Home * Evaluation * of Pieces

This page serves as a quick reference for those who look for ideas about evaluating different kinds of pieces.

Pawn

• Pawn Structure
• Pawn Center
• Blockade of Stop
  penalty for "d" and "e" pawns blocked on their initial squares

Knight

• Decreasing value as pawns disappear
• Outposts
• Knight trapped on A8/H8/A7/H7 or A1/H1/A2/H2 - see Trapped Pieces
• Penalty for blocking a "c" pawn in closed openings (Crafty defines it as follows: white knight on c3, white pawns on c2 and d4, no white pawn on e4)
• When calculating knight mobility, it is advisable to omit squares controlled by enemy pawns
• Marginal bonus for a knight defended by a pawn
• Penalty for an undefended minor piece (Stockfish)

Bishop

• Bad Bishop
• Bishop Pair
• Bishop versus Knight
• Color Weakness
• Fianchetto
• Returning Bishop
• Bishop trapped by enemy pawns on A2/H2/A7/H7 or on A3/H3/A6/H6, see Trapped Pieces
• Penalty for an undefended minor piece (Stockfish)

Rook

• Increasing value as pawns disappear
• Rook on open file
• Rook on seventh (possibly also eigth) rank
• Tarrasch Rule (Rook behind Passed Pawn)
• Penalty for a Rook blocked by an uncastled King
• Small bonus for a rook with enemy queen on the same file (doesn't matter if it's open or not)
• Rooks defending each other (Rebel uses a piece/square table for that, making suppoeted rook on 7th rank even more valuable)

Queen

• Penalty for early development ^[1]
• Some programs do not evaluate queen mobility
• Some versions of Fruit replace queen mobility by king tropism
• If king safety evaluation relies on king tropism, queen tends to get somewhat higher bonus

King

• King safety in the middlegame
• King centralization in the endgame
• Mate at a Glance
• Penalty for standing on a wing with no pawns present in the endgame
• Pins/X-ray
• Castling Rights

See also

• Influence Quantity of Pieces
• Material
• Mobility
• Piece-Square Tables
• Square Control

Forum Posts

• Knight Evaluation by Jonathan Rosenthal, CCC, February 24, 2015
• eval pieces by Daniel Anulliero, CCC, June 15, 2015

References

1. ^ Queen wandering, was: Crafty 14,9 by Roland Pfister, CCC, May 11, 1998

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