Horses are devastating pieces. Much more so than bishops.

Some say that bishops are stronger than horses, that while a horse is 3 points, a bishop is 3+ or 3.25.

While that may be true on GM level, for me as a humble patzer a horse is way stronger than a bishop, because of the horrifying forks they can and do make.

Horse forks are all over the place. Bishop forks are as rare as hen's teeth.

Often a game is decided by a nasty horse fork. Happens all the time.

Just had one:

@carnivorum said
Horses are devastating pieces. Much more so than bishops.

Some say that bishops are stronger than horses, that while a horse is 3 points, a bishop is 3+ or 3.25.

While that may be true on GM level, for me as a humble patzer a horse is way stronger than a bishop, because of the horrifying forks they can and do make.

Horse forks are all over the place. Bisho ...[text shortened]... 31. Rfc4 Qd8 32. Nd4 Bd3 33. Ne6+ { Black resigns. } 1-0 [/pgn]

https://tinyurl.com/happy-fork

@mchill said
Wow - Your opponent wasn't "horsing around" in that game!! 😏

In this game I donated my queen to the enemy.

One moment of not paying attention, and off went my queen. And a pawn of mine.

I got in exchange for her a horse and two bishops, so I got something in exchange, but my prospects were bleak. But I fought on.

Then I saw that one of my horses could make a royal fork on the enemy queen and king. Not very useful, because he would be smacked of the board right away.

Then I got my other horse to attack that same critical square, so that when my first horse would be smacked off, the second one could take his place, and make again the royal fork, this time without being smacked of the board right away.

After I got my second horse in position I could only wait, hope, and pray that the enemy wouldn't see the fatal forks lurking in the distance.

He didn't see them. He played a pawn up, and my first horse made the fork.
My first horse got taken.
My second horse made the fork.
This time there was no escape. His king had to move, and his queen was going off the board.
Unfortunately for him, he set up his king for a discovered check. So when I took his queen, he was also in check, and because of that he would also lose a castle in this skirmish.

That was too much for the enemy, and he surrendered. 😀

Got another royal horse fork.

The bloodthirsty enemy played his horse to d5, undoubtedly with murder in his heart and with the intention to make his horse jump to c7, where he would be forking both my king and my castle.


But he had overlooked something very important; my own horse.
I let the beast jump to d4, and there he forked both the enemy king and queen.

And that ended the game there and then.

Horse forks are terrible things. That is, when you're on the receiving end, God forbid.

But when you dish them out, they are fabulous!

Humbly and quietly I shout out with a loud voice: HALLELUJAH!!