuff!But if you go back and analyze tactical positions and exchanges,one will many times will discover that the opponent lost due to NOT exchanging their opponents Bishop with a Bishop or Knight at the precise moment certain dark/light squares were being controlled.For if the potential higher threat is removed,now you can have an easier time,perhaps,to develop and place more attacking pressure with your Bishop(s)on squares that are most occupied by your opponent.

TA

tactical_abyss
27-Nov-10, 02:11

correction above in second paragraph)
c5,dxc6 e.p.,Nxc6.
Its 5am here in NYC,so i'm tired,but you get the idea!(I hope!)
Too many chocolate martinis!

blake78613
27-Nov-10, 05:41

One thing I have noticed about keeping the bishop on it's original square is: that there may be more active squares for the bishop, but it is very hard to harass or exchange the bishop when it's on the original square. Moving the bishop to the more active square is often a matter of timing, and should be done after you have maneuvered your knights and are ready to strike.

baronderkilt
28-Nov-10, 14:02

High level stuff from blake ...

great thread. I didnt realize a lot of this till going north of 2150 or so. Once did a whole article on when a piece counts developed from the original square, during my ccmcacollister phase I think. Went to Google it and found that nik's 1800 hits now reduced to 150 ... man I thought that stuff was Eternal, would be there for my son to look up some day! Perhaps only for Fischer with his 180,000+ hits llol.
Fading, fading . . .

Hope to have some comments later. For now to say, I find the Bc1 the best location for the Goring etc. Thus prefer Alekhine's "semi-Danish" over the Danish for the most part. Moving the Bb2 postpones the attack well into the middle game and subjects one to getting Laskerized.

Also in the KI, ...Bxh3 or ...Bh3 seems the Natural Development Sq of this B. Its whole reason for existing! Hence BL will often passive sac his Ra8 rather than give up that B. The position Blake gives is the Classic Bxh3 position when Qh4 is already played, and obviously a certain kill in that situation.

blake78613
29-Nov-10, 19:32

The following is from the game Geller - Mecking game, which I used as in an example in my original post in this thread. What follows is how Geller maneuvered his queen rook in that game. The annotations are by Drazen Marovic.

29 a3

White frees his queen's rook from its defensive duty and makes possible the manoeuvre Rb1-b3, which will put the black c-pawn in grave danger.

29..Rcc8?!

Black misses the point of White's previous move. One would expect 29...Rac9

30 Rb1 Rc7 31 Qe2 Rb8 32 Rb3 Qd7 33 Qf3 Be7 34 Re3 Bf6 35 Re4 Be7 36 g4

36..f6

36...Bxh4 would obviously fail to 37 g5, while the c3-pawn is defenseless. Black has been outplayed.

37 Re3 Nf7 38 Rbxc3 Rbc8 39 Be4 Bd8 40 Bd2 Rc4 41 Rxc4 bxc4 44 g5 fxg5
45 hxg5 Bd8 46 Qh5 c3 47 Be3 h6 48 f6 1-0

shamash
14-Jul-11, 13:35

C O N T R O L is the touchstone by which most moves can be measured

Yes, as TA says, and as Hans Berliner would say, it is all about control --
getting it, keeping it, building it, dominating squares with it, and winning with it.

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