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Here is an analysis of a game I played recently in Chess.com app. I won this match in move 19 as the opponent resigned.

Please see the image attached for the position. On move 16, after the White captured the pawn on d4 by his Knight, I moved my bishop back to f8 from e7. This move opened the rook on e file and caused a double attack on the e4 pawn.

But the chess.com analysis marked this as a blunder, can anyone explain why?

Thanks in advance for any explanation ( my chess.com rating is around 1200 so I'm a new player ). This is the position at move 16

Thanks for the people who explained about the pawn capture move, but my doubt is : usually this kind of ignorances are called "Mistake", "Inaccuracy" or "Missed win" in chess.com right? Why the term "Blunder"?

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  • 2
    Looks like black wins a pawn as 16 ... Nxe4 17 Qxe4 can be met by 17 ... Nxd4 18 Qxd4 Bxh1
    – Ian Bush
    Feb 9, 2021 at 21:44
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    Click on the magnifier icon next to the move, and let the engine explain.
    – RemcoGerlich
    Feb 10, 2021 at 8:11
  • 3
    Computers are bad at distinguishing types of mistakes. It's a blunder because you go from a winning position to an equal-ish one
    – David
    Feb 10, 2021 at 11:43

1 Answer 1

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Bf8, while a nice positional move, an excellent idea for a 1200 rated player, is a mistake as Nxe4 wins an important central pawn for no compensation. The Queen can't recapture due to the coming skewer down the long diagonal. See the lines below.

Remember tactics always trump strategy!

[White ""]
[Black ""]
[FEN "1k1rr3/1bpqbp2/ppnp1n1p/6p1/3NP1P1/P3Q1BP/1PP1NP2/2KR1B1R b - - 0 1"]

1...Nxe4 2.Nxc6+ 
    ( 2.Qxe4 Nxd4 3.Qxd4 Bxh1 )
2...Qxc6 *
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  • Thanks, but usually this kind of ignorances are called "Mistake", "Inaccuracy" or "Missed win" in chess.com right? Why the term "Blunder"?
    – brownser
    Feb 10, 2021 at 9:17
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    The computer is not very good at distinguishing such "human" terms, it can solely look at the numbers it calculates, and here the difference between nxe4 and bf8 is big enough to trigger it to use "blunder". But I agree, for a new player blunder is s bit strong. But the computer doesn't and can't "think" like that
    – Ian Bush
    Feb 10, 2021 at 10:00

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