User manual
photo pg 41
KINGS AND BISHOPS
After pressing MODE and seeing TEACH displayed on the LCD, if you
press the BISHOP key the computer will be ready to start play with kings,
bishops and pawns on the board. The bishop is often a mobile piece but it is
important that it does not get hemmed in and even trapped by the enemy
pawns. Here is an example of what can happen from the above position.
1 e 2 - e 4 e 7 - e 5
2 B f l - b 5 a 7 - a 6
3 B b 5 - a 4 b 7 - b 5
4 B a 4 - b 3 a 6 - a 5
Can you see what Black is threatening?
5 d2-d3??
White is anxious to get his c1 bishop into play and completely overlooks
Black’s idea. Better moves, for example, would be 5 a2-a4 or 5 c2-c3.
5 ... a5-a4
6 Bb3-d5 c7-c
White’s bishop on d5 is attacked and has no safe place to go, so White loses a
bishop in return for only a pawn.
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The white knight on a8 cannot escape and now Black is threatening to march
his king to b8 and pick up the errant knight.
4 N g l - f 3 K e 8 - d 8
5 N f 3 - g 5 K d 8 - c 7
6 Ng5xf7 Kc7-b8
White is already two pawns up but his knight on a7 is attacked and has
nowhere safe to go. Under the circumstances White extracts as much as he
can for his knight:
7 Na7xc6+ d7xc6
An interesting choice. Should Black capture the knight with the d-pawn or
the b-pawn? If Black captures with the b-pawn then White will have a
“passed” a-pawn. The a-pawn will not have any enemy pawns to oppose it on
its path to promotion and so Black will need to use his king or one of his
knights to keep the a-pawn under observation. If Black captures on c6 with
his d pawn he leaves the pawn on e7 “isolated”, that is to say, it has none of its
own pawns on adjacent files to protect it. But by capturing on c6 with his d-
pawn, Black avoids leaving White with a passed pawn, and although the black
e-pawn (on e7) represents a weakness, it is less important than allowing White
a passed pawn. So 7 ... d7xc6 is stronger than 7 ... b7xc6.
After recapturing on c6 Black has won a knight for 3 pawns. In pure material
terms a knight is worth roughly the same as 3 pawns, but in this position
White has no passed pawns and none of White’s pawns is any kind of a threat
to Black, so Black has a clear advantage.
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