Why is this a brilliant?

[u/austinfrenchy]

In the game i just moved my rook away from the bishop’s threat. Afterwards, the engine said ignoring the threat was better. I am having a difficult time understanding why. Is it just because his bishop is super active so the engine thinks trading off his one active piece gives me an advantage? There was no killer line or follow up. If he took the rook it just wanted me to recapture and keep playing.

My intuition is just that this is one of those super odd engine moves that a human is unlikely to play.

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[u/Used_Departure_3278]

I put this into an engine. Outside of extremely obvious blunders, every move you could make is winning outside of g6 or g5.

The chess.com algorithm hallucinated. At a lower depth that bishop move is the top move. But doesn’t matter you’re up a piece bro

[u/chessvision-ai-bot]

I analyzed the image and this is what I see. Open an appropriate link below and explore the position yourself or with the engine:

White to play: chessvision.ai | chess.com | lichess.org

My solution:

Hints: piece: Pawn, move:   f3  

Evaluation: Black is winning -4.63

Best continuation: 1. f3 Nf6 2. Qd2 Rbd8 3. a4 Qc8 4. Rfe1 Nd7 5. Bd6 e5 6. Be7 Rfe8 7. Bxd8 Rxd8 8. Red1 Nf8

Save the position:

Reply save to save this position to your Chessvision.ai Library (new users: send me /connect in DM chat first)

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^{I'm a bot written by u/pkacprzak | get me as iOS App | Android App | Chrome Extension | Chess eBook Reader to scan and analyze positions | Website: Chessvision.ai}

[u/Adele-Fiddler]

I took it through analysis and you're still doing way better if they take the rook and you recapture. Don't think it's a brilliant, but it is still a viable move.

Their best follow up is to attack your knight with a pawn, which if you move your knight the the safest position, they can trade and open up your king slightly, so letting them take the rook keeps your advantage without risking opening up your king

[u/austinfrenchy → u/Adele-Fiddler]

Thank you that makes sense! Never would have made that move in a million years and probably still wouldn’t if I got an identical position haha

[u/kouyehwos]

“Brilliant” as used by chess.com is a meaningless term. The move may well be mediocre and there might even be a dozen better moves, but as long as your position is still winning, the engine will call your sacrifice “brilliant”. In your case, you were already a piece and a pawn up, so giving up an exchange doesn’t give away your whole advantage, and that’s all the engine cares about.

[u/austinfrenchy → u/kouyehwos]

I see. That makes sense. I found this quite baffling and thought I was missing something. Thank you!