Although bishops and knights have the same relative value (they are both worth 3 points), bishops are generally a little stronger than knights. This is mostly because they can roam freely on their diagonal lines on the chess board, while knights are limited to the L-shape movement.
You can use blitz chess to improve and become a better chess player but you can also use it to ruin your ability to play ordinary chess. It really depends on your approach to playing and learning chess.
Thanks to the myriad of options for learning that we have nowadays, it is not hard to get good at chess. You can become a decent player within a few months. However, it is a lot harder to become really good, and it can take many years to become a master.
Rooks are more valuable than bishops because they can reach every square of the chess board rather than half of them. Checkmate can be achieved with just a rook and a king, but not with just a king and a bishop. Overall, the rook is worth more because it can cover more squares than a bishop can.
You can learn the rules of chess and each piece’s moves in a day or so. You can be playing a good level of chess within a few months. If you want to master the game and join the elite, you may need your entire life to do so. Even the greatest living chess players are not as good as the best chess computers are and that means that there is always room for learning.
Chess grandmasters study by playing games, by working hard on their strategies and lines, by analyzing other people’s games and by gaining as much experience as possible playing different opponents in different settings.
There are 8 good reasons for this and they include tournament rules, time limits, cheating, arbiter preference, the ability to claim a draw (in two different manners), to improve on your own game and simply because the practice makes it easier to study chess where the notations are used in books and magazines to illustrate great (and not-so-great) games.
Statistics show that black has a disadvantage in chess because players with the white pieces tend to win 52-56% of all won games. That means playing with black could result in significantly more losses than playing with white. However, there is no scientific proof that there is an inherent disadvantage in playing black and many argue that there is no real disadvantage.
Our guide to why your chess game is not improving (and what to do) includes 10 reasons that your practice might not be paying off and how to rectify them. We look at the environment, solo practice, partners, coaching, big picture thinking, problem solving, bad habits, your past games, self-belief and the time you put in to give you a strategy for success in the future.