What's better , Capturing knight or bishop ?
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A knight sitting on a "hole" on d4 is a very powerful piece. Its a hole because the knight cant be attacked by a pawn, and with no dark square biship, the knight can sit there indefinitely unless the e5 pawn is removed. D4 is a nice central spot for the knight where it has a lot of power. By contrast, white's light square bishop is a kind of pathetic piece, on the same color as its central pawns.
But there are some tactics, as taking the bishop wins a pawn if white simply replies nxb. Bxb followed by nxn has to be analyzed. More work then I feel like doing at the moment.
What's being called a "hole" is better called an outpost. In this case I'd take the outpost everytime. After ...Nxd4, Bxg4 white will be forcing black to make a helpful move i.e. moving king away from more dangerous semi-open file.
Looks to me like a win-win situation.
Interestingly, stockfish points out that qxn deserves to be in the conversation for best move. D4 is a natural knight outpost, but the queen capture immediately threatens to win a pawn after bxn, kb8. If be2 to protect the pawn, f5 threatens tactical shenanigans based on the pin on the efile. If rd1 instead of be2, nb4 with stockfish grabbing the apawn if rd1.
But in terms of human moves, take with the knight for a big advantage.
I think the obvious choice is taking the knight. But now comes another important decision...do you take with the knight or queen?
HueyWilliams wrote:
ChastityMoon wrote:
What's being called a "hole" is better called an outpost.
Not really. An outpost is generally on an open file.
Yes, really.
An outpost is a square on the fifth, sixth, or seventh rank which is protected by a pawn and which cannot be attacked by an opponent's pawn. Such a square is a hole for the opponent (Hooper & Whyld 1992).
See anything about an open file in that definition? I didn't think so.
HueyWilliams wrote:
It's a "hole" for both players.
Sober up, it's a hole for the defender, an outpost for the attacker.
