Piece values

[Kevin Thurlow]

"(including, of course, why the chess king is to be valued at 2 notional pawns!)"

I always thought it was mobility.

[Joey Stewart]

We all know that the interrogation will produce the following answer -

8 (pawns) + 6 (2 knights) + 7 (2 bishops) + 10 (2 rooks) + 9 (queen) + 2 (king) = 42!

We need an "upvote" feature for posts like this. Good one

[John McKenna]

Thanks, Joey.

However, others would then want a 'thumbs down' button.

Best if we leave thumbs twiddling...

"(including, of course, why the chess king is to be valued at 2 notional pawns!)"

I always thought it was mobility.

And I always thought it was a lack of nobility.

[Michael Farthing]

I always thought there was something fundamentally wrong with the Game.

[John McKenna]

There's nothing about a flawed masterpiece that can't be attributed to its creator(s).

[Nick Burrows]

In "Applying logic in Chess" by IM Erik Kislik, he has a chapter on piece values. He says that after years of testing by Stockfish and Komodo et al, the settled upon values used by the engines is:

Pawn = 1
Knight = 3.45
Bishop = 3.55
Rook = 5.25
Queen = 10

Bishop Pair = +0.5
Safe King in Endgame = 4

Early in game Rooks have less value and increase as game progresses. A single rook is worth more than 5.25.

[Steven DuCharme]

My formula is number of reachable squares equals piece value points. A checking piece is infinity/2 and a mating piece is infinity/1

[MJMcCready]

Hi.
What's the basis for assigning numerical values 1-3-5-9 to pieces?

There isn't one but since whoever came up with that wasn't or hadn't been shot, it's stuck. Once you go ELO2000 and up you'll see the numerical values are relative to the stage of the game as rooks are usually the worst pieces on the board in the opening, and not that much use in the middle game usually, but in the endgame then their true value can be seen. On move one the only things that have any value at all are pawns and knights because only they can move. Assessing the strength of the King in the opening compared to the endgame is rather problematic, I'd suggest you try and solve Godel's theorem within 15 seconds instead -much easier.