French bishop

English

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

The position of the main-line French Defence, in which the bishop on c8 is the French bishop.

Etymology

From the French Defence.

Proper noun

French bishop

1. (chess) The black light-squared bishop in main line of the French Defence, whose movement is restricted due to the pawns on e6 and d5.
   • 1995 February 10, BradleeJ, rec.games.chess‎^[1] (Usenet):

     So Gary decides to open the French. Hmmm. Now that "bad French bishop" comes into the game.

   • 2012, Karsten Mueller, Alex Markgraf, The Chess Puzzle Book 4, Russell Enterprises, →ISBN, page 48:

     As long as Black has the bad French bishop, White will be better in almost all endings.

   • 2018, Sergey Kasparov, chapter 8, in The Bishop: Danger on the Diagonal, Russell Enterprises, →ISBN:

     First, there will be simple game fragments, where the bishop is not completely blocked – it can move, but White blithely "ignores" the French bishop.