Expert: Chuck Kinzie - 5/30/2010

Question
According to piece value, they're equal.

In a ussual chess game that lasts 20-30 min, which piece would be more useful?

Answer
Hi, Tom.  Thanks for your interesting question.

Generally speaking, knights are better than bishops when there are a lot of pieces still on the board.  This is because the knight can "jump" over pieces and pawns, while the bishop is often hemmed in even by "friendly" pawns.  So, as pieces come off the board, the bishop generally becomes stronger, because its range increases.  That is, it come move to more places than it could on the more crowded board.

Late in the game, the bishop is usually superior to a knight.  This is especially true when there are very few pieces on the board and each side is trying to queen a pawn.  The bishop can quickly go from one half of the board to the other, while the knight will require many moves to go from one end of the board to the other.

A knight is usually slightly better than a bishop when all of the pawns for both sides are on the same side of the board.  That's because the knight can control both light and dark squares, while the bishop can obviously only control squares of the color it travels on.

Hope that answers your question.  Enjoy your chess!

Your chess friend,

Chuck