The Secret Life of Bad Bishops

My 2nd principal work.

 

 

 

 

 

(Quality Chess 2014, 192 pages)

Esben Lund: The Secret Life of Bad Bishops, Quality Chess 2014.

Note: A limited number of signed copies are available at my home address in New York.

The biggest takeaways from the book are:

  • Introducing the Doubled-Edged Bishop (DEB) to avoid that the bishop is prematurely labelled as a bad bishop based on its visual appearance
  • All phases of the game are treated – from the opening over the middlegame to the endgame
  • A total of 46 exercises for the reader to solve, in order to test the newly enhanced knowledge
  • Stressing that the bishop is a team player – strong on its own color, but helpless on the opposite color – and that space and remaining pieces are two important other factors to correctly evaluate a position
  • The goal keeper logic: it is okay to assign one piece (the bishop) to be a passive defender – temporarily or permanently – as long as the position overall is not passive
  • The logical connection between the DEB and the positional exchange sacrifice, explained with 3 different scenarios
  • A fresh look at the endgame bishop versus knight with focus on the isolated, color-blind bishop and on the difference in strength between the two minor pieces
  • A unique and focused treatment of the endgame rook versus bishop built on the concept of a Fortress-Like Position (FLP)

 

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