Bishop+Pair

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Since in the initial position bishops stand on the squares of different color, throughout the game they control a disjoint sets of squares. This means that their power will never be wasted for carrying out the same tasks. On the other hand, lack of one bishop may introduce a color weakness. Taking all those considerations into account, one might conclude that possessing both bishops is a desirable thing. The question is, however, how much they are worth.

Larry Kaufman proposed the value of half a pawn. It must be stressed, however, that this number is a part of a broader system, in which knights are stronger with many pawns on the board.

=See also=
 * Bishop versus Knight
 * Material

=Publications=
 * Gennady Timoshchenko (**1993**). //Bishop or Knight//? ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 4
 * Mark Sturman (**1995**). //Beware The Bishop Pair//. Computer Chess Reports, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.58
 * Mark Sturman (**1996**). //Beware the Bishop Pair//. ICCA Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2
 * Larry Kaufman (**1999**). //[|The Evaluation of Material Imbalances]//. (first published in [|Chess Life] March 1999, online version edited by Dan Heisman)

=Forum Posts=
 * [|Question about Crafty and Bishop Pair] by Renze Steenhuisen, CCC, July 13, 2004 » Crafty
 * [|Testing of Kaufman Material Values] by Mark Lefler, CCC, April 25, 2009 » Material
 * [|Rook Pair Penalty, Knight Pair Penalty, Having a Pawn Bonus] by Mark Lefler, CCC, May 11, 2009

=External Links=
 * [|Bishop pair from Wikipedia]

=References= =What links here?= include page="Bishop Pair" component="backlinks" limit="40"
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