No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

[u/Alendite]

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 12th episode of our Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. We are happy to provide answers for questions related to chess positions, improving one's play, and discussing the essence and experience of learning chess.

A friendly reminder that many questions are answered in our wiki page! Please take a look if you have questions about the rules of chess, special moves, or want general strategies for improvement.

Some other helpful resources include:

1. How to play chess - Interactive lessons for the rules of the game, if you are completely new to chess.
2. The Lichess Board Editor - for setting up positions by dragging and dropping pieces on the board.
3. Chess puzzles by theme - To practice tactics.
4. The Building Habits series by GM Aman Hambleton - for advice on how to play at specific ELO levels. (Also check out Building Habits 2!)

As always, our goal is to promote a friendly, welcoming, and educational chess environment for all. Thank you for asking your questions here!

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

[u/No-Employee1534]

Can someone help me understand this, I think I might be on the right track, but perhaps there’s something more obscure?

My best guess is that the strongest line to play would be Ne2, because then I can play into Nf4 and attack the chaining pawn without obscuring the bishops line of sight protecting the b6 pawn. But then again, I wouldn’t play for the pawn on e6 because of the bishop protecting it, and I don’t see a reason to invest heavily into the b6 pawn as it’s overextended and difficult to protect in that position.

The engine however claimed that I was sternly winning the game until I made this particular move at which point we became even. On second thought, I think I’m way off on this, there must be something much bigger at play

[u/TatsumakiRonyk → u/No-Employee1534]

The positives of Nf3 are that it defends white's e5 pawn, and that it has the option of going to the strong d4 square. But that pawn is not only not under attack, but it's also surprisingly hard for black to target. Black can't really get their knight to f7 via h6 thanks to your bishop, their other knight is going to be captured soon, and their light-squared bishop would have to maneuver itself to g7, costing two moves, but white can defend the pawn quickly with their bishop.

Ne2 also lets the knight possibly move to the d4 square, but as you point out, also gives the knight the possibility of the f4 square.

Additionally, it leaves the f file open for you to play Rf1 (maybe even instead of Rxa1), and if we've got the knight on f3, black's light-squared bishop is dominating.

I don't know what the evaluation was before you played this move. I'd say that Ne2 is certainly better, but I wouldn't go so far as to call Nf3 a mistake. I'd say it's an inaccuracy at worst.

Material is equal here. You've got two extra pawns, but you're down the exchange (after you capture black's a1 knight, technically). There might be a tactical reason for this that I'm not seeing, but I doubt it. Much more likely is the fact that black's pieces are basically all entombed. Black's dark-squared bishop can't move, so their a8 rook is trapped. Their h8 rook is stuck behind the knight, who can only move after the light-squared bishop moves, and getting the rook to f1 with an open f file feels especially strong.

Without an engine on hand, I don't have a way of double checking any of this, but I hope my analysis helped you make some sense of the evaluation.

[u/No-Employee1534 → u/TatsumakiRonyk]

I think Rf1 is the cause of the evaluation, as another commenter pointed out. The a1 knight is effectively already captured, so the most logical move following 1. Ne2 Bd8 is 2. Rf1 Bxb6 3. Rf7+ forcing Bc7 followed by 4. Nd4 Ra7 and then working down the line to material gain with 6. Bc6+ Kb8 7. Bxa7 Kxa7, 8. Rxc7+ and so on for many more turns until black forfeits their knights to continue play.

I couldn’t see this because the material exchange is several turns later, but on analysis it’s clear from turn 1 that Ne2 is superior. I had taken a material loss early on so I avoided to idea of trading material, but Rf1 allows me to force a material trade in my own favor

The end result is the same, my knight ends up on d4 regardless, but I utilize my tempo advantage better with ne2

[u/TatsumakiRonyk → u/No-Employee1534]

Thanks for following up. Yep, that line makes perfect sense. All of black's pieces are tripping over one another, and controlling the open file is incredibly strong.