Evaluation of Pieces

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This page serves as a quick reference for those who look for ideas about evaluating different kinds of pieces.

=Pawn=
 * Pawn Structure
 * Pawn Center
 * Blockade of Stop
 * penalty for "d" and "e" pawns blocked on their initial squares

=Knight=
 * Decreasing value as pawns disappear
 * Outposts
 * Knight trapped on A8/H8/A7/H7 or A1/H1/A2/H2 - see Trapped Pieces
 * Penalty for blocking a C-pawn in closed openings (Crafty defines it as follows: white knight on c3, white pawns on c2 and d4, no white pawn on e4)
 * When calculating knight mobility, it is advisable to omit squares controlled by enemy pawns
 * Marginal bonus for a knight defended by a pawn
 * Penalty for an undefended minor piece (Stockfish)

=Bishop=
 * Bad Bishop
 * Bishop Pair
 * Bishop versus Knight
 * Color Weakness
 * Fianchetto
 * Returning Bishop
 * Bishop trapped by enemy pawns on A2/H2/A7/H7 or on A3/H3/A6/H6, see Trapped Pieces
 * Penalty for an undefended minor piece (Stockfish)

=Rook=
 * Increasing value as pawns disappear
 * Rook on open file
 * Rook on seventh (possibly also eigth) rank
 * Tarrasch Rule
 * Penalty for a Rook blocked by an uncastled King
 * Small bonus for a rook with enemy queen on the same file (doesn't matter if it's open or not)
 * Rooks defending each other (Rebel uses a piece/square table for that, making suppoeted rook on 7th rank even more valuable)

=Queen=
 * Penalty for early development
 * Some programs do not evaluate queen mobility
 * Some versions of Fruit replace queen mobility by king tropism
 * If king safety evaluation relies on king tropism, queen tends to get somewhat higher bonus

=King=
 * King safety in the middlegame
 * King centralization in the endgame
 * Mate at a Glance
 * Penalty for standing on a wing with no pawns present in the endgame
 * Pins/X-ray
 * Castling Rights

=See also=
 * Influence Quantity of Pieces
 * Material
 * Mobility
 * Piece-Square Tables
 * Square Control

=Forum Posts=
 * Knight Evaluation by Jonathan Rosenthal, CCC, February 24, 2015
 * eval pieces by Daniel Anulliero, CCC, June 15, 2015

=References=

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