Chess piece values: what is each piece worth?
Pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9. The king has no value because you can never trade it.
Count what you keep, not just what you take. Taking a rook (5) with your queen (9) is a loss of 4 if the rook was guarded and the queen gets taken back.
The numbers are a guide: a well placed knight can beat a stuck bishop, and in the endgame a pawn about to promote is worth far more than 1.
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Win material: take the piece worth the most that you can keep.
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