48
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 ...
- 20.9k
31
votes
Accepted
Why do points matter in trading pieces?
The point system in chess gives a rough indication of how strong each piece is. So the short answer to your question is, yes, a rook is more valuable than a knight, and so in the vast majority of ...
- 408
31
votes
Accepted
How many pawns make up for a missing queen in the endgame?
The simple and obvious answer is that it all depends on the position of black's pawns and king. In general the further up the board the pawns the better for black provided the king is in contact with ...
- 100k
24
votes
When a game is cut short and the winner is determined by material, do points still count if they're from promoted pawns?
Points in chess mean nothing with respect to the actual play of the game with regards to the rules. They are only a reference to give players a general sense of what value each piece has relative to ...
- 32.7k
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
What is the origin/history of the traditional piece values?
In Claude Shannon's paper of 1949, he quotes those values as part of his evaluation function:
Most of the maxims and principles of correct play are really assertions about evaluating positions, for ...
- 1,689
15
votes
When a game is cut short and the winner is determined by material, do points still count if they're from promoted pawns?
As has been said, in ordinary chess the points do not count, and the only person who can definitively tell you your school's rules is your chess coach.
But that said, the purpose of looking at the ...
- 19.9k
15
votes
Accepted
What should be the value change if pawns are doubled?
Start with whatever and tune it.
That's how chess engine programming works - you start with some number, and then tune it. For example you start with -5, then create another version with -10. You get ...
- 28.4k
14
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 ...
- 17.7k
12
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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, ...
- 20.9k
12
votes
Why do points matter in trading pieces?
Just to put a point on this:
Does the fact that the knight is worth 2 less points than the rook make it less valuable?
This is looking at it upside down.
What matters in an exchange is getting ...
- 332
11
votes
How many pawns make up for a missing queen in the endgame?
First of all, White wins in the diagram you provide, although it's not obvious at a glance how. White plays Qf2 first to stop the king from advancing. Black can't just sit there forever because the ...
- 19.9k
11
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 ...
- 17.1k
10
votes
What relative point values of pieces do engines use?
Rybka/Komodo/Houdini are not open source and their values aren't readily available, but the current strongest conventional engine, Stockfish, uses these values (lines 194-198):
PawnValueMg = 126, ...
- 28.4k
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 ...
- 16.9k
10
votes
Accepted
What is the piece value heuristic in atomic chess?
The answer is, as expected, "it depends". To answer directly first, 2016 Atomic World Championship (AWC) winner, tipau, put the values as:
Pawn - 1
Knight - 1.5
Bishop - 1.5
Rook - 3
Queen -...
- 5,040
9
votes
Accepted
(4 Queens + 3 Pawns) vs (Entire Standard Army)
A clarifying comment says "Pawns can be placed in any of the first 3 rows.
Any other piece must be placed in the back row. White moves first unless
black used less points to construct their army." ...
- 8,294
8
votes
Is it better to start without a queen or without any pawns?
Other than the computer evaluation proving that the Q is better, the biggest problem here is that black basically starts out fully developed since his pieces already have amazing scope, and can ...
- 32.7k
7
votes
Accepted
Antichess piece value
In my opinion, this is a very difficult question, since the piece values in antichess are not as static as in normal chess and usually highly depend on the game phase and position.
However, there are ...
- 2,454
7
votes
Why does Stockfish undervalue pawns when compared to the classical "a piece is worth three pawns" approach?
The value of a piece or pawn will depend greatly upon how well it is placed. The common 1/3/3.5/5/9 values are reasonable estimates for pieces which are placed decently but not amazingly well. For ...
- 1,192
7
votes
What should be the value change if pawns are doubled?
There's no real rule for how much do doubled pawns (or any other kind of weakness on the pawn structure) worse your position. There's not even a rule for piece value, specially if you'll add bonuses ...
- 16.9k
7
votes
Do modern chess engines learn material values through self-play?
As the answer you linked elaborates: "As you might guess, these numbers are empirically tuned."
In practice this often boils down to self play. Traditionally you'd roughly speaking try ...
- 3,646
6
votes
Is it better to start without a queen or without any pawns?
The queen is better. Other than being worth 9 points (compared to the pawns' combined worth of 8 points), the queen is a single powerful unit. White can only move each of his pawns one at a time, ...
- 19.9k
6
votes
Are knights more powerful in Duck Chess?
Although I still need to look at many more to have a sufficient sample size, I analyzed the endgames from 200 games from top duck chess players on chess.com. I recorded the material imbalance and end ...
- 61
5
votes
Why is the rook worth 5 points while the bishop is only worth 3?
I would like to add another example.
A rook can isolate a lonely king from a portion of the board by forming a barrier. A bishop cannot; for that same task you need 2 bishops.
That means, roughly, 1R~...
- 429
5
votes
How to determine the value of a piece from scratch?
We could start guessing the approximate value of this hypothetical "superpawn" or "enhanced pawn" in terms of "mobility", in the order of E~2P because of the definition (move up to 2 squares instead ...
- 429
5
votes
When are pieces worth more (or less) than their nominal value?
The "worth" or "value" of any piece is always situational. The concept of sacrifice includes compensation for the side losing material. That compensation may not be a material return, but something ...
- 51
5
votes
What is the origin/history of the traditional piece values?
Before 1847
The value of the chess pieces was established in the XIXth century. The simple scheme 1-3-3-5-10 (rather than 9 which is common nowadays) was already accepted in the first half of the ...
- 16.6k
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