Author: Imran Hendley
Date: 17:44:01 10/04/99
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On October 04, 1999 at 20:24:06, Marc van Hal wrote: >In the time Philidor said that the pawns are the soul (skeleton) of chess >I now say he was only partialy right. >I want to improve this statement by saying pawns and knight are the soul of >chess >After I made my setup for a chessmaster personelety I went up giving the knight >a higher valeu then the bischop. >with this reason that it will use his knight more often and also makes strong >squares for it >The Bischop only is stronger in the very end of the endgame but in all other >stages of the game the knight play a much bigger role in the game then the >bischop that means about 80% of the game the knight plays a bigger role >or you should play like a morphy stylist and brake open lines by doubeling pawns >only then the bischop plays a bigger role in the 100% of the game >but this is a hard style to folow and is very risky. >Just think about it. Philidor was quite right in emphasizing the importance of pawns. At his time pawns were undervalued, and his statement shed new light on chess strategy. However I don't think it is fair to say that a knight is more powerful or valuable than a bishop. Though they are considered relatively equal in value generally, this can change depending on position. A knight can become a strong force in closed positions, where the bishop is relatively weak. However the bishop becomes somewhat more useful in open positions, because unlike the knight, it is a long range weapon. Additionally, a bishop pair gives a significant advantage in a middlegame attack, and most importantly in the open board of the endgame. While a good player may seem to rule the board with a knight, it is not fair to say that knights are generally better. It is interesting that you have found good results with your Chessmaster settings, but you mustn't ingore years of chess analysis that shows otherwise.
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