At the start of a chess game each player has 8 pieces and 8 pawns. The 8 pawns are all identical but what about the pieces? We have 2 Rooks, 2 Knights, 2 Bishops, a King and a Queen. Which of these is the most important?
Chess pieces and pawns have relative strengths. That means that some are more powerful than others and this strength relates entirely to how the pieces move around the board. The more squares a piece can reach in a single move, the more powerful it is. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the most powerful piece is the most important.
The most powerful piece in chess is the Queen
The Queen can move as many squares as there are in any direction, providing nothing is blocking her path.
Here’s a picture showing a Queen in the centre of the chessboard. The arrows show all of the squares she can reach in just one move:
In fact, with no other pieces or pawns on the board, the Queen can reach any square on the board in a maximum of just 2 moves. That’s impressive!
The range and power of the Queen is vastly superior to the lowly pawn. Each pawn can only move one square at a time (with the exception of its first move when it has the chance to move a mighty 2 squares). It can only travel in a straight line up or down the board. It can only deviate from its straight path if it has the chance to capture and enemy piece or pawn when it can move 1 square diagonally.
So now we understand that the Queen can move the furthest and quickest around the chessboard, does that make it the most important chess piece? Strangely, most powerful doesn’t actually mean most important.
The most important chess piece is the King
The King cannot move around the chessboard as quickly and effectively as the Queen (in fact it can only move 1 square at a time in any direction) but, whereas you can lose all of your pawns, your Rooks, Knights, Bishops and Queen and still carry on with the chess game, you cannot ever lose your King.
In fact if your opponent can trap your King (so that it cannot move without being captured), that actually ends the game and that’s called “checkmate”.
As the King is the most important piece, if your opponent attacks it, you have to block the attack or move your King out of the way, but remember it can only move 1 square at a time!
In the early stages of a chess game, we normally protect our King as it is so important
When all the pieces are on the board, the chances of our King being checkmated is quite high, especially if our King is out in the open. There is therefore a special move called “castling” that tucks the King away on the corner of the board behind a protective fortress of pawns.
Most chess openings involve making sure the King has a nice safe hiding place for the early part of the game, and it’s only as the game progresses and each side loses pieces and pawns that the King will decide to venture out and into enemy territory.
Your opponent will likely attack your King’s castled position and your job is to defend your King and launch your own attack against your opponent’s King.
What is the value of all of the chess pieces?
As a general rule of thumb, chess pieces are given a points value, with the higher the number of points the more valuable the piece. This points system means that you can decide whether it’s worth exchanging one of your pieces for one of your opponents. Generally speaking, you would exchange pieces of the same value or, if can, you would want to swap one of your pieces for one of your opponents with a higher value.
Here’s a great YouTube video explaining the values of chess pieces in a bit more detail:
And here is a great guide from Wikipedia too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece_relative_value
Final Thoughts
Many people think that as the Queen is the most powerful chess piece on the chessboard, she must also be the most important. This is not the case. In chess, it is the King that is the most important piece. If you capture the enemy King, you win the game. Likewise if your opponent captures your King, you lose the game. So, make sure you protect your King at all times!