Looking at the error that I made sure makes me wonder how long it will take before I stop making such blunders. My Knight took the pawn and I lost my Knight as a result. I chose to do it so I could open up the middle a bit more. The computer says that the best move was for my bishop to take the Knight and ultimately trade my Bishop to do that. I am aware that the value of the pieces justifies that trade far more than my beautiful blunder....but I do not understand why Stockfish says that is the best possible move. I mean, why not c-pawn and open up the line for the queen to move out and ultimately castle queenside, or something? What makes this move the best?
Here is the board:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that the bishop/knight trade seems to allow a lot of checkmate threats, with moving in the Queen and moving the knight to a powerful position on f5 or a bishop on either c4 or b5.
Taking knight with bishop is not a sacrifice, both have the same value.
About the move, just go 3 moves further and clearly black king is stuck in the center and white has much better activity, development and initiative.
TL;DR Don't use higher value pieces to "trade" for lower value ones. That's a sacrifice and is (basically) always bad at your level.
The bishop taking a (roughly) equal value piece is called a trade. Trades are neither bad or good based on how many pieces you have on the board, and at your level, should be viewed as neutral. The only exception is if you can see where the pieces end up and if that's good for you (doubling up pawns, locking pieces away), but even at my level (1300) it's still kinda hard to evaluate like that.
The knight taking a pawn was a sacrifice. You are using a higher value piece to trade with a lower value piece/pawn. At your level, there is never a reason to do this, outside of checkmate. Even if you see a checkmate, there are likely other moves you haven't thought of that mean you just lose material.
"Opening up the middle" (or some such vague goal) is no reason to be giving up a solid piece.
Presumably though the device is suggesting lines (not merely moves). What does it say? After 7 Bxh6 Bxh6 I see 8 Nxe5 (with the idea of Qh5+), which looks pretty good (and is not in fact a sac there, but wins another pawn).
@JGSmith123 First of all, it's not a sacrifice though many systems give Bishop higher value than Knight as it depends mostly on positions.
Understand the complete suggested variation by Stockfish and analysing it on each of its move.
At the end, you are up by 3 pawns and have a position with developed pieces. You are positionally ahead.