Here you will learn about the hidden values of the pieces within chess to help identify and further understand moves on the board. This can be crucial in understanding whether a good move is availible to or if an opponent potentially made a mistake in events such as exchanges or sacrifices.
♙ Pawn: 1 or 100
♘ Knight: 3 or 300
♗ Bishop: 3 or 300
♖ Rook: 5 or 500
♕ Queen: 9 or 900
♔ King: Infinte
Applying these values, known as material to your game only requires a little bit of math. Your goal is to keep as many points as you can over your opponent. There are specific situations in which its ok for the opponent to have more points than you and vice versa but we will break that down further down the line.
The king does not necessarily have a value as he is the most important piece on the board since he can determine the winner of the game. He cannot be captured hence preventing any material / points to be captured from him. The king CANNOT be captured, he can only be checkmated, essentially simulating a capture.
The pawn is the least valuable piece on the board, allowing for them to be sacrificed without too much consequence. However do not let thier value fool you, in the endgame especially pawn can determine who wins the game through the power of promotion. Use them to control space on the board and dominate your opponent.
Bishops, also know as one of the two pairs of minor pieces, are a strong long ranged piece which can easily catch an opponent off guard if not payed attention too. Despite Bishops having the same values as Knights, bishops can be more or less powerful depending on the position of a match. In open endgames where there are only pawns and minor pieces on the board bishops usually maintain an advantage due to thier scope on the board. Howver, in an endgame where pawns close a good portion of the board on a bishops accessible squares knights can usually dominate over bishops due to thier flexibility in closed positions. Make a best judgement on where the endgame is going in order to evaluated potential exchanges and moves.
Knights, the other pair of minor pieces are one of the most unique pieces on the board. The knight is the only piece capable of moving over other pieces, only being impeded by its own pieces. It also has the most unique moving pattern, known for its notorius "L" movement which aid's in its versitility and flexibility around the board. As stated previously the only real weakness of the knight is its range since it can typically shut down by other long range pieces such as the bishop.
The Rook, objectively the third most valuable piece, is known for its tremendous power along the horizontal and vertical axis of the board. Rooks can even possesses the ability to be stronger than even a queen due to thier vast control over the board. The only main weakness of the rook is their inability to move along the diagonal making them easy targets for bishops, especially in the starting corners of the board.
The Queen, the second most important valuable piece on the board, is known for its great range and control over the board. A queen, essentially a combination of the bishop and the rook are one of the best pieces to launch a dynamic attack on the opponents side of the board. However due to the queens value, this also makes the queen a very vulnerable piece since losing one can put a player at a serious disadvantage. Queens also however give pawns a very strong purpose on the board since through promotion pawns are able to promote into queen or any other avalible piece on the board except the king.
The King, the most valuable piece on the board, is the most vunerable piece on the board due to its limited movement and attacking resources. The King should be defended as much as possible due to its ability to decide the outcome of a match through checkmate.