The ultimate algorithm of mobility
Blue Devil Knight addresses a very interesting question in his post . How do you correctly quantify piece mobility? Usually the value of a piece is expressed in units of 1 pawn. Q = 9 R = 5 B = 3 N = 3 p = 1 These are STATIC values. It can happen during a whole game that your rook stands on a1 without moving. Sometimes it even doesn't make a difference if your rook was placed next to the board in stead of on the board. In such cases the DYNAMIC value of the rook is 0 (zero). In other situations the rook can be so active that it is worth a queen. So the static value of a rook is representing the AVERAGE dynamic value of the rook. Because we have no good algorithm to express the dynamic value of a rook, the use of the static value has become very popular. Have a look at the diagram below. White to move. The space of the black bishop is severely limited by its own pawn. The space of the black king is limited by the rim of the board. White can make use of this by playing Rc1, threa