Grivas Chess Lab – The Art of Exchanges – Part 1 + PGN + PDF November 16, 2025

The arithmetic is deceptively simple: three points for a bishop, five for a rook, nine for a queen. Yet as GM Efstratios Grivas observes in his latest course, The Art of Exchanges – Part 1, the gap between knowing what pieces are worth and understanding when to trade them represents one of chess’s most persistent challenges. His central insight crystallizes the developmental leap all improving players must make: “We will realise that exchanging pieces purposefully can be a very powerful weapon!” This focus on irreversible decisions—the trades that permanently reshape the position—addresses what he identifies as “the hardest ones to make” and those with “the highest impact” on the game’s trajectory.