Piece Values & Trades
📋 What it is
Rough values: pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9. Trade equal or up — avoid giving more than you get.
🗣️ Coach says
Every trade is a tiny calculation. Before you capture, ask “what do I give, what do I get?” Winning a rook for a knight (+2) wins games; the reverse loses them.
🧠 Memory hook
Count before you capture: “what I give vs what I get.” 1-3-3-5-9.
😂 Giggle
Why did the beginner learn piece values?
Because knowing a queen is worth more than a pawn keeps you from bad trades!
😲 Whoa!
Two rooks (5+5=10) are worth slightly MORE than a queen (9) — knowing the numbers changes which trades you’ll take.
✅ Quick check: You can capture a bishop (3) but you’ll lose your rook (5) doing it. Good trade?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
No — you give 5 to get 3, a loss of 2 points of material.
A “capture” isn’t automatically good; the trade only helps if what you get is worth as much as what you give.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Watch or play a game and, at every capture, whisper the two numbers (“give 3, get 5”) to judge the trade.