Resolved: Bishops are superior to knights in the game of chess.

I hope that my opponent knows the difference between a knight and a bishop and has at least a basic understanding of chess. Knights versus bishops has been a chess debate since basically, the creation of the game. Many people say bishops are the best, while others say knights are the best. For the following reasons I hold bishops are more powerful than knights in the game of chess: Contention 1. Horowitz Bishops Horowitz Bishops were aptly named after the Chess Master Horowitz. The idea behind this basic premise is you move your bishops such that they complement each other, one bishop attacks one color, the other bishop, the other color. Basically, if you move to protect yourself from one of the bishops, the other bishop becomes stronger as you are strengthening the defense of one color you weaken defense of another color. Contention 2. Mobility a) Closed versus open positions In a closed position, knights rule. In an open position, bishops rule. It is generally much easier to open a position then it is to close a position as opening a chess game can require as little as moving a single pawn while closing a chess game requires both players to cooperate. In a game in which 2 knights face 2 bishops, a player who realizes the value of having 2 bishops in an open position can easily open the position, why would they want to close the position when that would benefit their opponent? It is much easier to open up a pawn chain to release a bishop than it is to later close this pawn chain. The bishop only can gain power while the knight can only lose power as the game progresses. b) Movement This is obvious, a bishop can move from one side of the board to the other, which is an obvious advantage for when playing a bishop can attack more spaces. On the other hand, for a knight to reach the other side of the board there will have to be several carefully placed "hops" in order to physically get there. A bishop is long ranged and therefore, is better for attack. Contention 3. The game A chess game has generally been divided into three separate categories: the opening, the mid-game, and the end game. It is an accepted fact that a majority of chess games end in the end phase (if played out to checkmate) while the rest end in the mid-game. You never really see games played between to GMs ending in the opening (GMs do not really fall for the Fool's Mate). a) The opening This is sole spot where the knight rules as a knight can be developed faster than a bishop. The board at this point is normally closed. But, after a few pieces are taken and traded the game moves on to the mid-game. In the beginning, "the bishop pair is worth less than half a pawn when most or all the pawns are on the board". (1) b) The mid-game After the first few pieces are captured, the board opens up, there are less pieces to "clutter" the board. This is where the knight loses its edge over the bishop. The bishop is better in open positions so the bishop begins to dominate as more pieces are taken. A key thing to note is: as pieces are taken, the bishop gains value while the knight loses value. By this point, bishops are worth "more than half a pawn when half or more of the pawns are gone". (1) c) The end-game Now few pieces remain on the board. Most likely, the queens have been traded by this point and there are few pawns left. Now this is where the bishop is the most powerful piece on the board. The end-game is an extremely open position. The bishop is most powerful in open positions while the knight is least powerful in open positions. Furthermore, without the queen, knights are even less powerful, according to Emanuel Lasker in his book "Lasker's Manual of Chess", knights are more powerful with queens than without queens. Bishops do not lose power without the queen while knights do. A knight is overly dependent on the queen. Contention 4. The Bishop pair's material value According to Larry Kaufman, "The bishop pair has an average value of half a pawn (more when the opponent has no minor pieces to exchange for one of the bishops), enough to regard it as part of the material evaluation of the position, and enough to overwhelm most positional considerations. Moreover, this substantial bishop pair value holds up in all situations tested, regardless of what else is on the board. This large a bishop pair value is surprising because in the opening grandmasters will often give up the bishop pair to double the opponent's pawns or to gain a mild lead in development, factors which are generally not worth half a pawn" (1) A bishop pairs full value is the value of the bishops themselves plus a half a pawn. Making a total value of 7 whereas 2 knights total value comes out to 6.5. In fact, Garry Kasporov implied "he had a probably won game once he won the bishop pair in a closed Ruy [Lopez] even though there were no open lines, no other advantages, and it took him some tempi (Nf3-h4-g6xf8) to take the bishop." (1) A grandmaster recognized the advantage doubled bishops give a player and took this advantage away from them. Source: 1. http://home.comcast.net...