Good and bad bishop: bishops and pawn colours

In short

Imagine black pawns on d5 and e6, both on light squares. The light-squared bishop on c8 hardly finds a free diagonal behind them. Today it is called bad. The dark-squared bishop, on the other hand, easily comes into play and counts as good.

In “My System” Nimzowitsch explains the reason. A bishop reaches far, but it can never control the squares of the other colour. If its own pawns on its colour are blockaded, the bishop is stuck behind them. Nimzowitsch then calls it shut in or even dead.

Against Brinckmann, all the white pawns soon stand on dark squares. Nimzowitsch hems in White’s dark-squared bishop further with a pawn move. The light-squared one, the good bishop in today’s words, he exchanges with the help of a pawn sacrifice. After that White can hardly control the light squares any more.

But a shut-in bishop is not always useless. In an essay on bishops in the fianchetto, then called slanting bishops, such a bishop prevents a freeing advance. Later the same bishop becomes strong again. Besides, pawns on the colour of your own bishop are easy to defend, Nimzowitsch writes elsewhere.

Lesson 41 shows the strength and the weakness of a single bishop. In the game against Brinckmann, watch how the pawns affect the two white bishops.

Summarised by the editors in their own words. This is not a quotation.

Today’s view

The words good and bad are common in textbooks today. To judge, people look above all at the fixed pawns in the centre. A bad bishop can still be active if it stands in front of its pawns. What counts is what it achieves in the concrete position.

A common piece of advice today is: put your pawns on squares of the colour your bishop cannot reach. Or exchange the bad bishop for an active enemy piece. You had better keep the good bishop. It controls the squares your pawns cannot reach.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

• My System: II. Teil, 3d Die Läufer original text not yet published

  The bishop’s main strength is its range; its main weakness is the squares of the other colour.

• My System: I. Teil, 4.2c Der dritte Grund original text not yet published

  A blockade also brings the pieces behind the blockaded pawn to a standstill; a bishop becomes a prisoner in its own camp.

• My System: II. Teil, 2.5 Die verschiedenen Formen, unter denen die Hemmung aufzutreten pflegt, werden näher beleuchtet original text not yet published

  With a restrained complex of doubled pawns, Nimzowitsch names the shut-in bishop as one of the main weaknesses.

• My System: I. Teil, Partie-Beispiele zu den ersten drei Kapiteln (original text)

  Rabinowitsch – Nimzowitsch: a pawn on the colour of its own bishop is easy to defend.

• Essays: Haben die "schiefen" Läufer etwas von ihrer Popularität eingebüßt? original text not yet published

  Bishops in the fianchetto act prophylactically, even when their own pawns block their diagonal for a while.

• Chess Praxis: Partie 46 (original text)

  Brinckmann – Nimzowitsch: Black hems in the bishop on c3 and, with a pawn sacrifice, exchanges the light-squared bishop.

In the course

• The bishop pair
• Brinckmann – Nimzowitsch, Kolding 1923