During a chess game, you will often be required to exchange one piece for another. Perhaps you can capture a rook, but this will allow your opponent to capture one of your bishops.
How do we know when a trade is good for us? There are many factors to consider, but beginners should become accustomed with the basic value of each piece. This serves as a rough guide that can tell you at a glance which side has more material (the side with more material usually has a significant advantage), as well as give you some guidance when making exchanges.
Generally, you want to make trades that allow you to capture more material than your opponent, and avoid the reverse. However, not all pieces are created equal.
- Pawns are the basic units of chess, and are given a value of 1. All other pieces are valued in terms of how many pawns they are worth.
- The minor pieces, bishops and knights, are each considered to be worth about 3 pawns. Some books give bishops a slightly higher value than knights, such as 3.25.
- Rooks are worth about 5 pawns. This makes them worth slightly less than two minor pieces.
- Queens are worth approximately 9 pawns. A queen is worth nearly as much as two rooks.
You'll notice one piece is missing from our list: the king. The king can never be exchanged, and losing your king means the game is immediately over. Thus, the king's value is infinite -- no cost is too high to avoid checkmate.
