Control The Center With A Bishop Fianchetto
Conventional opening theory encourages an early fight for the middle of the board with pawns, supported by pieces. With the bishop fianchetto, players find a new way to control the center. A defensive and attacking piece, the bishop takes control of a powerful diagonal that can be crucial throughout the game.
Let’s explore what makes the fianchetto bishop a powerful tool that every player should understand.
What is a Fianchetto Bishop?
A fianchetto is a specific way of developing a bishop. It works by advancing a pawn one square on the b and g files and developing the bishop behind it.
For Black, the positions of the fianchetto bishop is b6 and g6, and for White, b3 and g3. Often, the player will castle behind this bishop, creating a strong defensive structure, while using the bishop to attack the center.
The fianchetto forms part of many hypermodern openings. This is a particular school of opening theory and chess style that suggests attacking the center from the flanks with pieces rather than directly with central pawns. This is the fundamental way in which you can control the center with the fianchetto.
How Does the Fianchetto Bishop Control the Centre?
The main idea of the fianchetto is to use the long diagonal of the bishop as effectively as possible. From the corner, it can defend the king while also controlling central squares and threatening central pawns and pieces. The fianchetto is a positional concept that seeks to find the most effective square for the bishop.
In the opening, the idea is to attack the center from the flank, using the bishop along with other pieces and pawn breaks. Controlling the center is a simple idea, but it has nuances in each game of chess.
Take this opening as an example. Black has allowed White to put 3 pawns in the center, controlling many key squares. Black has fianchettoed the bishop and advanced the pawn to e6 to stop White’s pawns from continuing to march. The opening idea for Black will be to put pressure on the center with the bishop, knights, and eventually with a pawn break at the right moment (moves like d5 and f5).
The fianchetto bishop continues to be powerful in the middlegame. See how, in this continuation, some pieces have been traded, and the bishop is now actively threatening a pawn on d4. Importantly, the bishop also keeps the pawn on d4 in place because the pawn on b2 is also vulnerable. The position here is approximately equal, but the fianchetto bishop plays a crucial role in keeping it together.
In the endgame, the fianchetto bishop is often traded off, but it can otherwise become a more active piece. Here, most pieces have been exchanged. The bishop has moved off its g7 square and has become a more active piece.
Fundamentally, the fianchetto bishop finds a long diagonal that can cut through the center of the board throughout the game. It can exert this control from a position close to the king and behind the pawns, where it is difficult to threaten the king and where it protects the king.
Fianchetto Openings to Try
Openings featuring the fianchetto are very popular today among players of every level. Grandmasters play all of the openings that follow. It is worth noting that these openings can be quite theoretically dense. Nevertheless, for advanced players, intermediates, and beginners hoping to learn, they can be a great choice.
In these openings, we will cover the basics to show you how the fianchetto can work in different ways and give you something to experiment with.
The Modern Defense
The Modern Defense is a flexible fianchetto opening with Black. The first move with the black pieces is g6, immediately aiming to fianchetto and create pressure on the center with the bishop after Bg7.
White will likely put pawns in the center on e4, d4, and/or c4. From here, the game can go in many directions. The goal of the fianchetto bishop in the modern is to support attacks in the center, create long-term pressure on the diagonal, and protect the king. These are ideas we will see in just about every fianchetto opening.
For Black in the modern defense, the key idea is to assess when and how to create a pawn break in the center. These ideas also repeat across openings, as we will now see in the King’s Indian.
The King’s Indian Defense
Many fianchetto openings require ceding the centre of the board initially before launching a counterattack. The King’s Indian Defense is a common example.
The knight develops first to f6. Then, the fianchetto with g6, followed by Bg7. White develops a big center. The goal for Black is to undermine White’s center using pressure from flank pieces, especially the fianchetto bishop.
The opening is tricky and generally not always recommended for beginners. This is because it contradicts many of the usual lessons of opening theory. To make it work, players have to avoid allowing White to simply smother them with a space advantage. The fianchetto bishop must be used effectively to contest the battle for central control.
A similar opening played with White is the King’s Indian Attack. Here, White plays the same principles and inverse opening moves, with the tempo advantage of moving first.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6
The Sicilian Dragon
The Sicilian Defense is one of the most famous and challenging openings for Black. The Dragon is a variation that involves putting a fianchetto bishop on g7.
The opening starts with 1.e4 c5, the Sicilian. The next moves are:
2.Nf3 d6
3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 …
Black can create the Dragon Sicilian position with the move g6, preparing for Bg7.
The opening is aggressive for Black. It is full of tactical opportunities and play on both sides of the board. White will likely castle queenside and advance the kingside pawns towards Black’s king, which will be behind the fianchetto bishop after castling kingside. Black will use the bishop and a pawn storm of its own to attack White’s queen. These opposite-side-castled games are aggressive and interesting, with dynamic, unbalanced positions.
The Retí Opening
While we have mostly looked at openings with Black, there are plenty of openings with White that also utilize the fianchetto. The Retí is a great example. Starting with Nf3 can throw off Black’s usual defenses, as it makes an immediate e4 impossible.
The idea is that as White, you can play g3 and Bg2, and there is not much that Black can do to challenge you.
Usually, Black will play d5, and White can play in many different ways, transposing into the English Opening, Catalan, and King’s Indian Attack variations.
In the Reti Opening, the fianchetto bishop has its usual merits: long-range attack, king protection, and indirect control of the center. The early knight development also prevents Black from taking an enormous center, so White will not have to deal with some of the problems of the King’s Indian Defense. Overall, the Retí is simple to learn in the beginning, and provides a solid basis that Black will struggle to quickly refute.
Try the Fianchetto Bishop
The next step? Try it out! There are many situations in which a fianchetto bishop is a great choice, and in the opening, it can be incredibly solid. Pick one of the openings we’ve looked at today or one of the myriad of others that use the fianchetto. Explore how this powerful approach can give you control of the board.
Frequently Asked Questions
Fianchetto is an Italian word meaning little side or flank. It is called this because of the way the bishop controls the board from its flanks.
In Italian, fianco means side or flank, and etto is a diminutive suffix added to words to indicate something is small or used affectionately.
It is often a good idea to fianchetto your bishop because of the strong diagonal pressure it can create, which can be effective throughout the opening, middlegame, and endgame. However, fianchetto openings can be tricky to master, so beginners may want to focus on more conventional opening theory first.
Today, hypermodern openings are hugely popular at the highest level of professional chess. Players like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura use the fianchetto as part of the Catalan, King’s Indian, and Sicilian Dragon. Historically, Richard Réti and Aron Nimzowitsch were early players who helped popularize this style of opening. Later, Mikhail Tal and Garry Kasparov also favored fianchetto openings.
The type of move was uncommon in the 19th Century, but it only became popular during the hypermodern era of chess starting in the 1920’s. At this time, many grandmasters converted to the idea that central control could come from the flanks.