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Chess piece point value

In chess, the chess pieces are often assigned certain point values that help determine how valuable a piece is strategically. These values are useful to players, and are also used in computer chess to help the computer figure out what moves to make. Calculations of the value of pieces provide a only rough idea of the state of play. The exact value of the piece will depend on the game situation.

The following is the most common assignment of point values.

Piece Value  
Queen 9 Image:Chess qld40.png Image:Chess qdl40.png
Rook 5 Image:Chess rll40.png Image:Chess rdd40.png
Bishop 3 Image:Chess bld40.png Image:Chess bdl40.png
Knight 3 Image:Chess nll40.png Image:Chess ndd40.png
Pawn 1 Image:Chess pld40.png Image:Chess pdl40.png

The value of the king is infinite since its loss causes the loss of the game. In some computer chess programs, presumably because it is deemed too inefficient to implement actual infinity, the king is assigned an artificial value such as 200 points – an arbitrary value higher than the sum of all other pieces plus positional factors. This ensures that the computer will value checkmate over all exchanges or sacrifices. See the discussion about Shannon's chess program at Claude Elwood Shannon for a more complete description.

Computer programs will typically make further adjustments to this score according to various positional factors. For example, 1/3 of a point may be subtracted for doubled pawns, isolated pawns and backward pawns, fractions of points may be added for possession of open files, and so on. For most humans, such positional evaluation is done without reference to a numerical score.

In his book New Ideas in Chess, grandmaster Larry Evans gives the values pawn=1, knight=3½, bishop=3¾, rook=5, and queen=10. However, the traditional valuations above seem to be more accurate. A bishop is usually worth slightly more than a knight, but not always. Also, two rooks are generally slightly more powerful than a lone queen. Another system is used by Max Euwe and Hans Kramer in Volume 1 of their The Middlegame, with values pawn=1, knight=3½, bishop=3½, rook=5½, and queen=10. These values appear to be more accurate than those given by Evans. Bobby Fischer gave the value of the bishop as 3¼ (with the other pieces having the traditional value).

Historical valuations

An 1813 book (source unknown, perhaps by Sarratt) gives these valuations of the pieces:

  • Knight 9.25
  • Bishop 9.75
  • Rook 15
  • Queen 23.75
  • King as attack piece (in the endgame) 6.5
  • Pawn 2 at the start, 3.75 in the endgame

If these values are divided by three and rounded, they are more in line with the valuations used now:

  • Knight 3.1
  • Bishop 3.3
  • Rook 5
  • Queen 7.9
  • King as attacking piece in the endgame 2.2
  • Pawn 0.7 in the beginning, 1.3 in the endgame

Howard Staunton's The Chess-Player's Handbook gives these values, rounded slightly:

  • Pawn 1
  • Knight 3
  • Bishop 3.5
  • Rook 5.5
  • Queen 10

See also

External links