It depends on the position and the strength of the engine. Engines forced to play at low ratings will make obvious blunders like not capturing a free bishop.
As for the other question, it is not always immediately obvious why a strong engine at full strength calls a move bad. It helps to play a few moves against the engine to see what happens next.
Hello! Beginner here. 2 things puzzle me:
1. playing against computer. I took opponent's knight with my bishop--Knowing--that it would then immediately take my Bishop with one of its pawns. A Knight for a Bishop trade, but that Knight was chasing me and a pest and I wanted it gone. But amazingly, on its next move, it did NOT take my Bishop, which was free-for-the-taking and undefended. Instead it moved out another pawn to support its pawn that could have easily taken my bishop. Further, this did not set up my opponent to make any bigger kill, either. Why pass up such an easy opportunity?
2. again, playing a computer, I have an opportunity to capture my opponents Bishop, right now, without sacrificing my piece I'm doing this with---but---the computer tells me this is a bad move, simply because I am leaving one lone pawn unprotected. Who cares? One lowly pawn for an immediate bishop now? I'd say that's is well worth it! So, in both cases, the advice does not make sense to me. Any ideas? And could it be, that by now in 2021, that so many games with Chess Masters have been mapped out and fed into computers, that if a player makes anything other than than say, the 2 most common responses to a move, that the computer calls it a bad move (or doesn't know what to do with what it feels is illogical, when it simply doesn't see the strategy?" I don't know, but please address the original 2 situations. Thank you!
BarnOwl4