Centipawn

A centipawn equals one-hundredth of a pawn's value and serves as the standard unit in engine evaluations to express fractional material or positional advantages.

Category
Online Chess
Also in
Computer Chess
Difficulty
Intermediate
Also known as
cp, centipawns

Centipawn is the standard unit engines use to express small advantages in material or position. One centipawn equals one-hundredth of a pawn’s value, so an evaluation of +50 means White stands half a pawn ahead.

Engines output scores in centipawns because most real advantages are smaller than a full pawn. A lead of 30–40 centipawns is noticeable but often holdable; 80–100 centipawns usually decides the game between equal opponents.

The sign shows which side benefits: positive numbers favor White, negative numbers favor Black. Zero indicates an equal position according to the engine. When the score climbs past +200 or drops below –200, the side ahead is generally winning.

Frequently asked questions

What is a centipawn?
A centipawn equals one-hundredth of a pawn's value and is the fixed unit engines use to express small material or positional advantages.
Why do engines output scores in centipawns rather than whole pawns?
Most practical advantages fall well below a full pawn, so centipawns allow engines to report precise fractional edges that players can compare across different programs.
How do I read a centipawn evaluation such as +65 or –120?
Positive numbers favor White and negative numbers favor Black; zero is equal, while values above 80–100 centipawns are often decisive between equal opponents.
Why do some interfaces show the same score as a decimal like +0.65?
The internal engine value remains in centipawns for consistency, but the interface converts it to a decimal for easier reading by humans.

See also

  • AlphaZero — AlphaZero is DeepMind's neural-network chess engine that learned superhuman play through self-play reinforcement learning and defeated Stockfish in 2017.
  • Bean Counter — A bean counter is a player who overvalues raw material counts and point values at the expense of positional, dynamic, and initiative factors.

Referenced by

  • Engine Eval — Engine eval is a chess engine's numerical assessment of a position, usually shown in pawn units where +1.00 means white stands a pawn ahead.

Sources

  1. Understanding Average Centipawn Loss In Chess

Written by Chesswick.

Reviewed by James Duprey.

Published
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James Duprey

James came to chess late, and he'll tell you that's part of the appeal. He picked up the game in his thirties, mostly out of boredom, and found something he wasn't expecting: a puzzle that never quite runs out of new…

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