Trades and the value of a Bishop

I want to write a bit about the assigned point values and trade values, particularly of the Knights and Bishops, but I have a couple of other examples too, to really drive the point home.

The image above shows the time honored "value" assigned to chess pieces in relation to each other, but there has been some new thinking recently from some respected players, writers and video creators. In particular, the topic coming up has to do with point value, not in comparison to other pieces, but point value as a part of the stage of the game you're at. Those could be two very different things. and should affect your thinking in terms of "where, or what" to attack, and attack with.

For example, a Pawn has been considered to be worth one point, forever, but is it still worth one point when it's about to be promoted? If the promotion is not being fought over, that Pawn value may only be one square away from having the value of a Queen. That Pawn doesn't yet have the value of a Queen, but it's certainly worth more than one point. As I said earlier, this change in piece value should affect your decision making about where and what to attack. 

So let's look at a less obvious case and I'm talking about the Knights and Bishops.

Traditionally people value the two pieces evenly at 3 points each. which is mostly true at the start of a game. Knights can jump over other pieces though, giving an early small mobility advantage over the Bishop and a small value advantage. The Bishops have to wait for other pieces to get out of the way, before they can become active.

In the worst case, in many openings Pawn placement can lock a Bishop into place, taking away any threats from that piece. That's some negative value that got stuck to the Bishop. We low rated players often miss that problem and misunderstand the negative value to a piece that we created on our own.

As I said, writers and other creators are starting to recognize these changes. My first book was Eades Chess for Dummies and in that book he values the pieces the traditional way. That's an old book so the traditional valuation isn't surprising.

The second book I bought was Eades Chess Openings for Dummies and it's quite a bit newer. In a quick review section of this second book Eades rates a Bishop as 3.5 and goes on to explain the change and it's got everything to do with where you are in the game.

Throughout the entire game the Knight can jump other pieces but is still stuck with that L-form for movement, no matter how much room the Rook has to roam it's going to move slow. Here, the Bishop has a clear advantage.

After mid-game simplification and "room to roam" the Bishop can really surprise from a distance, something your opponent may have failed to see, a significant advantage. The writers, creators and even top players comment on this and we as newer players should be paying attention.

Early in low rated games a lot of players don't pay much attention to what piece they use to trade, even when they have a choice, Knight or Bishop. Given that Bishops are worth more later in the game we low rated players need to start thinking about this. Which piece to trade with? The Knight or the Bishop? I suggest the Knight, when there is a choice.

Save your Bishops for later. That's what top level players are doing.