Rooks Or Queens? Knights Or Bishops? Can You Evaluate The Craziest Positions Imaginable?

Maybe you've heard of Freestyle Chess, where you shuffle the pieces before a game to create wild starting positions. We decided to test some more extreme setups: Are two rooks better than a queen? How about six rooks against three queens? Theory discusses the advantage of the two bishops—is there an advantage of seven bishops? With the help of two leading engines, Torch and Stockfish, we will find the answers.

Six Rooks vs. Three Queens

"Top players tend to believe that two rooks are more powerful than a queen because obviously 5+5=10 and a queen is worth nine. But Fabiano is one of the very few top grandmasters that will always try to argue that a queen is better than two rooks." - GM Hikaru Nakamura on GM Fabiano Caruana.

Do you like queens like Caruana, or rooks like most GMs? We tested this extreme version of the question and let the engines decide. Which side would you take?

Surprisingly, our silicone friends, Torch and Stockfish, disagreed about this position. Torch preferred the queens, with an outstanding evaluation of -5.02. Stockfish preferred the rooks with a more cautious evaluation of +2.40. We had them fight it out to reach a final conclusion. 

Congratulations to the rooks and Stockfish!

You can try to demonstrate the power of the rooks yourself. Good luck!

Knights vs Bishops

“You may have the bishop pair but I have the ultimate advantage; I am the better player!” - John Adams, the second president of the United States.

You can fill a library with chess writings about the bishop pair. Two bishops are supposedly better than two knights or a knight and a bishop. However, does that logic continue for three bishops, four, seven...? Which side would you take here?

This position is less controversial than the queens vs. rook battle. Both Torch and Stockfish strongly favor the bishops by evaluations of -3.29 and -4.16, respectively. The power of the bishop pair only grows the more of them you add to the board. Sorry, knight fans.

Try your hand with the bishops and see if you can keep those horses in the stable.

Can you make the bishops count against an engine?

Are there any more wild positions that you would like to test? Let us know in the comments!