elephant in chess is called
The bishop's predecessor in shatranj (medieval chess) was the alfil, meaning the elephant, which could leap two squares along any diagonal, and could jump over an intervening piece. As a consequence, each fil was restricted to eight squares, and no fil could attack another.ishops, like all other pieces except the knight, cannot jump over other pieces. A bishop captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits. The bishops may be differentiated according to which wing they begin on, i.e. the king's bishop and queen's bishop.