Blindsided by the Bishop

Have you ever been blindsided by your opponent's Bishop? I have, more than I care to admit. And, I have a feeling a lot of other chess players have to- been blindsided. Why is that? The theory is, when we focus all of our attention on one thing, we become selectively blind to everything else.

There's a world-famous experiment which highlights this, called the "Selective Attention Test". Try it! Selective Attention Test How did you do? Did you count the number of passes correctly? Did you see what you should have?

At least I know this is common now, and it's not just me. And, more importantly, I'm not losing my peripheral vision as I age. And, it just doesn't apply to the Bishop's on the periphery of the board...it could be a Queen on the periphery of the board, which as we all know...loves to move diagonally as well as the Bishops.

So, what can I/you do about it? I think "awareness" is first and foremost. That's why when I see my opponent fianchetto a bishop, the red warning flag goes up in my brain. I know it's not an immediate threat, but I know if I ever ignore the threat, it will come back to bite me- hard, and I'll lose the game.

There are three things you can do to mitigate the threat by a Bishop on the periphery of the board: 1. you can attack and capture the Bishop on the periphery with a Bishop of your own, that's on the same colored diagonal 2. you can put your pawns (including jamming your opponent's pawn) on the Bishop's diagonal, inhibiting the Bishop's movement, and 3. you can move all of your major pieces off the Bishop's colored squares. i.e. if it's a dark colored square Bishop, keep your major pieces on light colored squares. This is not as easy or practical as 1. and 2.

Don't be blindsided by the Bishop!