a remarkable move

As engines understand chess better than humans, learning from chess engine is important to improve and also extend our understanding of chess. 

Here's the position I recommend you to analyze for at least 5 minutes and come up with candidate moves and variations as far as you can calculate. of course you could take 20 minutes or more if you can.

Assess the position and narrow down the candidate moves and decide on your top choice

White to play

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Solution

The position has equal material. White has bishop and knight and Black has 2 knights. White has advanced the a and b pawns and puts pressure on b7. But White has an isolated pawn on d3.

Black has doubled the rook and queen to control the c file.

Candidate moves

First you should consider 1Nd6 which attacks the rook on c5. Unfortunately 1..Nxd6 works for Black as the knight on e6 controls c5

So thats not it.

you could also think of 1.h4 on which Black could reply with 1..Qd7 attacking d3.

While Black attacks d3, White could play Bh3 pinning the knight on e6. White is better but the fight goes on.

White has an amazing resource here. the key move is 1d4!!

leading to the following diagram !

congrats if you considered this move as a candidate move

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this moves takes advantage of the black rook having no square to go to. it is difficult to find in my opinion because Black can capture the pawn on d4 in three different ways. So White is giving up a pawn for sure !

but White has many threats after the d pawn disappears

Here are the variations backing up the move 1d4!

and here's the position after 1..exd4 the best move for black followed by 2 Re1!

in this position 

1..Kf7 loses to 2Qb5!! followed by Nd6+

1..Ng5 loses to 2h4!

1..Rxc4 ( the game move) loses to 2Qe7! with numerous threats 

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White was played by Stockfish 15. Black is Komodo 12, a weaker engine but still super strong compared to humans.

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I hope you enjoyed the position and analysis.

congrats if you found the key ideas for White !