Chess | The Pawn Problem


When a pawn promotes (usually to a queen, but could be any piece, i.e. not a pawn), the arithmetic on points seems to go awry. If you were +5 when your opponent promotes the pawn, you should then be +6, since your opponent lost a pawn. Yes, they also gained (let's say) a queen. So they're up 9. So the correct arithmetic would be +3 for your opponent. But, I believe most chess engines calculate it as +4 because they don't deduct a point for the pawn your opponent lost. Not fair!

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