I was playing a light-hearted chess match against a clever young child. As the game progressed, I thought I had everything under control. My knight was strategically placed in the centre of the board, protected by a pawn. My knight was ready to pounce on any unsuspecting piece. Little did I know, the mischievous child had other plans in mind.
Suddenly, their queen, the most powerful piece on the board, swooped in and captured my knight! I couldn’t help but chuckle at this unexpected move.
Me: Why did you choose this move?
Child: Because horses in the centre (of the board) are stronger.
Me: Kind of in some cases, but how much is the Queen worth?
Child: worth?
Me: Yes, what is the value of the Queen?
Child: Value?
Me: Yes, value… Okay, how about the knight? How much is it worth?
Child: Horsey?
Me: Yes.
Child: I like the horsey because it jumps. *Proceeds to make the knight jump over random pieces. *
Me: …
After this convo, I found myself asking other players this same question only to receive similar responses (minus the random knight jumps all over the board)
Every piece has a value. Piece value is a way of understanding how powerful a piece is compared to each other. By knowing the value we can determine a good move or bad move.
So assuming you know how to play chess and the pieces names
Pawns: 1
Bishop: 3
Knight: 3
Rook: 5
Queen:9
King: “Priceless.”
“Woah!! I didn’t know pieces had different values” I know right! This is something chess players tend to know based on the importance of the piece, but having a piece value it makes it clearer when it comes to calculating.
To help make this easier to understand, I’ve broken it down into three types of trades. Fair trade, Good trade, and Bad trade (Probably not the correct terms, but I’ll use it to get the point across.)
Fair trade
Is when both players give up a piece of equal value, keeping the overall value balance on the board. so if one player trades their knight (3) for their opponent’s knight (3), it would be considered a fair trade.
Good trade
Exchanging your pieces in a way that gives you more powerful ones If one player’s bishop (3) captures their opponent’s queen (9), it would be considered a good trade.
Bad trade
Exchanging your pieces in such a way that you give up a powerful piece for a weaker piece. For example If one player’s queen (9) captures a knight (3) protected by another piece . it would be considered a bad trade.
So now that you know this, it should be easier to keep track of the piece value while playing. But remember, there are other factors to consider when making a move; it’s not just about the piece value. For example, a player may sacrifice a higher-value piece to gain some sort of counter play or positional advantage it may look like a bad trade but if all goes to plan it would be considered a brilliant move.
Unfortunately for my young opponent, this was not the case. I went on to win the game. Showing no mercy 
he was very happy though as I agreed not to capture his ‘Horseys’
👑 Pryme Chess 