Minor Pieces in Chess

Bishops and Knights are known as minor pieces in chess. Each player
will have two Bishops and two Knights in the initial set up of the Board.

Moves of Bishop

The bishop only moves diagonally over the board along the squares of
a single colour, either dark or light squares. It can go forwards or
backwards on those diagonal lines to any direction, but one direction
at a time. It can’t jump over other chessmen.

The Bishop which stands on a light square at the beginning of the game
can never move to a dark square, and similarly, the Bishop on a dark
square at the start of the game can
never move to a light square. The
Bishop that moves only on light
squares is called the light-square
Bishop and the one that moves only
on dark squares is called the dark-
square Bishop.

The number of squares that bishop

can go to depends on where it stands.
If the bishop is on a central square, it
will have a choice of up to 13 squares.
If it is in the corner, it can move to at
most 7 squares.

The bishop can capture any of the opponent’s men, except the king that
stands in its way. The captured man is removed from the board and the
bishop takes its place.

Knight’s move

Knights are men on horses and the chess piece derives its name from
this. Knight is the only piece which can jump over other pieces and
pawns.

The move of a knight is very different from the other pieces. The knight
moves in two stages. Knight’s move in any direction has the shape of a
capital L.
Direction of a Knight move can be said like that it initially moves two
squares either horizontally - left or right of the sitting square or
vertically -up or down, and then one more square sideways. It’s slightly
confusing to put it in words, but the
pattern of its move is easy to understand
on the board.

Take care that a Knight changes the

colour of its square every time it moves.
It goes from a dark square to a light
square always.

A knight which is in the corner can move

two squares, a knight which is on an
edge of the board can move four
squares, but a knight in one of the centre squares can move to eight
squares, to one square at a time.

The knight can capture any of the opponent’s chessmen, except the
king that stands on the square to which the knight moves. The
captured chessman is removed from the board and the knight takes its
place.

Knight is an effective piece for tactics known as forking. The reason is

that Knight can attack in eight directions simultaneously and therefore
have better chances of catching enemy pieces in a fork. Knight fork is
relatively hard to spot in advance because of its crooked mode of
action.

A Knight’s strength is approximately equal to that of a Bishop. A Knight

is stronger than a pawn, but weaker than a Rook or a Queen.