a knight and bishop for a rook?

Originally posted by tomtom232
I really think that you were winning before he did that...but it was still instructive 🙂

This is true, but he helped the process along. 😉

Originally posted by 29inchlegs
Is it worth exchanging a knight and a bishop for a rook in the opening couple of moves in a game? Im still trying various openings and am not entirely sure of the wisdom of this. Any ideas?

It's not good in the begining of the game to make this exchange because you've probably violated an opening principle: Never move your piece more than once in the opening. While you waste time setting up this primitive attack, the other player is getting his King into safety. After the exchange, you've taken out your two developed pieces for his Rook and a pawn.

These sorts of exchanges normally happen when you have the bishop on c4/c5 and the knight on g4/g5 so actually you generally get a pawn too f2/f7. Obviously, your opponent has generally just developed his/her pieces and castled. In terms of point score a rook and pawn is equivalent to a knight and a bishop but think about what you have just done....

... Have you not given away two developed pieces in the opening? How many tempi have you lost to carry out this plan? So I would argue it's a mistake in the opening, definitely.

I would agree with however argued that this type of exchange can be useful in the ending. The bishop and knight co-ordinate badly in endings whilst the rook is a powerful beast when there are few pawns on the board (obviously it's different in a closed ending). Quite often I would swap knight and bishop for rook AND PAWN in an ending. That being argued each position has to be judged on its own merit.