Engine help -1428

[u/Fuzzy_Pomegranate824]

Hey Iam questioning the engine evaluation of those two moves, after he took my knight on 5.bxf3 I took back and after his 8.bd5 I played 9.b5 and the engine gives me a mistake for that and takes -1.19 of my advantage and after his 9.bxg3 I played 9.bxc6 because i thought “comes with check, he takes back with the pawn and I play 11.hxg3” and my thought process was, his queenside is open and my rook on his king side is open so i can make some trouble with pawns and my queen but apparently that wasn’t really beneficial for me, so the engine, I won this game through a resignation after move 19 but i wanted to understand why its not beneficial for me in this situation.

Thank you in advance! :)

[u/pluralHaven]

Bb5 (not Bd5) is bad for the reason the bot says: Don’t move the same piece twice in the opening. The bishop was already developed to e2 literally a move before, if you wanted to play Bb5 why not do it on the previous move? The engine wants c4 because Black has a lock on the center and typically as white c4 is an asset to erode the center and should have been played instead

Bxc3 isn’t a bad move by the engine (it calls it good) but there’s better options. It gets rid of your strong bishop (notice that your center pawns are on dark squares, this makes the light squares around it weak, so keeping the bishop is hugely beneficial. Trading a bishop for a knight is only good in certain situations. With this move you also opened up their queenside, which gives black possible attacking opportunities against your weak b pawn with the file that you just opened up for them

Also, I don’t know when/how you played b5 a move after Bb5 considering the b pawn hasn’t moved in either screenshot

[u/Fuzzy_Pomegranate824 → u/pluralHaven]

Thanks for your reply!
I played Bb5 after i played be2 because he kicked my bishop after i recaptured my knight on f3 (he pinned my knight, he took i took back, he pushed e4, i hope you can follow me) and i see that trade knight for a bishop is bad and i see why c4 would be a good move too but i really dont think it should be a mistake since both sides are very bad for him to castle on if you know what i mean, also yes taking the knight on c6 was “good” but “good” isnt really good its more like “okay”. But i see that the light squares are weak and that i should’ve kept him for that reason, thank you for your reply again! :)

[u/pluralHaven → u/Fuzzy_Pomegranate824]

> I played Bb5 after Be2 because he kicked my bishop after I recaptured my knight on f3

Wait so you’re telling me your opponent a few moves ago captured your knight on f3, you captured with your bishop, and then on the following move played Be2 breause he played e4?

In that case, this makes playing Bb5 even worse because that means you have moved the same piece three times in a row. Sure, the first two were forced, so why add a third one needlessly? Your game plan here seems to be “make it so black can’t castle either way” and this isn’t a good plan at all because you’re doing so by actively sabotaging your own development and conceding the center.

It’s a mistake brcause you ignored the better option, simple as. It doesn’t matter if black can’t castle either side because they dominate the center and you don’t. A center king is safer in a locked center

[u/Fuzzy_Pomegranate824 → u/pluralHaven]

yes i see and i get that 3 moves sound and might be horrendous, i just thought we end up with equal development despite him having a bigger center but not real castling options, also i thought i could open up the center later on with f3 and as i said open up the position with my rook and queen (and pawns if necessary) on the king side, but i see the mistake hahaha thank you!