Learn Chess - Value of Chess Pieces

Value of Chess Pieces

by

FA Amit K Biswas

FIDE Arbiter, International Rated Chess Player, Chess Coach

Founder of Bengal Chess Wizard and Chess Art Wizard

 

(In this discussion we will discuss the static initial value of Chess Pieces mainly for the beginner chess players. We will just touch the necessity of dynamic piece value. If you are a beginner then this discussion is enough to start playing. But in near future you will require to know the dynamic values. Then you must follow our next part of the discussion. To understand easily in Bengali you may follow my youtube video regarding this topic)

Story Time:

One day your friend offers you his Tiffin in exchange for your pencil. You agree. Next day again he offers his delicious tiffin in exchange for your pen. Again you agree. But next day when he offers the same in exchange for your math book, you denied. Because this exchange offer is not worthily balanced. Your Math book is more valuable than the tiffin.

So you see that all the things around us have a value and you have to know the value of that. Otherwise you will face a loss.  

Chess Context:

In the chess board you may face the same situation. You have to take decision whether one of your pieces will be well worth to exchange with a particular piece of your opponent or not. To take a fare decision you have to know the correct value of your pieces. Let us know those.

Values:

First let us discuss about the smallest member of our piece family. Yes, the pawn. 

As pawn has lowest power in the battle field, his value is lowest. Only 1. But remember, this pawn is not a negligible piece. In the battle field it may become the decisive matter. So don’t ignore him.

Next let us discuss about the Knight.

Knight has a major problem that he cannot move long enough at a time. But he has a unique power to gallop over the pieces!! So he deserves the value 3.

What's next? Obviously the first long ranging piece, the Bishop. 

Yes. Bishop is a great power to run too far at a time diagonally. So he is the member of elite long ranging group in the piece family. Does he deserve more value than Knight? No. He is also treated the same as of Knight. Only 3.

Why?  

Because, Bishop can move only half of the board but Knight can travel full board. Another reason is, as Knight can jump over the pieces, he can be used in the clumsy position whereas Bishop may not be so much mobile in the same clumsy position.

Now obviously we have to discuss about the Rook, the first member of the super elite Major Piece of the board.

No doubt Rook has more power than Knight or Bishop. He can travel all the squares of the board; he alone can mate with the help of King, which is not possible by Knight or Bishop. He has another big power which makes him super elite; this is the power of castling. So he deserves 5 points.

What else? The super hero… no… not hero, she is heroine, but the owner of super power, the Queen.

No discussion is required for her highest value, obviously less than the King. She deserves 9 points for her super power.

Lastly we will discuss the value of the King, the decisive piece of the board.

We cannot say that King has the highest power to move in the board. He can move to any side of himself but only one square at a time. So he is not a long ranging piece. He cannot jump over any piece. But he deserves infinite points, so he is called priceless.

But why?

Because King is the ultimate decisive piece. Without King no team can fight. Whenever the King will be arrested, the game will be over. So he must have the highest point. You cannot exchange all your opponent’s pieces against your King. So he is priceless, cannot be exchanged.

Now what have we understood? We understood that the values of pieces are:

Pawn = 1

Knight = 3

Bishop = 3

Rook = 5

Queen = 9

King = Priceless

Purpose:

Certainly a question is peeping in your mind that what is the purpose of knowing the value of those pieces?

A good question. Although already I have told you, but I think we have to elaborate this discussion.

Suppose a certain position has arisen. You can capture the Bishop of your opponent with your Rook. But the problem is then in exchange that your opponent will also capture your Rook. What shall you do? Will you capture or not?

Actually exchange is nothing but a trading. In trade do you want to face a loss? Certainly not!!! Always you want to gain. But if you do not know the value of the pieces, how will you decide that whether you will make a loss or gain the trade?

In the above case the value of Rook is 5 and value of Bishop is 3 (although in future you will discover that there are more factors to take a decision). So you will certainly not go for the trade. If not any other reason has been found.  

 Dynamic Value:

In future another question will arise in your mind… will always those values remain the same? Suppose a pawn is in the initial position, and another pawn is in the 7th rank, and is just waiting for promotion, are they of the same worth? Not at all. These are called Dynamic Values. We will discuss on this topic later.

Conclusion:

Now we know the values of the pieces. So we will not face a loss in trade now. Whenever we will find a position of exchange, we will always take the decision according to the value of them.