Fairy Chess Piece Values

look at the "adjacent squares" idea by hgmuller which explains it perfectly

I’m not convinced that we can say for sure what the new pieces are worth exactly

Sure we can. But it takes some effort. Just look at the results from a few thousand games of a reasonable level (doesn't have to be GM) that pit the new pieces as replacement for one or a combination of the orthodox pieces against the FIDE army, to see which of those combinations equalizes the chances.

heres an idea very similar yet different to that one

take a chess variant (any variant), get some reasonable level games, then produce the values for each piece using data analysis

so then the different board sizes can be accounted for?

Given that the Queen is conventionally worth 9 pawns and the Knight three, how much would the fairy piece, the Maharajah, which has the properties of both, be worth? More, I reckon than 12, the sum of its parts, though I guess it would depend on what variant you are playing. You could hazard a guess, I suppose, if it simply replaced the Queen in otherwise conventional chess. 15 ???

well if it replaced the queen in normal chess then it would feel the levelling effect bad

ie the other pieces could attack it and it would have to run away

so 13?

but if there were other pieces near its strength then ig 14 

You're probably right. I hadn't really thought it through to be honest but what you're saying makes sense. I would guess, however, that it would become much more dangerous as the board cleared and you headed towards the late middle game.

Thanks for the information.. MyGeorgiaSouthern

Amazon's large value is also a liability ultimately.

When I replaced a Q + N by an Amazon for one of the players, the resulting score remained very close to 50%.

interesting results

i guess thats because its extremely hard for the amazon to escape the other sides pieces?

which player did you replace and what is the normal score (for comparision)

I always make such test with both colors, to average out the first-move advantage. Normally (without substitutions) white scores 53-54%.

The leveling effect might indeed play a role here. The Amazon cannot move to squares attacked by the Queen, while the Queen can move to squares attacked by the Amazon provided that it is protected. Next to the Amazon, the Rooks that accompany it also suffer from the extra Knight.

so normally white scores 53 and black 47

here the amazon scores 50, so whatever it scores extra as white it unscores as black

so amazon = queen + knight in the normal setup, exactly

The chancellor here was sacrificed for mate. What was it worth?

tactics, especially those involving checkmate, make material counting useless in the short term

And 'sacrificing' seems strange wording in this context. "I sacrificed my Knight for a Rook" is a strange way of saying "I gained the exchange". Likewise, sacrificing a Chancellor for a checkmate is trading it for a King. And the King is worth the game, i.e. more than all pieces together.

Piece values are a heuristic for determining who has the better chances in quiet positions. When tactics is in progress, you would fist have to run it to completion before you can judge the material balance.

Ed Trice told me he has the term minor > medium and major exchange in Trice's Chess (formerly named Gothic Chess)

Archbishop for Queen, Chancellor for Archbishop and Chancellor for Queen.

Arch for Q is maybe major exchange, or the biggest of the three. #1

Ch for Q is the medium #2

Arch for Ch is #3

Of course you can invent any term you want for specific material imbalances. And definitely a Queen is the strongest of the three, and the Archbishop the weakest. But in reality this 'major exchange' is worth less than a Pawn. Since the term 'exchange' is well established in normal Chess as a minor vs a Rook (so 1.5-2 Pawns), calling such small differences an exchange of any kind is more confusing than useful.

Would you say that in case of swapping the queen for the archbishop against black chancellor is not enough edge in a match if both sides are locked.

I mean by material black is ahead but is the extra move as white enough to somehow equalize it partly.

8x8 board. wQ swapped for Archbishop. bQ swapped for Chancellor.

Hawk = A. Elephant = C.