54
votes
Can all 64 squares be attacked or defended by the eight pieces?
If the two bishops travel on the same color squares, then all 64 squares can be covered by the eight pieces. However, if the bishops must travel on opposite colors, then the maximum number of squares ...
- 616
49
votes
Accepted
Why does Stockfish undervalue pawns when compared to the classical "a piece is worth three pawns" approach?
I am not an expert on stockfish source code, but my understanding is the following.
Humans:
It is true, that the 1 piece equals 3 pawns approach is pretty accurate, surprisingly so. However as you ...
- 20.7k
34
votes
Accepted
Should a player be forced to move a piece that he has picked up after a spectator knocked it off the board?
I am not an arbiter, but here's what the rules say:
Rule 4.3 (emphasis added)
if the player having the move touches on the chessboard, with the intention of moving or capturing
I think it should ...
- 10.5k
32
votes
Accepted
What are "full piece" and "half piece" in chess?
blundering a full piece
or
being a full piece down
are typical expressions in English chess literature.
With the little word "full", the author wants to make clear that the player has not ...
- 5,908
30
votes
Are pawns pieces?
I think a "piece" in the chess context is typically shorthand for the more specific terms of a "minor piece" (Knights and bishops) or a "major piece" (Rooks and Queens).
...
- 702
28
votes
Accepted
FIDE Laws: what exactly does 'colours reversed' in 7.3 mean?
I'm not sure what 'colours reversed' means in this rule.
It is really very simple. Suppose you and I are playing in a Swiss tournament. The draw shows that you are to play white against me in the ...
- 94.5k
27
votes
Is it legal to take a piece to the bathroom during a tournament?
There are a number of serious things wrong with what you describe:
While they are thinking and holding the piece
You may hold a captured piece while you think but you may not hold a piece that is ...
- 94.5k
26
votes
Why is it better to control a vertical/horizontal than diagonal?
I'm not sure exactly what question you're asking, but here are a few ideas related to why rooks might be stronger than bishops:
Bishops are easier to block with pawns. If a bishop sits on a nice open ...
- 1,415
21
votes
Accepted
Do any grandmasters win more with black than white?
The short answer
Yes, they do, although very few GMs do and by a margin of less than 10%. This does not seem to be due only to random factors (see long answer).
An example is GM Joseph Gallagher. As ...
- 3,333
19
votes
Accepted
What should a player do in blitz if he knocks a piece on to the floor after pressing the clock?
The relevant section from the rules would be Article 7.4.1:
If a player displaces one or more pieces, he shall re-establish the
correct position in his own time.
The rules do not specify a ...
- 1,789
18
votes
Can a player be forced to adjust a piece?
When FIDE tournament rules apply: If you displace one or more pieces – knocking off the board, intentionally or unintentionally, is a displacement – you have to re-establish the correct position on ...
- 1,735
18
votes
What is right way to set up King & Queen In the beginning of game?
It starts with the board being setup correctly, and that means a light square in the right-hand corner. Then, the queens each go on their own color.
[FEN ""]
- 32.4k
18
votes
Accepted
Can I move a piece somewhere else if I left it but didn't press the clock?
When I first started playing competitive chess 50 years ago what you describe was standard practice in blitz but not allowed in standard time control chess. Nowadays it is not allowed at all except in ...
- 94.5k
17
votes
Can a player be forced to adjust a piece?
According to the Laws of Chess:
7.4.1 If a player displaces one or more pieces, he shall re-establish the correct position in his own time.
Of course, in this situation, it is not the player who ...
- 18.4k
16
votes
Accepted
Why is the rook worth 5 points while the bishop is only worth 3?
Have a look at the wikipedia article on relative chess piece values, it provides an extensive discussion on the matter.
To see how you can compare two given pieces, let's consider your bishop vs rook ...
- 12k
15
votes
Should a player be forced to move a piece that he has picked up after a spectator knocked it off the board?
When did this happen? Because there is no reasonable interpretation of the current rules by which a TD should have upheld the touch-move claim.
I went back and looked at the 3rd Edition rulebook, ...
- 3,599
15
votes
Was there a chess piece—elephant, knight or rook—rendered as a being looking into two directions?
In shatranj, the game out of which chess developed, the rukhs (rooks) are portrayed a bit like the way you describe. That Wikipedia article contains this illustration of a 12th-century Iranian ...
- 6,265
14
votes
What are "full piece" and "half piece" in chess?
I don't think "full piece" means anything beyond "piece" but "full" was added for emphasis. This is to highlight the magnitude of the blunder, since many blunders are smaller than a piece; for example,...
- 10.5k
14
votes
What is right way to set up King & Queen In the beginning of game?
First the board must be correct.
Put the white square in the right hand corner nearest to you.
Then put the queens on their color in the center of the board on the row closest to you. White queen on ...
- 3,871
14
votes
Why is it better to control a vertical/horizontal than diagonal?
I am answering the mathematically-oriented question why are rooks controlling more squares (the chess question of why are rooks better pieces is well-answered here: Why is the rook worth 5 points ...
- 291
13
votes
Do any grandmasters win more with black than white?
White scores about 54%, which is quite different from White winning 54% of all game, more so considering how draws occur more often between stronger players.
None of the top players score better as ...
- 16.3k
13
votes
Can there be a checkmate with maximum points of material (103) while covering 64 squares?
As per Hauke's invitation, here is an optimal proof game for such a position. This is optimal because a queen must move to give the Black king a square and forty pawns moves must take place. White's h ...
- 17.1k
12
votes
Why is the rook worth 5 points while the bishop is only worth 3?
You need to understand that the point system is only a rough guideline meant to assist you in evaluating positions or in deciding on potential exchanges. Many factors, particularly the pawn structure, ...
- 20.7k
11
votes
Accepted
How to determine the value of a piece from scratch?
It's possible to use logistic regression (a statistical method) to estimate the predictive values. This way, you wouldn't need anyone to try the game at all.
http://www.sumsar.net/blog/2015/06/big-...
- 22.4k
11
votes
Accepted
What are the quckest helpmates delivered by the rook, knight, bishop, and pawn?
Here's what I came up with.
Bishop took me 3 moves:
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]
1.e4 f5 2.Be2 g5 3.Bh5# *
Knight took me 3 moves as Black:
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/...
- 18.4k
10
votes
How to determine the value of a piece from scratch?
Ralph Betza tried to do this and he wrote a series of six articles about this, starting with this one: http://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/ideal-and-practical-values.html
Ideas to ...
- 1,939
10
votes
Why does Stockfish undervalue pawns when compared to the classical "a piece is worth three pawns" approach?
Please note that those values are "abstract", later to be modified by the specifics of the position. For example, even though a knight appears 0.8 pawns less valuable than a bishop, it could be that ...
- 16.3k
10
votes
Can there be a checkmate with maximum points of material (103) while covering 64 squares?
[FEN "3k4/6QP/8/4Q3/8/2Q5/QQ4QQ/RNBKQBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]
1. h8=Q#
This is trivial, as already five queens can threaten the whole board. The only thing you must pay attention to is giving ...
- 15.4k
10
votes
Are pawns pieces?
No, the word "piece" does not include pawns. We can see this in some common phrases. A "minor piece" is a bishop or a knight – pawns are even more minor but don't count as minor ...
- 6,265
10
votes
Was there a chess piece—elephant, knight or rook—rendered as a being looking into two directions?
The Janus-Springer set includes such a knight.
- 1,368
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible