Centipawn
A centipawn is one hundredth of a pawn, the small unit engines use to report evaluations, so a score of 150 centipawns means the engine thinks one side is about one and a half pawns better.
Also called: centipawns
The centipawn is the unit behind engine scores. One hundred centipawns equal the value of a pawn, so a lead of 50 centipawns is half a pawn and a lead of 300 is about the value of a minor piece. Showing evaluations in this fine unit lets engines express small positional differences that a whole number of pawns would hide.
Centipawns are used to measure how much a move changed the evaluation. If the best move kept the score at plus 40 and you played a move that dropped it to minus 60, you lost 100 centipawns with that decision. Averaging such losses across a game gives a simple measure of how closely you followed the engine.
Keep the scale in perspective. The numbers are not a promise of results, and the same score can mean different things depending on whether the position is tactical or quiet. A loss of ten or twenty centipawns is usually noise for a human. Losses of two hundred or more tend to mark real mistakes worth reviewing, and those are the moments to examine with care in your own games.
It sits close to Average centipawn loss. Average centipawn loss, or ACPL, is the mean amount of evaluation a player gave up per move compared with the engine's best choice, measured in hundredths of a pawn, so lower figures mean cleaner play.
A neighboring idea is Evaluation bar. The evaluation bar is a vertical or horizontal gauge beside the board that shows, with a bar of black and white, which side the engine thinks is better and by roughly how much.
A neighboring idea is Inaccuracy. An inaccuracy is the mildest error label in game review, given to a move that is playable but gives up a small amount of advantage compared with the engine's better alternative.
An engine can tell you what "Centipawn" means for a position, but not which mistakes you keep making; a first lesson with George Li reviews your games and finds those.
Related terms
An evaluation is a numerical judgment of who stands better in a position, usually given in pawns from White’s point of view, where positive favors White and negative favors Black.
Average centipawn loss, or ACPL, is the mean amount of evaluation a player gave up per move compared with the engine's best choice, measured in hundredths of a pawn, so lower figures mean cleaner play.
The evaluation bar is a vertical or horizontal gauge beside the board that shows, with a bar of black and white, which side the engine thinks is better and by roughly how much.
Accuracy is a percentage produced by analysis software that summarizes how closely a player's moves matched the engine's preferred choices over a game, with higher numbers meaning fewer costly errors.
A blunder is a very serious error, such as leaving a piece undefended or missing a decisive tactic, that swings the evaluation so far that a good position turns bad or a bad one becomes lost.
An inaccuracy is the mildest error label in game review, given to a move that is playable but gives up a small amount of advantage compared with the engine's better alternative.
Guides that go further
What to decide first, the questions to ask, what a first lesson should show and the red flags to avoid.
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A game review, a read on your level and a written study plan from George Li.
Want to spot this in your own games?
A first lesson starts with your games: George reviews them and builds a study plan around what he finds.