Chess Piece Values and How They Impact Your Game
You cannot understand chess without understanding chess piece value. If you go to a foreign country and try to shop in a local market, but don’t understand the value of the currency you are holding, do you think you will make very many wise decisions? If you are new to chess, you must learn which pieces in chess are more valuable, what trades are good to make, and how to understand a good deal on the chessboard when you see one.
The Value of Different Chess Pieces
If checkmate is the ultimate goal in chess, then why is it so essential to understand the value of the chess pieces? Pieces are the tools we use on the chessboard, and if we have more pieces, and more of our more valuable pieces, then it will be easier to checkmate and control our opponent. But what pieces are worth the most?
The Chess Queen
The queen is the strongest piece on the chessboard, and we say that the queen is worth nine points of material. It is the most valuable piece in terms of material value, because it is the most useful and strongest piece. You can reach many more squares with the queen than any other piece, and it is an excellent attacking weapon. Losing your queen, blundering it away, is enough to make many players resign their games. Nine points of material can be enough to swing the result of the game in one move. If you win your opponent's queen, you can go from losing to suddenly winning the game!
The Major Value of the Rooks
The next most valuable chess piece is the rook. What makes a rook more useful than a knight or bishop? A rook covers more squares than a knight, and is not restricted to just one color square like the bishop. But it is not as mobile as the queen, which is why it is only worth five points of material. That means two rooks are roughly equivalent to one queen.
The Knights and the Bishops: The Minor Pieces
The knights and bishops are each worth three points. Some argue over which is more useful, with some grandmasters saying that bishops are more useful, but for beginners, it is best to consider these pieces as roughly equal, each having different strengths and weaknesses. Knights thrive in closed positions and are excellent at forking your opponent, while bishops are long-distance snipers that work best in open positions. Two knights, two bishops, or a knight and a bishop would be roughly equivalent to one rook, and three minor pieces, the term used for knights and bishops, would be comparable to a queen.
The Value of a Pawn in the Chess Sets
The pawn is the lowest-value piece, worth just one point of material. But, you start with more pawns than any other piece, and a pawn has the ability to become a queen if it reaches the end of the board. A pawn’s ability to become a queen is called pawn promotion, and it means that once a pawn reaches the second or seventh rank, it is certainly no longer only worth one point of material.
Variance in Chess Piece Values
This type of value variance is an important concept to understand in chess. Not every piece is strictly equal. The pawn is the easiest way to understand this idea. A pawn on its starting square is just worth one point of material, but a pawn one square away from promotion is suddenly much more valuable. This occurs with other pieces as well. Take a look at this position.
Is this bishop really still worth three points? No! At this point, the bishop is just a glorified pawn. If your opponent has a bad piece, don’t take that piece and help them out. Understanding when to trade pieces is a difficult concept in chess, and it comes with experience and understanding of the position.
Value Cheat Sheet
Let's list the values of each piece here for easy reference.
- Queen: 9 points
- Rooks: 5 points
- Knights: 3 points
- Bishops: 3 points
- Pawns: 1 point
- King: The whole game
If you can remember the different values of the pieces, you can know when you are making a good trade. Generally, capturing one piece with a lower-value piece is a good trade. Taking a queen with a rook would be a good trade, and taking a rook with a bishop or knight would be a good trade. Winning a rook at the cost of a bishop or knight is called “winning the exchange.”
To Trade or Not to Trade
Now that you understand the value of the chess pieces, you can start to wheel and deal. Trading is very appealing to beginners in my experience, but beware. Trading a piece can feel like it makes the position less complicated, and it gives you a move that you don’t really have to think about. But trading automatically and trading early can be dangerous and unhelpful moves. Pieces are your currency and your weapons; giving them away makes it harder to fight.
Free Material
One of the very first lessons I teach beginners is about undefended pieces when they are given to you. Understanding undefended pieces, when to take free pieces from your opponent, and how to not give away free pieces will immediately improve your rating as a beginner. Your opponents' blunders only matter if you can see why it was a blunder! Training specifically for finding free material is a great way to practice. Spot the free material in the position below.
How to Avoid Blundering Your Entire Chess Set
If you are new to chess, you might have a problem where you give away your pieces. Even if you know the value of those pieces, you might still blunder. The best way to avoid blundering is to remember that chess is a game played by two people, not just one. If you consider what your opponent is going to play in a given position, then you are more likely to avoid blunders. The best way to do this is by looking at your opponent's forcing moves.
Forcing Moves
Forcing moves in chess are moves that your opponent is forced to respond to. The most forcing kind of move is a check. By the rules of chess, if you are put into check, you have to escape; otherwise, the game is over. By watching out for your opponent's checks, you can avoid surprise checkmates or tactics that can end your game early. Other kinds of forcing moves are captures and threats. If your opponent captures one of your pieces, you want to capture back, which can lead to tactics. Forcing moves are great ways to win material, and most tactics are a type of forcing moves.
Converting a Material Advantage
Chess, unfortunately, is more than tactics. If you spot that free material, your next goal is to convert that material advantage you now have into a win. Just because you have more pieces than your opponent does not mean that you have an automatic win. Think of it more like a power play in hockey, or like when a player in soccer receives a red card and is sent off —suddenly, you have more players than your opponent, which makes winning easier! Converting the advantage is all about using your extra material wisely to get to the win.
Trading When You Are Ahead
One common piece of advice is to trade material, but only when you are already ahead in material. If you are up material, and you trade away the rest, you are the player left with pieces, which makes it easier to win. If you have a strong attack, don’t trade away your attacking pieces. The fastest way to win a game where you are up material is still checkmate.
How Bishops Impact Chess Games
Bishops are pieces that control diagonals. If you can position your bishops where they are on open diagonals, especially pointed towards the enemy king, then you will have a strong bishop. This works best in open positions where the pawns have not locked down the center of the board.
How the Chess Rook Impacts a Chess Match
Rooks work similarly to bishops, but instead of controlling diagonals, they control files. Rooks like open files. An open file is a vertical row that is not blocked by pawns from either team. Positioning your rooks on open files can give you control of large portions of the board and keep your opponent's pieces from accessing essential points.
How Knights Impact a Chess Game
Knights, by their nature, cannot control as much of the board as bishops or rooks, but when positioned correctly, they can be devastating to your opponent. A knight on an outpost deep in your opponent's territory can cause enormous problems for the rest of the game. An outpost is a square where the knight cannot be scared away by a pawn, and it can rest easily, controlling the board.
What to Do if you Go Down Material
If you understand chess piece value and the way the pieces affect the game, then you start to realize just how vital your material is when you lose it. So, should you resign? End the game early? No. Keep fighting. Don’t trade the rest of your pieces, and try to make the position as fascinating, complicated, and tactical as possible. Go on an attack. Look for forks, pins, and skewers. As long as you have a pawn, you could still promote and make a new queen.