The bishop: corner to corner, always on its colour

Of all the chess pieces, the bishop might be the easiest for small children to learn, and one of the most satisfying to use well. It has one simple rule, and once your child sees it, they rarely forget it.

How the bishop moves

The bishop moves diagonally, in any of four directions, as many squares as it likes. It cannot jump over other pieces, so it stops when something is in the way. If that something belongs to the other player, the bishop can capture it by landing on its square.

That is the whole rule. No hops, no turns, no special moves.

A trick to remember it

Many children find it helpful to think of the bishop's path as a big letter X drawn through the square it stands on. Put a bishop in the middle of an empty board and trace the X together with your finger, all the way to the edges. Then ask your child to find every square the bishop could reach.

Try this at the table: place one bishop and one small toy on the board. Ask, "Can the bishop catch the toy in one move?" Move the toy around and let your child answer with their finger on the diagonal. It turns the rule into a little game of hide and seek.

The bishop stays on its colour

Here is the part that delights children once they notice it. Because a bishop only moves diagonally, it never changes colour. A bishop that starts on a light square will stay on light squares for the whole game. A bishop that starts on a dark square will stay on dark squares.

That is why each player has two bishops: one for the light squares and one for the dark squares. Together they can reach the whole board, but on its own each bishop can only ever visit half of it.

You can show this by asking your child to try to move a bishop onto a square of the other colour. They will quickly discover it is impossible, and that discovery tends to stick far better than being told.

Where the bishops start

At the start of the game, the bishops stand next to the king and the queen, one on each side. In the beginning they are hemmed in by their own pawns, so a pawn usually has to step forward before a bishop can get out. This is a nice first lesson in planning: "Which pawn should move so your bishop can come out to play?"

Common mix-ups

• Moving straight like a rook. Gently trace the X again and remind them: bishops only go corner to corner.
• Jumping over pieces. Only the knight can jump. The bishop has to stop.
• Taking a piece that is not on its diagonal. Ask your child to slide the bishop square by square so they can see the path.

Practising with ChessMons

In ChessMons, the How to Play lesson for the bishop walks through the rule with voice-over, so your child can hear and see it at the same time. After that, Practice has 20 puzzles for the bishop, and if your child gets stuck, coach Tock gives step-by-step hints rather than just showing the answer. A few of those puzzles, alongside Today's 3, is a gentle way to make the X second nature.

The bishop is a quiet piece, but a patient one. Once your child learns to look along the diagonals, they will start spotting chances that many beginners miss.