Why is 16. Rxd4 a brilliant move for white? I understand that the black rook will take, then the white bishop will take back -- which is great! However, I don't understand why it is a brilliant. How is it giving white an big advantage?
Why is this a brilliant move?
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Nov 8, 2025
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#2
You are correct that 16. Rxd4 wasn't really necessary. I wouldn't necessarily consider it Brilliant (!!). Maybe a Great move (!). You may have noticed but the end of your diagram can have 17. Bxd4 and it's immune to capture because 17...Qxd4 18. Rd1 and white wins back the black queen or black allows Qd7+ and backrank checkmate motifs.
The reason chess.com considers this 16. Rxd4 to be a Brilliant move is because the current criterion for a Brilliant move is "any good sacrifice" which basically translates to mean "any sound sacrifice" and this definition isn't perfect, but it does explain a lot of the algorithm logic for the Brilliant moves. I will say though, this "Brilliant" move is more Brilliant than other moves I've seen also get that icon.
The game report changes some icons and accuracy based on the rating of the player who played it. In other words, at the 200 rating level, this move is easily a Brilliant move, but at the 2000 level in this same position, it may not give the Brilliant icon.
This YouTube video of mine shares a bit more of this game report changing although in this video, I focus more on the "accuracy" (CAPS) statistic: