The Bishop's Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
49-633: White attacks Black's f7-square and prevents Black from advancing the d-pawn to d5. By ignoring the beginner's maxim "develop knights before bishops ", White leaves their f-pawn unblocked, preserving the possibility of f2–f4. The f2–f4 push gives the Bishop's Opening an affinity with the King's Gambit and the Vienna Game , two openings that share this characteristic. The Bishop's Opening can transpose into either of these openings, and in particular
98-430: A rook and a bishop . Compared to other chess pieces, the knight's movement is unique: it moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically (with both forming the shape of a capital L ). Consequently, a knight alternates between light and dark squares with each move. When moving, the knight can jump over pieces to reach its destination. Knights capture in
147-424: A bishop, a knight is often not as good in an endgame. A knight can exert control over only one part of the board at a time and often takes multiple moves to reposition to a new location, which often makes it less suitable in endgames with pawns on both sides of the board. This limitation is less important, however, in endgames with pawns on only one side of the board. Knights are superior to bishops in an endgame if all
196-590: A favorable variation of the King's Gambit, but with care Black can circumvent this. Transpositions into the Giuoco Piano and the Two Knights Defense and other openings are also possible. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings assigns the Bishop's Opening the codes C23 and C24. The Bishop's Opening is one of the oldest openings to be analyzed; it was studied by Lucena and Ruy Lopez . Later it
245-514: A king, the game is a draw since a checkmate is impossible. When a lone king faces a king and two knights, a checkmate can never be forced ; checkmate can occur only if the opponent commits a blunder by moving their king to a square where it can be checkmated on the next move. Checkmate can be forced with a bishop and knight , however, or with two bishops, even though the bishop and knight are in general about equal in value. Paradoxically, checkmate with two knights sometimes can be forced if
294-471: A piece due to the pin (if 6...Qe7 7.Nd5, forcing 7...Qd7 because of the threat to the c7-pawn; then 8.d3 wins the piece). Viswanathan Anand resigned after only six moves after falling for this against Alonso Zapata at Biel in 1988. The Cochrane Gambit , 4.Nxf7, is labelled "speculative but entertaining" by Nick de Firmian in Modern Chess Openings ( MCO ) 14th edition. He evaluates
343-410: A queen and a knight is usually a better combination than a queen and a bishop. However, Glenn Flear found no game of Capablanca's that supported his statement; statistics do not support the statement, either. In an endgame without other pieces or pawns, two knights generally have a better chance of forming a drawing fortress against a queen than do two bishops or a bishop and a knight. Compared to
392-582: A tremendous attack, but 6...d6 is also playable ) 7.Nh4 g6 8.f4 f5 9.Nf3 (9.Nxf5? d5!) e4 10.Ng5 (10.Ne5 Qe7! threatening Qc5+ is strong) Bc5+. In practice, Black's lack of development and inability to castle kingside can prove very problematic. Safer for Black are Paul Morphy 's solid 5...c6 6.Nxe5 d5, returning the pawn with equality, and 4...Nc6 !? (instead of 4...Nxc3) 5.0-0 (5.Nxe4 d5) Nxc3 6.dxc3 Qe7! when, according to Bobby Fischer in My 60 Memorable Games , "White has no compensation for
441-450: Is 2...Nf6, forcing White to decide how to defend the e-pawn. After 3.d3 Black must be careful not to drift into an inferior variation of the King's Gambit Declined . One continuation that avoids this pitfall is 3...c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb3 Bd6. White sometimes chooses the Bishop's Opening move order to transpose into the Giuoco Piano while preventing Black from playing Petrov's Defense . For example, 2...Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bc5 reaches
490-533: Is 3...Nxe4 4.Bd3 d5 5.Nxe5 Bd6 6.0-0 0-0 7.c4 Bxe5 8.dxe5 Nc6 9.cxd5 Qxd5 10.Qc2 Nb4 11.Bxe4 Nxc2 12.Bxd5 Bf5 13.g4 Bxg4 14.Be4 Nxa1 15.Bf4 f5 16.Bd5+ Kh8 17.Rc1 c6 18.Bg2 Rfd8 19.Nd2 ( diagram ) and White has the slightly better endgame after either 19...Rxd2 20.Bxd2 Rd8 21.Bc3 Rd1+ 22.Rxd1 Bxd1 or 19...h6 20.h4. 3.Nc3 is the Three Knights Game of Petrov's Defence. It can also be reached via 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 (the Vienna Game ). Commonly, after 3...Nc6,
539-632: Is 3...d6, transposing into the Philidor Defence . After 3...exd4 4.e5 (4.Bc4 transposes into the Urusov Gambit ) 4...Ne4 (4...Qe7?! 5.Be2 is better for White) 5.Qxd4 d5 6.exd6 Nxd6 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.Qf4 the game is approximately equal . After the other capture, 3...Nxe4, 4.Bd3 d5 (4...Nc6!? 5.Bxe4 d5, intending 6.Bd3 e4, is also possible) 5.Nxe5, when either 5...Nd7 or 5...Bd6 gives roughly equal chances. A long and complicated tactical sequence which has frequently been seen in master games
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#1732797585663588-418: Is on a white square and it is White's turn to move, White cannot win. Similarly, if the knight were on a black square and it were Black's turn to move, White cannot win. In the other two cases, White would win. If instead of the knight, White had a bishop on either color of square, White would win with either side to move. In an endgame where one side has only a king and a knight while the other side has only
637-544: Is relevant in some mathematical problems . For example, the knight's tour problem is the problem of finding a series of moves by a knight on a chessboard in which every square is visited exactly once. Even among sets of the standard Staunton pattern, the style of the pieces varies. The knights vary considerably. Here are some examples. Unicode defines three codepoints for a knight: ♘ U+2658 White Chess Knight ♞ U+265E Black Chess Knight 🨄 U+1FA04 Neutral Chess Knight Petrov Defence Petrov's Defence or
686-399: Is the keima of shogi , which moves like a knight but can move only two squares forward followed by one square sideways, restricting its movement to two possible squares. The knight is colloquially sometimes referred to as a "horse", which is also the translation of the piece's name in several languages: Spanish caballo , Italian cavallo , Russian конь , etc. Some languages refer to it as
735-446: Is to meet 4...Nxe4 with 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 with rapid development and queenside castling . For instance, White can plan a quick Be3, Qd2, and 0-0-0, and play for a kingside attack, trusting that his doubled c-pawns will help protect his king, and that his initiative and attacking potential will offset the longterm disadvantage of having doubled pawns. In the 5.Nc3 line, Black must avoid 5...Bf5?? 6.Qe2! which wins
784-401: The center of the board, where they have up to eight moves, and weakest in a corner, where they have only two. Enemy pawns are effective at harassing knights because a pawn attacking a knight is not itself attacked by the knight and, because a pawn is worth less than a knight, it does not matter if the knight is defended. For this reason, a knight is effective when placed in a weakness in
833-704: The centre also avoids the Ruy Lopez , Giuoco Piano (and other lines of the Italian Game ), and the Scotch Game . The Petrov has been adopted by many of the world's leading players, including world champions Vasily Smyslov , Tigran Petrosian , Anatoly Karpov , and Vladimir Kramnik , along with grandmaster Fabiano Caruana and others. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings codes for Petrov's Defence are C43 (for 3.d4) and C42 (for all other lines). White's two main choices for move three are 3.Nxe5,
882-618: The Boi Variation ) is Black's symmetrical response, 2...Bc5. White can then transpose into the Vienna Game (3.Nc3) or the Giuoco Piano (3.Nf3 Nc6), or remain in the Bishop's Opening with the Wing Gambit (3.b4) or the Philidor Variation (3.c3). The main line of the Philidor Variation runs: 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 d5! 6.exf6 dxc4 7.Qh5 0-0 8.Qxc5 Re8+ 9.Ne2 d3 10.Be3. Transpositions into the King's Gambit Declined and
931-818: The Classical Variation and 3.d4, the Steinitz Variation . 3.Nxe5 is more popular but they often lead to similar positions and "there is no clear reason to prefer one move over the other". 3.Nc3 may transpose to the Four Knights Game or the Three Knights Game . 3.Bc4 may lead to the Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit or transpose to the Two Knights Defence . Occasionally seen is the quiet 3.d3,
980-573: The Légal Trap 6.Bg5?? Nxe4!, and if 7.Bxd8 (relatively best but still losing is 7.Be3) 7...Bxf2+ 8. Ke2 Bg4#. Instead White should play 6.Be2 Bc5 7.c3! with d3-d4 to follow, and Black has insufficient compensation for the pawn, though White must still play carefully. 3.d4 was favoured by Wilhelm Steinitz , and is sometimes called the Steinitz Variation, although it was known earlier. Black can capture either pawn; also possible
1029-468: The Petrov Defence (also called Petroff Defence , Petrov's Game , Russian Defence , or Russian Game – Russian : Русская партия ) is a chess opening characterised by the following moves: Though this symmetrical response has a long history, it was first popularised by Alexander Petrov , a Russian chess player in the mid-19th century. In recognition of the early investigations by
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#17327975856631078-419: The Petrov Defence after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4. The Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit is named after English players and chess writers Samuel Boden and Lionel Kieseritzky . Boden published the first analysis of it in 1851. Opening theoreticians consider that after 2...Nf6 3.Nf3 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5.dxc3 f6, White's attack is not quite worth a pawn. The game may continue 6.0-0 Nc6 (not 6...Be7? 7.Nxe5! with
1127-531: The "jumper", reflecting the knight's ability to move over pieces in its path: Polish skoczek , Danish/Norwegian springer , Swedish springare , German Springer , Luxembourgish Sprénger , Slovene skakač . In Sicilian it is called sceccu , a slang term for a donkey , derived from the Arabic sheikh , who during the Islamic period rode from village to village on donkeys collecting taxes. The knight
1176-461: The Bishop's Opening leads to equality with best play by both sides, and notes that, "Among modern players only Bent Larsen has played it much, but even Kasparov gave it a whirl (winning against Bareev)." Because White's second move makes no direct threat, Black has many possible second-move responses. As shown below, the Bishop's Opening offers opportunities to transpose to several other Open Games . Probably Black's most popular second move
1225-508: The English player and author William Lewis (1787–1870) who published analysis of the line in 1834. Among amateurs, 3.Qf3 and 3.Qh5 are also popular, threatening an immediate Scholar's mate . But the threat is easily met (e.g. 3.Qh5 Qe7) and the moves are considered inferior since they hamper White's development or leave the queen exposed, leading to loss of tempo . As a well known attack, these moves are mostly blocked by Black, who can smash
1274-611: The French Attack. After 3.Nxe5, the Classical Variation, the standard reply for Black is 3...d6. Most often, White follows the main line 3...d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 (5.Bd3 !? is also playable, known as the Millennium Attack ) d5 6.Bd3. White will try to drive Black's advanced knight from e4 with moves like c4 and Re1. If White achieves this, then he is up two tempi (Nf6–e4–f6, plus the tempo White starts
1323-763: The Giuoco Piano are also possible after 3.d3. The Wing Gambit results in positions similar to those in the Evans Gambit . It can transpose into the Evans Gambit, for instance by 3.b4 Bxb4 4.c3 Ba5 5.Nf3 Nc6. It can also lead to the Four Pawns Gambit after 3... Bxb4 4. f4 exf4 5. Nf3 Be7 6. d4 Bh4+ 7. g3 fxg3 8. O-O gxh2+ 9. Kh1 Black's most energetic response to the Philidor Variation is the Lewis Countergambit, 3.c3 d5, named for
1372-482: The Petrov. Weaver Adams in his classic work White to Play and Win claimed that the Bishop's Opening was a win for White by force from the second move. He was unable to prove this by defeating players stronger than himself, however, and later abandoned the Bishop's Opening for the Vienna Game , making the same claim. Grandmaster Nick de Firmian , in the 14th edition of Modern Chess Openings , concludes that
1421-545: The Russian masters Petrov and Carl Jaenisch , this opening is called the Russian Game in some countries. The Petrov has a drawish reputation; however, it offers attacking opportunities for both sides, and a few lines are quite sharp . Often a trade occurs and Black, after gaining a tempo , has a well-placed knight . Pillsbury 's game in 1895 against Emanuel Lasker testifies to this. The Black counterattack in
1470-715: The advantage. 3...Qe7?! is inferior, as 4.d4 d6 5.Nf3 Qxe4+ 6.Be2 gives White a large lead in development. 3... Nc6?!, recently dubbed the Stafford Gambit , is considered dubious, but it sets a number of traps , and in the early 2020s it became popular in online blitz and bullet games. After 4.Nxc6 dxc6, White wins a pawn but must play carefully. After 5.e5 (5.d3 is better) Ne4 6.d3?? (White should play 6.Nc3, 6.d4, or 6.Qe2) 6...Bc5! and White resigned in Lowens–Stafford, US correspondence game 1950. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6 4.Nxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bc5, White must avoid
1519-465: The gambit with 4...Nxc3 5.dxc3 f6, but must play carefully after 6.0-0 (for example 6...Bc5?? 7.Nxe5! is disastrous; 6...d6 and 6...Nc6 are good). Another more aggressive try is 6.Nh4, where White goes for a quick assault on Black's king, but Black can maintain a small advantage if he plays cautiously via 6...g6 7.f4 Qe7 8.f5 Qg7 9.Qg4 Kd8. Another possibility is returning the gambit pawn with 4...Nxc3 5.dxc3 c6 6.Nxe5 d5, which equalises. A third possibility
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1568-428: The gambit with 4...Nxe4 5.Qxd4 Nf6 (5...Nd6 ? 6.0-0 gives White an overwhelming attack), and White will continue with Nc3, Bg5, Qh4, 0-0-0, and usually intends to meet ...0-0 and ...h6 with the piece sacrifice Bxh6, exposing the black king. Black has a solid position with no clear weaknesses, but White has attacking chances and piece activity as compensation for the pawn. The Urusov Gambit is also occasionally reached via
1617-483: The game with). In practice White is usually able to achieve this, but at some structural cost such as having to play c4, which balances out. White can also force simplification with Lasker 's 5.Qe2 Qe7 6.d3. This is generally only good enough for a draw , which Black should be satisfied with. Another possibility, explored by Keres , is 5.c4, known as the Kauffmann Attack . A completely different approach
1666-460: The king); in descriptive chess notation , Kt is sometimes used instead, mainly in older literature. In chess problems and endgame studies , the letter S , standing for Springer , the German name for the piece, is often used (and in some variants of fairy chess , N is used for the nightrider , a popular fairy chess piece ). The knight has the oldest defined movement of any chess piece. It
1715-545: The opening transposes to the Four Knights Game . With the reply 3...Bb4 (or some others), it remains the Three Knights Game proper. 3.Bc4 is the Italian Variation of Petrov's Defence. With 3...Nc6, it transposes to the Two Knights Defence . Another possibility is 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3, the Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit. It is not considered wholly sound, since Black has several viable options. Black can accept
1764-445: The opponent's pawn structure , i.e. a square which cannot be attacked by enemy pawns. In the diagram, White's knight on d5 is very powerful – more powerful than Black's bishop on g7. Whereas two bishops cover each other's weaknesses, two knights tend not to cooperate with each other as efficiently. As such, a pair of bishops is usually considered better than a pair of knights. World Champion José Raúl Capablanca considered that
1813-424: The opposing king is trapped in a corner in front of its own pawn, it is possible to force mate with only a king and knight in a pattern known as Stamma 's mate, which has occasionally been seen in practice. In the position below, from Nogueiras –Gongora, Cuban championship 2001, Black played 75...Nxf6 ?? , incorrectly assuming that the ending would be drawn following the capture of the last white pawn on a2. (Correct
1862-425: The pawn." Black can also decline the pawn with 3...Nc6, transposing into the Two Knights Defense . He must, however, be willing to offer a gambit himself after 4.Ng5. White may invite an offshoot of the Boden–Kieseritzky Gambit with 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Nc3. Irregular move orders are 2.Nc3 (Vienna) Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nf3 and 2.Nf3 Nf6 (Russian or Petrov Defence) 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3. The Classical Defense (also known as
1911-406: The pawns are on one side of the board. Furthermore, knights have the advantage of being able to control squares of either color, unlike a lone bishop. Nonetheless, a disadvantage of the knight (compared to the other pieces) is that by itself it cannot lose a move to put the opponent in zugzwang (see triangulation and tempo ), while a bishop can. In the position pictured on the right, if the knight
1960-603: The position in Veselin Topalov – Vladimir Kramnik , Linares 1999 as offering chances for both sides after 4...Kxf7 5.Nc3 c5!? 6.Bc4+ Be6 7.Bxe6+ Kxe6 8.d4 Kf7 9.dxc5 Nc6. The Paulsen Variation , 4.Nc4, is labelled "ineffective" by de Firmian in MCO , but is occasionally seen at grandmaster level. US master Andrew Karklins has experimented with 4.Nd3!?, now called the Karklins–Martinovsky Variation . This
2009-520: The quiet Giuoco Pianissimo . The Urusov Gambit is named after Russian Prince Sergey Semyonovich Urusov (1827–1897). After 2...Nf6 3.d4 exd4 (3...Nxe4 4.dxe5 gives White some advantage) 4.Nf3, Black can transpose to the Two Knights Defense with 4...Nc6, or can decline the gambit with 4...d5 5.exd5 Bb4+ 6.c3 (6.Kf1 is recommended by Michael Goeller, winning a pawn at the expense of castling rights) 6...Qe7+ 7.Be2 dxc3, when 8.bxc3 and 8.Nxc3 both offer approximately equal chances. Instead, Black can accept
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2058-729: The same way, replacing the enemy piece on the square and removing it from the board. A knight can have up to eight available moves at once. Knights and pawns are the only pieces that can be moved in the chess starting position. Knights and bishops, also known as minor pieces , have a value of about three pawns . Bishops utilize a longer range, but they can move only to squares of one color. The knight's value increases in closed positions since it can jump over blockades. Knights and bishops are stronger when supported by other pieces (such as pawns) to create outposts and become more powerful when they advance, as long as they remain active . Generally, knights are strongest in
2107-425: The sharp 3.f4! or safe 3.Nc3 are better for White than 3.d3. Knight (chess) The knight (♘, ♞) is a piece in the game of chess , represented by a horse's head and neck. It moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically, jumping over other pieces. Each player starts the game with two knights on the b- and g- files , each located between
2156-402: The weaker side has a single extra pawn, but this is a curiosity of little practical value (see two knights endgame ). Pawnless endgames are a rarity, and if the stronger side has even a single pawn, an extra knight should give them an easy win. A bishop can trap (although it cannot then capture) a knight on the rim (see diagram), especially in the endgame. In a few rare endgame positions where
2205-509: The whole strategy in one move, like Qe7 or Nh6. Other Black second moves are rarely played. If Black tries to transpose into the Hungarian Defense with 2...Be7?, then 3.Qh5 wins a pawn. The Calabrese Countergambit (2...f5 ?! ) is named after Greco 's homeland, Calabria . It is considered dubious, as the line recommended by Carl Jaenisch , 3.d3 Nf6 4.f4 d6 5.Nf3, gives White the advantage. Other analyses, however, have found that
2254-410: Was 75...Ne3 ! 76.Kg6 Ng4 77.Kg7 and now 77...Nxf6! may be safely played, the king being sufficiently distant). Play continued 76.Nxf6 Ke5 77.Nd7+ Kd4 78.Kf4 Kc3 79.Ke3 Kb2 80.Kd2 Kxa2 81.Kc2 Ka1 82.Nc5 Ka2 83.Nd3 Ka1 84.Nc1 and Black resigned, as 84...a2 85.Nb3 is mate. In algebraic notation, the usual modern way of recording chess games, the letter N stands for the knight ( K is reserved for
2303-466: Was first introduced in the Indian game of chaturanga around the 6th century; it has not changed since. Pieces similar to the knight are found in almost all games of the chess family. The ma of xiangqi and janggi is slightly more restricted; conceptually, the piece is considered to pass through the adjacent orthogonal point, which must be unoccupied, rather than "jumping". Another related piece
2352-434: Was played by Philidor . Larsen was one of the few grandmasters to play it often, after first using it at the 1964 Interzonal tournament. Although the Bishop's Opening is uncommon today, it has been used occasionally as a surprise by players such as Kasparov . Nunn uses it to avoid Petrov's Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6), and Lékó played it in the 2007 World Championship against Kramnik , known to consistently play
2401-591: Was played in the World Chess Championship 2018 between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana . 3...Nxe4 (the Damiano Variation ) has traditionally been regarded as an error, though it has occasionally been seen in recent grandmaster play. Black must play accurately to avoid a serious disadvantage. After 4.Qe2 Black must avoid: Best is 4...Qe7 5.Qxe4 d6 6.d4 dxe5 7.dxe5 Nc6, and after 8.Nc3 Qxe5 9.Qxe5+ Nxe5 10.Nb5 (or 10.Bf4) White has
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