lichess.org
Donate

Can someone explain what does centipawn loss mean?

I've always seen this whenever I play a game. I'm clueless regarding this term "centipawn"
lichess.org/faq#acpl
The centipawn is the unit of measure used in chess as representation of the advantage. A centipawn is equal to 1/100th of a pawn. Therefore 100 centipawns = 1 pawn. These values play no formal role in the game but are useful to players, and essential in computer chess, for evaluating positions.

The top computer move will lose zero centipawns, but lesser moves will result in a deterioration of the position, measured in centipawns.

This value can be used as an indicator of the quality of play. The fewer centipawns one loses per move, the stronger the play.

The computer analysis on Lichess is powered by Stockfish.
a centipawn cP is 1/100 of the worth of a pawn.
centipawn loss cPL is the difference in evaluation expressed in centipawns between the played move and the engine move
average centipawn loss AcPL is the average centipawn loss as calculated over the whole game
You can think of it in this way:
One CP=0.01 point
One Pawn=1 point
So, if you lose 0 Cp, you get 100 points as(as 100 cp=1 pawn).
What is considered strong play in terms of centipawn loss? Less than 25 or 30? 50? or?.......
I once played a blitz game with a IM..... and he ended up with 10 cPL, 0 innaccuracies, 0 mistakes, 0 blunders
Magnus (you know, that Carlsen dude) usually has something like 8 in bullet. So that's a pretty good indicator of what is strong and not. So i would say anything under 10 is GM-level play.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.