Spotting a better trade, instead of jumping at a chance

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Wcndave
 
My opponent made a blunder, and I took the queen with the knight.
However the engine said my "best move" was to take his rook with queen, which would have immediately lost the queen, but of course I was going to lose it anyway...
 
The engine is right, but seeing this as better moves is tough... getting there slowly!
 
 

 

 

 

Wcndave

Mmm, how does one make a board start at the position you want?

manekapa
Wcndave wrote:

Mmm, how does one make a board start at the position you want?

When posting a game, right-click on a move. You should see an option to Set Focus.

Wcndave
Tzesar wrote:

so this leads us to one important rule in chess: if you find a good move try to look for a better one.

 

Yes, looking and recognising are two different things though grin.png

 

little_guinea_pig wrote:

The reason 15.Qxe8+ is slightly better is that after Kxe8 16.Nxe5 comes with tempo (Nxc7+ is threatened next).

Of course, you're still completely winning either way, so it doesn't matter in this case.

 

Well, I got a bit lucky that the knight covered the queen, so was winning a rook either way.

I have not really looked into "tempo" yet, however I'm guessing it means I am making the next threat in this case, on Nxf7 (rather than c7) .

 

I guess just interesting that not all trades with the same material outcome are the same, but I jumped in excitedly and was confused why it was a "mistake" until I looked again at the analysis.

Onwards and upwards - I hope!

Thanks y'all!