The bishop is a chess piece.
The bishop is a chess piece that can advance or retreat diagonally across all free squares. It should be remembered that chess is a game whose games are played on a board divided into sixty-four squares or squares.
Chess pits two players against each other. Each one receives sixteen pieces : among them, two bishops. The bishop cannot move forward or backward vertically, nor sideways horizontally. Its movement always develops diagonally , whether in an ascending or descending direction.
Characteristics of bishops
Due to their movements, the bishops remain throughout the game in the same square color in which they began the game , a peculiarity that, although it may seem superficial, distinguishes them from the rest of the pieces. That is to say: if a bishop is located in the white square, it cannot move to a dark square at any time.
Another characteristic of the movement of the bishops that we must take into account is that they cannot jump pieces, but, when encountering a rival piece, they take its place and capture it. In fact, the only one capable of jumping over other pieces is the knight.
Bishops can only move diagonally.
History and meaning
Historians say that, in the ancient games that preceded the development of chess, bishops did not exist. The piece was added in the 12th century , when chess had already established itself on the European continent .
Regarding its meaning, the bishop piece is the representation of the war or spiritual advisor who helped royalty. In fact, the shape of its upper end refers to the miter, the typical cap of bishops.
The importance of the bishop
According to experts, the bishop has a relative value that exceeds the value of the pawn by three or three and a half points. When the player has both bishops, the value of each piece increases. In any case, there are chess players who relativize the importance of bishops and who are even willing to sacrifice them as part of their strategy.
For those who appreciate the power of this piece, the bishop can become a very powerful weapon when creating long-range attacks and threats ; In order for these plays to be carried out, it is first necessary to clear the entire diagonal path that must be followed.
Many professional or expert players use the bishop for both their attacking and defensive tactics. The fact that you cannot step on the squares of the opposite color to the one assigned to you at the beginning of each game can be taken as a disadvantage; However, we can always protect the cells of its color , with clever movements that leave it alert to attacks from the opposing team.
Since it is one of the few pieces that can advance as many spaces as there are free squares in its path, some restless people venture to move it as soon as they can and in this way expose it unnecessarily to the opponent; Something similar happens with the rook , the queen and the knight , since their " agility " breaks with the slowness of chess. Needless to say, impatience often leads to defeat.
Bishop in the X-Men
In the universe of the X-Men comics , there is a character named Lucas Bishop Williepondt who is usually addressed simply by Bishop , which in English means "bishop" ; In fact, in some translations it is mentioned with this term in Spanish.
Its first appearance took place in 1991 and was created by Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio . Bishop was born into a family of Aboriginal people who fled Australia just before it was destroyed by a nuclear attack and took refuge in the United States .