Today's Daily Puzzle 8/10/20: Alternative Piece Valuations

Hello Puzzlers!

First, I want to apologize for being missing for the past three days. As I recently became an affiliate on Twitch I have been spending some time improving my channel. I also had been spending some time uploading a new YouTube video (finishing up my Queen vs. Pawn Endgame Series!).

Things have started to settle down a bit and I should be back in an almost-daily routine for this blog

Piece Valuation

Today's puzzle reminded me of something that I still struggle with at times to this day: how do I determine if/when it's appropriate to trade two rooks for a queen? If you follow the 1/3/3/5/9 rule, the answer should always be "never" as you lose two rooks (5+5=10 points of material) and gain a queen (9 points of material). Although these point valuations are good enough in most of the back-of-the-envelope chess calculations, there are many nuances.

Is a Queen+Pawn the same as two rooks in the opening? What about the endgame? While we're at it, don't chess players always like to tout the almighty "bishop pair"? Surely that must mean it's worth some additional points (that is, a B+N must be worth less than a B+B but the traditional point valuation would count these as the same). There's been many attempts (just check out this Wikipedia page), especially in the age of computers to come up with a more accurate piece valuation than the 1/3/3/5/9 system.

The system that I typically go by is one that Dan Heisman discusses in his blog:

P (pawn)= 1         BB(bishop-pair)= +½         R(rook) =  5         B(bishop) = 3¼       N(knight) =  3¼       Q(queen) = 9¾

This valuation is helpful because although it weighs bishops and knights as the same, an additional .5 points given if one has the bishop pair. Also, as you can see, the queen is slightly more valuable relative to rooks than the traditional 1/3/3/5/9. I would caveat this point system by saying I believe the two rooks are even a bit more powerful in the endgame than a queen than just an extra .25 pts.

In summary, the way I've thought through if I should trade a queen for two rooks is: in the middlegame, it's basically a wash. It depends on the position. In the endgame, I will typically favor two rooks over a queen unless the position shows concrete reasons why a queen is better.

Now, I'm no chess expert (literally...) so I could be a bit off here so I'm curious what others have to say in this matter (comment below!).  

Today's Puzzle

Ok, I know that was quite the tangent but the puzzle today just reminded me of this lifelong struggle I've had determining if/how to trade a queen for two rooks. In the puzzle today, however, trading the two rooks for queen is a no-brainer not only because you also get two additional pawns for the trade but because you get even more!

How did you do on the puzzle today? Comment below with your thoughts. Until tomorrow!

Nick

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