Beginners' blog #3 - The basics of calculating material

In chess, it is useful to calculate points, based on the fact that a pawn is worth one point, so that we know if we are up or down in material or if it is worth making a sacrifice.

Of course, material is not everything that counts... in some positions, you can be down in material and win even though (e. g. by backrank mate, if you have rook vs. queen, but the opponent's queen is too far away so that you can deliver checkmate with your rook)... but it's even though important to know such things, also for improving your chess skills in general.

To put it in a nutshell, these are the piece values:

Pawn = 1

Knight = 3
Bishop = 3
Knights and bishops are called "minor pieces"

Rook = 5
Queen = 9
Rooks and queens are "major pieces"

The king doesn't have a (formal) value as it can't be captured!

For practising this a little, please don't hesitate to go through my study.

https://lichess.org/study/h5EYoBN6/z0rd1bNd

There are also lessons on lichess (see Learn - Piece value). Enjoy trying them out and playing with the community!

Picture source: https://unsplash.com/photos/_pc8aMbI9UQ