How the Bishop Moves in Chess – A Complete Guide for Beginners ♞

 The Bishop: A Powerful but Limited Piece ♟️

The bishop is a long-range piece that can be extremely powerful, but it has a significant limitation: it can only move on squares of a single colour.

Each player starts the game with two bishops—one that moves on light squares and one that moves on dark squares. Together, they can control diagonals across the entire board. ♜

Bishop Placement 📍

How the Bishop Moves

The bishop moves any number of squares in a straight diagonal line, as long as no pieces are blocking its path.

The diagram below illustrates the legal moves of a bishop.

Legal Bishop Moves ✅

Unlike the knight, the bishop cannot jump over other pieces. If there is an obstacle in its path, the bishop must stop before reaching it.

In the diagram below, the green-highlighted squares show where the bishop can legally move, while the red-highlighted squares indicate where movement is blocked. ❌

Bishop Movement and Capturing 🎯

The bishop captures pieces in the same way it moves—by landing on the square occupied by an opponent’s piece.

Final Thoughts 🤔

If you're still unsure about the bishop's movement and characteristics, I recommend watching the following video for further explanation.

To wrap up, here’s a final exercise where you can practise what you've learned about the bishop.

See you in the next lesson! 🚀