How the Rook and Bishop move and capture
Thursday, 13. August 2009
The Rook enjoys great freedom of action as it can cross the entire board by just making a single move. The only disadvantage is that it cannot change direction in the middle of a move.Therefore, on an empty board; a Rook can reach any of the 14 squares just by making a single move, while it can reach any of the other squares by making just two moves in two different ways.
It should be understood that capturing in chess is optional. It however feels good to capture an enemy since this will weaken him. This will result in a reduced resistance from him which will make it easier for you to win.
If the Rook moves to a square which has been captured by an enemy, the enemy will be removed from the board immediately.
A man that attacks a man of his own color is said to defend it since he will be able to capture an enemy if the enemy attempts to capture him.
How the Bishop moves and captures
The moves diagonally along squares of the same color. Though it can move in any direction, in any one move it cam only move in one direction. Each player is allowed to have two Bishops at the start of a game, one standing on a light square and the other on a dark square. The Bishop that stands on the light square is not allowed to move to a dark square and likewise, the Bishop on a dark square at the start of a game is not allowed to move to a light square. The Bishop that is allowed to move on light squares only is known as the light square Bishop and the one that is allowed to move on the dark squares only is known as a dark-square Bishop. It should be noted that a Bishop can move to any vacant square on any of the diagonals to which it is positioned so long as there is no men of either color blocking it.
From the above statements, it appears that the Bishop has a great mobility when the destructions are very few. It can safely cross the board in a single move. The Bishop controls 13 squares from a central square and seven squares from a square on the edge. By the same token therefore, the Bishop cannot attack an opponent’s men on the squares of the other color.Consequently,if a Bishop moves to a square occupied by an enemy man, the latter is captured and removed from the body immediately.
It safe to say that a Bishop is stronger than a pawn, but is much weaker than a Rook, since a Rook can move on squares of both colors. However in exceptional cases a pawn can turn out to be stronger than a Bishop.
The important thing to remember is to identify the strength and weaknesses of each piece. This combination will allow you to make better decisions on your movement and therefore increase your chances of beating the opponent. This will however require a lot of practice.
