3
What is the value of the king?
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3
Bcoz it can move in any direction
Bcoz it can move in any direction
In most endgame situations, the king is stronger than a knight or a bishop, but weaker than a rook. I'd put the value closer to 4 points. The king can occupy any square (the bishop can't), give tempo (the knight can't), and can't be approached by a pawn without a supporting defender. The king is particularly effective at preventing rook infiltration along the open file.
Jul 19, 2018
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#10
Yeah, and while a bishop or knight can't case down a single pawn by themselves unaided, a king can. Similarly a king can aid a passed pawn up the board every square but a bishop or knight can't.
Jul 19, 2018
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#11
ilovesmetuna wrote:
4!!! no way hose!
As a horse, I can assure you, I know a lot about chess.
I have relatives who were knights, and complained about protecting the lazy king all game and then when he finally waddles out, he takes all the credit for promoting pawns and such.
Jul 19, 2018
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#12
I don't recall which book I read it in, but a King has no value in the opening and middle game. Come the endgame, when checkmate is not a real issue in most cases until promotion occurs, the King takes on roughly the value of 2 1/2 pawns.
Jul 19, 2018
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#13
ThrillerFan wrote:
I don't recall which book I read it in, but a King has no value in the opening and middle game. Come the endgame, when checkmate is not a real issue in most cases until promotion occurs, the King takes on roughly the value of 2 1/2 pawns.
Looks like it hasn't been valued that low since the early 1800s 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value
I decided it was probably somewhere between rook and minor piece while going through Dvoretsky's Endgame book. E.g. I noticed that it was sometimes important for the king to relieve a rook from blockading duty, and similarly it was sometimes important for a minor piece to relieve the king from blockading duty. Therefore minor piece < King < Rook.
I know that's not the best argument, it's just how I started to notice.
invaluable of course
4
The king controls 8 squares, like a knight, but he can't travel as fast as a knight.
Jul 20, 2018
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#17
wjtaylor wrote:
The king controls 8 squares, like a knight, but he can't travel as fast as a knight.
Sort of.
Put a king on e4 and mark every square it can attack in 3 moves or less.
Then do the same with a knight.
You might be surprised 
The king is as useful as a minor= 3.25.
Jul 20, 2018
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#19
ilovesmetuna wrote:
i'm back, the king doesn't really control those squares, most of the squares he could land on would leave him toasted.
Sort of.
In an endgame a knight trying to hop around pawns can easily be blocked or the pawn can be moved to safety.
A king going to much your queenside in the endgame and it's game over.
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Ignoring the king's weakness of getting checked, if the king were given a point value like all the other pieces (for example, rooks are 5 points), what would be its value?
2?
3?
2.5?