One of the things that makes chess a complex and fascinating game is the range of movements of the various pieces. A queen can move any number of squares in any direction, making it the most useful piece on the board. Rooks control entire ranks and files, making them very useful, especially in combination. But just how much more valuable is the queen than a rook, and what about compared to the other pieces on the board? Here, we’ll discuss piece values, or to be more precise, relative piece values within the game.

It’s clear that the pieces do not all carry the same value. For starters, the king is priceless, if you find yourself in checkmate (meaning effectively that the king will be taken), then you lose the game. The point values expressed below are well-known in the chess world, but it’s always important to note that everything has its exceptions, and on occasion these values will not be accurate. Using your pieces to the best of their ability is far more important than simply trying to keep hold of the most valuable onces. Anyway, let’s get started with the lowly pawn.

Pawns - value 1

Pawns are ultimately the weakest piece on the board. Due their limited movement and capturing capabilities, they have the lowest score - 1. Of course, the crucial thing about pawns is that they can be promoted into other pieces, like a queen, meaning that while their current value is only 1, their potential value is much higher if they can make it to the opposite side of the board.

Knights - value 3

Knights are useful in that their unusual moving pattern allows them to capture pieces that cannot attack them. We saw this in the article about forks. Since they move in an L-shape, they can ‘sneak’ up on queens, rooks and bishops and make your opponent’s life difficult if used well. However, due to their limited range - they only have 8 squares to move to and therefore 8 squares to attack in the best case (only 2 in the worst case)! - their value is only 3, in other words three times for valuable than a pawn.

Bishops - value 3

Bishops, like knights, have a value of 3. They may have better range than knights, since they can traverse the board with one move, the face that they are limited to one square colour and therefore can’t even protect each other (knights can, on the other hand), their value is also restricted. That’s not to say that bishops cannot work well in tandem. In the correct positions, the two bishops can form a formidable partnership. However, they are limited. For example, if your opponent has their light-squared bishop remaining, keeping your pieces on the dark squares effectively keeps them safe from that bishop.

Rooks - value 5

Rooks, as mentioned earlier, can control entire ranks and files of the board. This allows them to work well together, since positioning your rooks on the same rank or file allows them to ultimately protect each other. They are also able to block the opponent’s king from moving across the board in many end-game scenarios. This alone makes them incredibly useful towards the end of games of chess and can be the deciding factor in some scenarios. They are also the only piece, along with the queen, who can checkmate the opponent alone. As we saw in the introduction to chess, there are no checkmates possible with only one knight or one bishop, however it is possible with only one rook.

Queen - value 9

Your queen, as mentioned earlier, is by far your most powerful and therefore most valuable piece. Caputuring your opponent’s queen while retaining your own is very often the winning maneouvre in a game of chess. However, with a value of 9, it’s not always so decisive. If you sacrifice 2 rooks for the opponent’s queen, then based on these point values alone, you’re actually down a point since you lost 10 with both your rooks, but only took 9 back for the opponent’s queen.