Does anyone know when the various piece values were cemented in their current values? Has there ever been an attempt to alter them?
Chess Trivia
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Feb 4, 2014
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#3
Piece value has been of interest to players/teachers for a millenium at least. Many different scales have been proposed on time. Here a few:
HJR Murray, in his massive tome, "A History of Chess," mentioned that the great Muslim player as-Suli gave a piece value in his chess ms, " Kitab Ash-Shatranj."
His value system was base on monetary units and, of course, the game is actually shatranj, not modern chess. "The Shah (King) is reckoned beyond
value because of his superior dignity. The highest value after the Shah is the Rukh (remember, the modern Queen didn't exist). Its value is one dirhem. The Faras' value is two-thirds direm. KP and QP, each one-fourth direm ; BP and Kt P, each one-sixth direm, rising to one-firth direm ; a marginal P, one-eigth direm because it can take on one side. I consider the KKtP better than the QBP ; as-Suli has said that this is because this Baidaq is a spy against the return of the opponent's stronger Fil and Firzan. He gave these values for the commencement of the game ; the value of the pieces may increase or diminsh afterwards. "
Murray gives some more detail, but it's interesting that al-suli gave different pawns different values and that values changed as the game progressed.
Back in 1803 Peter Pratt, a somewhat shakey chess writer, gave an odd assignment of 'piece value in his book, "Studies of Chess." He first gave values "with respect to qualification for attack and defense": King, 9 ; Queen, 28 ; Rook, 15 ; Bishop, 14 ; Knight,, 12 ; pawn, 2. It's interesting to note that he gives the Bishop a slightly higher value. Once each piece is "in that part of the board where its sphere of action is largest," Pratt gave the following values: King, priceless ; Queen, 23¾ ; Rook, 15 ; Bishop, 9¾ ; Knight, 9¼ ; pawn, 2 with the pawn's value increasing to 3¾ as he advances.
In 1847 Howard Staunton gave these over-specific piece vaules in his Chess-player's Handbook based on those given a few years earlier by Charles Tomlinson: Queen, 9.94 ; Rook, 5.48 ; Bishop, 3.50 ; Knight, 3.05 ; pawn, 1.00, with the King as "invaluable."
Reuben Fine in "Chess The Easy Way" introduced the accepted standard of Queen, 9 ; Rook, 5 ; Bishop/Knight, 3 ; pawn, 1.
All interesting factoids and tidbits can be posted here.