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Bishops as we know, move diagonally in the game of chess. Given the geometry of the game, that means that each bishop can only access half the squares on the board. As compared to rooks which move orthogonally and can access all squares, bishops are a relatively less powerful piece. However, bishops are more tricky – as humans, we are better at seeing up and down and side-to-side than the diagonals. This makes bishops potentially powerful in the setting of certain traps around long diagonals. In this game I played this morning, my opponent’s error involving a long diagonal allowed me to win the game.

The insight from this game is that you have to keep an eye on the diagonal moving pieces – the queen and the bishop pair. This is especially the case as pieces move and the position transforms. What was guarded and blocked a few moves ago, might have changed, and our visual systems might not automatically identify the open diagonal. I hope you enjoyed the video, and thanks for watching!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/35843909225

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.01.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Paolobarillari"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "1185"]
[BlackElo "1190"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[EndTime "12:28:48 PST"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qe6+ 4. Qe2 Nc6 5. Qxe6 Bxe6 6. Bb5 Bd7 7. Nd5 O-O-O 8. Nc3 Nd4 9. Bd3 e5 10. Nge2 Bb4 11. a3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Nc6 13. O-O f5 14. Rb1 e4 15. Bb5 Ne5 16. Bxd7+ Rxd7 17. Nd4 Nf6 18. Nxf5 g6 19. Ne3 h5 20. c4 h4 21. h3 g5 22. Bb2 Re7 23. Nd5 Nxd5 24. cxd5 Nc4 25. Bxh8 Nxd2 26. Bf6 Rf7 27. Bxg5 Nxb1 28. Rxb1 e3 29. Bxe3 Rf5 30. c4 1-0