Well, not entirely useless. If we take Pawns as a base unit of 1, Kings have a value of about 4 , but only in the late game. Of course, Queens still have a value of 9. (For anyone curious, Bishops and Knights are a 3, and Rooks are a 5.)
rooks are dangerous af once you get them out the gate... they can force enemy pieces into weird setups for knights or bishops rather than directly attack. and they can take pressure off the queen til the endgame. I have a horrible habit of sacrificing my queen early on so i'm always playing from behind. I still usually win, but it's just way harder than it should be.
Yeah, I almost never do that. Usually, if I lose my Queen, I consider the game lost. But I do recall that I've won on few occassions despite having my Queen taken. It was pretty rare, though.
Rooks are indeed super valuable. My favorite way to checkmate is either with two Rooks, or a Rook and a Queen.
Useful…. We could argue semantics. The king is certainly valuable- and if your goal is to win the game you could say the king is useful- essential- to do so.
I mean- if you could trade one of your pieces and take one of your opponents pieces in return at the start of the game, I’d agree to trade them my queen for their king. The loss of the queen would not hurt my odds of winning as much as the loss of the king would hurt theirs- theirs now being 0% as they would lose before the game began.
No doubt the queen is valuable, but if you send her out alone without support against a player of equal or greater skill she probably won’t do so well.
Every piece has strengths and limitations that need to be used together with game craft and strategy to win.
Oh that's true. Conceptually, the King is the most valuable piece. But I believe they mean in terms of actual gameplay. In that regard, they're more an objective to be defended rather than something you can use to advance your game plan. Well, unless the game lasts long enough, as I mentioned.
Agree 100%. Well- if the game lasts long enough or your opponent is just REALLY unskilled relative to you lol. But yeah, as far as game moves go, the king is more or less as you said in a previous comment- a pawn that can move on more directions but carries other restrictions to its movements (can’t move into check etc…) and is a liability to deploy.
The king really is more of a mobile objective and has little strategic use in the overall “war,” though the king can be used as a decoy or lure and can do SOME things if circumstances are right.
Either way, I don’t reject the humor of the meme but I would say I can’t consider a king useless literally. Overall I think I’m chess or in life the “king” style pieces that maybe aren’t the star but are doing their best and working for the team should get credit.
Of course tactically the king is more a liability even than an objective lol. He sort of shows up like: “let’s do it Team!” But everyone of the pieces on his side of the board would probably have an easier job if he stayed off the board- though that would be a very different game and of course there is a sort of analogy to a chess board which requires the king to make sense. I think it’s funny to picture the queen and king as she prepares to March with the army and the king just insisting against everyone else’s wishes that he totally NEEDS to be on the board too. That doesn’t make me want to defend him though, so that one is just for fun.
Rooks are indeed super valuable. My favorite way to checkmate is either with two Rooks, or a Rook and a Queen.
I mean- if you could trade one of your pieces and take one of your opponents pieces in return at the start of the game, I’d agree to trade them my queen for their king. The loss of the queen would not hurt my odds of winning as much as the loss of the king would hurt theirs- theirs now being 0% as they would lose before the game began.
No doubt the queen is valuable, but if you send her out alone without support against a player of equal or greater skill she probably won’t do so well.
Every piece has strengths and limitations that need to be used together with game craft and strategy to win.
The king really is more of a mobile objective and has little strategic use in the overall “war,” though the king can be used as a decoy or lure and can do SOME things if circumstances are right.
Either way, I don’t reject the humor of the meme but I would say I can’t consider a king useless literally. Overall I think I’m chess or in life the “king” style pieces that maybe aren’t the star but are doing their best and working for the team should get credit.