I know what they are, but online sources fail to explain how they were originally calculated. Why 1,3,3,5,9 and not something else like 1,2.5,3,6,10?
Why is the queen worth 9 points? Shouldn't it be 11? It has the movement of a rook+the movement of a light squared bishop+the movement of a dark squared bishop=5+3+3. Where did I go wrong?
Pawn = 2, Bishop = 7, Knight = 8, Rook = 14, Queen = 27
I'm working on a coding project and would like to evaluate the relative value of pieces through statistics or an algorithm of some sort. Is this possible?
Hi my fellow chess lovers! I've put together a guide to better understand piece/material value based on my experience as an IM and research, which should help you identify good and bad trades to win more games.
Here's the video, which has explanations, illustrations, and some bad jokes: https://youtu.be/pjSJk8H8RL8
For those of you who prefer a long read, see the notes below, but I'd still recommend the vid as it's got much more detail and the illustrations/examples help a lot.
Good luck achieving your chess goals!
1. Beginner's 1, 3, 5, 9
Piece values:
- Pawns weakest 1
- Knights and Bishops similar 3
- Rooks are stronger 5
- Queens clearly strongest, as she's essentially a rook and a bishop 9
- King is Priceless, so he gets a sideways 8
*Chess terminology: Knights and Bishops are “Minor Pieces”, Rooks and Queens are “Major Pieces”
Why are rooks stronger than bishops and knights?
- Generally, rooks control more squares.
- In fact, on an open board, rooks always control 14 squares
- Bishops control between 7-13
- Knights control between 2-8
- Bishops can only ever control half of the board (light or dark squares), but rooks and knights can control every square
- Can mate with King + Rook, but not King + Bishop or King + Knight
What about bishops vs knights?
Based on just square control on an open board, bishops are better and are long range, but:
- Knights are a different breed being the only piece that can jump over pieces
- The position is not always open
- Knights can control every square
These roughly balance each other out, so bishops and knights are considered similar value for beginners.
Ok, 1,3,5,9 is a great starting point, but it leaves many questions unanswered and will only take you so far.
2. Bishops are better than knights
It does depend on the position but in general, bishops are undisputedly better than knights
It’s just a fact, like Messi is better than Ronaldo (sorry couldn’t resist, ignore this), and if you don't believe me, that's fair enough but you should believe these guys who all value bishop more (full details in video):
- Fischer – Former World Champion and a GOAT
- Kasparov – Former World Champion and a GOAT
- Stockfish – Strongest conventional chess engine (depends heavily on position, these are endgame valuations)
- Alphazero – Strongest AI chess engine (doesn’t actually assign values, back calculated from Alpha zero
As far as I know there used to be the following pieces in medieval chess and early modern (courier) chess, which were either partially displaced by another piece or wiped from the game entirely: Ferz/Ferz/Firzan; Man/Counsellor/Rath/Sage/Henchman; Jester/Sneak/Smuggler/Spy/Fool/Trull; and Archer/Old Man (which was referred to in Courier as “Bishop” strangely enough).
Apparently, the Ferz was a standard piece until it was partially displaced by the Queen, which later became significantly more powerful than the basic Ferz, and thus quite distinct from it. It seems to also have been partially displaced by the Bishop/Courier as well.
The Man also seems to be a standard piece, and despite the important role Courier had in developing modern chess, the Man was strangely not included in modern chess.
The Jester was likewise part of Courier (although I believe it was not part of Chess history for as long as the Man was) and shared the same fate.
The Archer or Old Man was also part of Courier and was also dropped.
I am writing to ask a.) why did these pieces cease to be a part of the game (or its predecessors) and b.) how would a hypothetical re-inclusion of them into the game (given no other changes other than additional board room) change it? would it make it better or worse, and why or why not?
I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but I was wondering how did it come to conclusion that a Queen is worth 9 points , a Rook worth 5 and others respectively .
he starts on nights next week.
The (k)night! AH! AH! AAH!
I've been looking and found some posts here as well. I ordered a few sets off Amazon and ended up returning them. I am looking for solid plastic chess pieces where the King weighs about 30 grams. I am having a hard time finding them. I can find the triple weighted ones, but I hear some of them are hollow plastic with a metal weight in them, which I don't want. I want a solid piece, it doesn't have to be too heavy.
I already have a mat, but if buying a full set makes more sense than individual pieces, that's fine.
Bottom Line, I buy everything off of Amazon, and it doesn't look like Amazon has what I'm looking for.
How consistent/accurate is the relative piece value?
Hypothetically in an endgame for example, is a rook + bishop + pawn really worth a queen? Is a rook better or worse than 5 pawns?
Are the point values a solid way to tell material equality, or is it more of a rough estimate of value?
I am fairly low rated (around 1400-1500) and all input is appreciated!
What trades increase your pieces value the most?
What players have the most valuable pieces?
How do you checkmate Diamond Member's King?
I know these things are hard to know as everything is relative, but I was wandering if anybody could help evaluate what the following two chess pieces would be worth in 'Normal' Chess?
'Cannon' - the same as in Chinese Chess, moves like a rook, but must 'hop' over something in order to capture on the other side.
'Guard' - Moves like a king, EXCEPT may not move diagnolly backwards (so it has 6 moves available). It would also be intresesting to know what the 'King' would be worth if it was not a 'Royal' piece.
Many thanks
Champions need to be assigned a point value relative to their corresponding strength in potential exchanges in ARAM. Too many times have I walked into an ARAM game to have some fun and mess around, only to get completely stomped by a poke comp that wins in 20 minutes with 50+ kills while we barely scrap together 10-20 with our all melee weak scaling champion composition.
Another problem this would help address is the random influx of extremely competitive players that seem to ruin the games for the extremely casual players. When ARAM was in the custom game format, players chose to participate for little to no IP due to the fun factor the game exhibited. Now that players earn IP, they want to win every time to increase the amount of IP earned...otherwise they feel they wasted 15-20 minutes of their time. By making teams closer with a point value system, neither team will feel they had wasted their time and hopefully, in turn, this could bring more intense games into the casual scene that ARAM brings.
I know we’re in a era where we “devalued” the running back where analysts cringe when one is taken in the first round. Now I’m seeing questions about taken Linderbaum high because he’s only a center.
I wanted to ask how people rank positions by level of value and importance for a team. This is not to say that a hall of fame level talent at any position won’t elevate the team, but I would put more value on having top talent at the higher end of the list.
Here’s my list:
- QB
- OT
- EDGE
- CB
- C/G
- WR
- S
- TE
- LB
- DT
- RB
Part of this is why I criticize Gettleman. Everyone knows about taking Saquon high, but not enough is made about the absurd resources he spent on defensive tackle. Despite having 3 starting quality players he continued to use draft capital to acquire more…to the point where we had to trade an ex 3rd round pick that was playing well simply because there weren’t any snaps for him.
Anyway - what are your thoughts on ordering positional value?
In order from weakest to strongest
16Chess:
Pawn - 1
Zebra - 4
Phoenix - 5.3
Giraffe - 5.5
Bishop - 6
Knight(Rider) - 7.7
Rook - 8.7
Unicorn - 9
A Royal and His Pet:
Pawn - 1
Knight - 5
Guard - 5
Archer - 5.7
Tower - 5.8
Man - 5.8
Cannon - 8.7
