It's a horrible idea to use try/except for completely preventable exceptions.

Use spoiler flag if your comment contains info about solution.

I know on this site we tend toward very minimal variable names

Do we tho? Why would we?

I know on this site we tend toward very minimal variable names, but ^this kind of descriptive naming is actually best practice

I like your take on this solution

the order of the solution does not change the factors. Great.

# trolo

I don't think thats the point of codewars lmao

exactly what i did

Very handful, indeed

It's the default value when the key is not found in the dict.

nice! can someone explain the use of the decrement operator here?

Nice! I had the same solution, does anyone have a better solution than this?

Oh my bad, I haven't noticed the "each piece has a unique uppercase letter ID". That makes this problem much easier 🤦‍♂️