← All rankings

Bishop strikes

A single long diagonal cuts the board clean in half. The best finishes where the last word belongs to the bishop, arranged by force.

Bishop strikes in Chess960

A bishop is a long-range sniper that rules a single colour of squares, and on an open diagonal it can cut the board clean in half. When the bishop delivers the final blow, the win usually arrives from far away — a piece on one edge reaching across to the other.

In Chess960 the two bishops still start on opposite colours, but on files that vary from game to game, so the great diagonals they command are different every time. A bishop can rake a line the standard opening would never have opened.

This ranking holds the finishes where the last word belongs to a bishop, arranged by the force of the diagonal blow.

Key terms Key move