In which order to attack?

Hi!

I realise this is quite a basic question but I've seen that Chesskid is part of chess.com so thought this was a good place to post!

https://www.chesskid.com/article/view/count-attackers-and-defenders

If we go along with the logic of taking the pawn in the above example, why would one attack with the c4 knight first, rather than with the bishop? I just can't see why? The engine gives an advantage of -4 to black if you take with the bishop first and after a sequence of moves you can see why but given this website is aimed at kids and beginners, there must be something more obvious I'm missing?

So in essence, the question is, why to attack with the knight first? Thanks in advance!

While bishops and knights are both worth 3 points, that also depends on the position.

Lets look at each capture.

1.Be5? Ne5 2.Ne5 Bb4+ White has lost his dark square bishop, while black still has his.  This makes white weak on the dark squares.  White then has to either move his king, and lose the ability to castle, or move the knight back to block.  Moving the knight back makes it less active, as it is not centralized anymore.

As far as capturing with either knight?  I dont honestly think it matters.

Mr Bacon, that's an awesome answer, thank you very much

Glad to help.  BUt after thinking about it some more, I would imagine that they prefer the capture with the knight on c4 because it prevents the knight from being attacked if black ever plays d5.

Hi again!

Thanks for confirming that, I thought that looked advantageous too!

Wait, the engine gives -4.0 if white takes with the bishop? Surely it's only around -1.5.

I know right! But it makes sense I guess, I set it up here if you'd like to see:

https://lichess.org/analysis/r2q1rk1/pbpp1ppp/1pnb1n2/4p3/2N1P3/1P1P1N2/PBP2PPP/R2QKB1R_w_-_-#0