The Moves of the Bishop
The Bishop is the only piece restricted to a single color square throughout the game. This makes it sensitive to changes in the Pawn structure for both players.
1. Bishops move on diagonals
The Bishop can move any number of squares along its diagonals. The diagram shows that a Bishop in the center of an empty chess board can move to 13 different squares.
Each Bishop is confined to squares of a single color for the entire chess game.
2. Bishops can't hop over other pieces
The Bishop can't hop over other pieces. The diagram shows that the white Bishop is blocked by the white Rook, but can capture the black Rook. It can't go any further on either of these diagonals.
Note that in the initial position, one Bishop of each color starts on a white square and one starts on a black square. Each Bishop can reach only half of the squares on the chess board, but together they can move to every square on the entire board.
