Sometimes struggle to find a good spot for my bishops.

So, occasionally when I play a game of Chess I struggle to find the best square for my bishop. I will give an example from a game I recently played with a friend of mine, the game went like this:

1. e3 e5 2. Ne2 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. O-O

At this point, I wanted to finish my development and I was yet to move one of my bishops, I struggled to find a good square for my bishop to go to. What would you guys recommend in this position? How do I find the right square for my bishop?

Thanks for your help.

I recommend avoiding e3 and g3 together.

@Patient_Chair said in #1:

So, occasionally when I play a game of Chess I struggle to find the best square for my bishop. I will give an example from a game I recently played with a friend of mine, the game went like this:

1. e3 e5 2. Ne2 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. O-O

At this point, I wanted to finish my development and I was yet to move one of my bishops, I struggled to find a good square for my bishop to go to. What would you guys recommend in this position? How do I find the right square for my bishop?

Thanks for your help.

5...h5. Black has not castled kingside yet, and should not. White has made a target with the g3 pawn move. If White doesn't want the h-file to get half-opened for Black then he'll probably play 6.h4. Now you can play 6...Bd6 and already your Bishops are pointing at White's kingside. Black is threatening 7...e4, which is probably already winning! It now depends on what White does as to where you'd put the Queen Bishop. Black will castle queenside soon, and can consider ...g5 at the appropriate time.

@MrPushwood said in #3:

I recommend avoiding e3 and g3 together.
Yeah haha, wasn't me who played them so don't worry.

@Patient_Chair
So, were you playing Black in the moves you mentioned?
And Bishops should work together like both of them being fianchetto-ed. Specifically, there is no condition to play with respect to so one can play anything what they want.
It depends on which opening are you playing for developing a particular piece like bishop.
And not every time one would get great spot for ther pieces.

@Patient_Chair said in #1:

How do I find the right square for my bishop?

There are several possibilities...

To have a good spot for your bishops you have to foĺlow the 2 capablanca rules (of course dont follow it blindful):

1.Put your pawns on another colour then your bishop.
2.Shutdown the oppornents bishop with putting your pawns on the same colour as the bishop (Bb2/f6,e5)

You could play reversed London vs reti d5,c6,bf5,e6,nf6,h6,bf5,nbd7 i dont think its boring either and you mixed this both rules, your bishop on d6 isnt blocked by any pawn and your bishop on h7 is outside the triangle e6/d5/c6

hope this post helped you:)

@Akbar2thegreat said in #6:

@Patient_Chair
So, were you playing Black in the moves you mentioned?
And Bishops should work together like both of them being fianchetto-ed. Specifically, there is no condition to play with respect to so one can play anything what they want.
It depends on which opening are you playing for developing a particular piece like bishop.
And not every time one would get great spot for ther pieces.
Yes I was playing as black

Against 1.e3?! play 1...b6 and watch him suddenly start thinking :-)

If then, in the next game he starts with 1.g3, play ..e5, ...d5 and later consider @jomega #4's 5...h5. Then play B(g4-)e6, Qd7, O-O-O, and if you ever have seen some Sicilian Dragon games you will know how to further proceed.