user29938: [fen "r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14"]

This game was played by me on chess.com recently. (I am white). The material balance is +1 (for white). Then why is Stockfish evaluating such huge advantage for white? (White to move)
My complete game (just in case):
[fen ""]
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. d4 Bb4+ 4. c3 Ba5 5. Bxf4 d6 6. Nf3 f6 7. Bc4 g5 8. Bg3 Nc6 9. Nbd2 d5 10. Bxd5 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 Nce7 13. Bb3 Qd7 14. O-O O-O-O 15. Nc4 b6 16. Nxa5 bxa5 17. e5 fxe5 18. Qa8# 1-0

The given position is after move 13.

user9192: The main approach seems to be:
[FEN "r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14"]

1. Nc4 Bb6 2. Ne5 fxe5 (2... Qd6 3. Nf7 Qc6 4. O-O f5 5. Nxh8 O-O-O 6. Nf7 Rf8 7. Nxg5 Nf6 8. Rae1 a5 9. exf5 Qxf3 10. Rxf3) 3. Bf7+ Kd8 4. Bxe5 Nh6 5. Bxh8 Nxf7 6. Qxf7 Qe8 7. Qxh7

At the end, White has the following major advantages:

Up a rook and 3 pawns for a knight. Roughly +5.
A candidate passed pawn (e4) in a connected pair.
Black king cannot castle and is stuck in the middle (high king-danger).

The second factor can often be used to force the opponent to sacrifice a minor piece, which would result in a material advantage of a rook plus 2 pawns even ignoring all other advantages. In fact, the pawn at g5 is kind of dead, and so after a few more moves Stockfish sees the outcome as more or less like:
[FEN "r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14"]

1. Nc4 Bb6 2. Ne5 fxe5 3. Bf7+ Kd8 4. Bxe5 Nh6 5. Bxh8 Nxf7 6. Qxf7 Qe8 7. Qxh7 Qg6 8. Qxg6 Nxg6 9. O-O Ke8 10. Bf6 c5 11. d5 c4+ 12. Kh1 Bd8 13. Bxd8 Rxd8 14. Rf5 Rd6 15. Rxg5

The other main option for Black also leads to ruin:
[FEN "r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14"]

1. Nc4 Qb5 2. d5 O-O-O 3. O-O-O Kb8 4. d6 cxd6 5. Rxd6 Ka8 6. Rxd8+ Bxd8 7. Nd6 g4 (7... Qc6 8. Nf7 Bb6 9. Nxh8) 8. hxg4 Qg5+ 9. Kc2 Nh6 10. Bf4 Qxg4 11. Bxh6


user29943: I'm a beginner so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Here is what I see. The difference in quality of the pieces does really stand out.
White

wide open bishops on the long diagonals
dominant center control with solid pawn structure
good prospects for the knight
can easily castle and create an attack by pushing the already advanced pawns

Black

bishop is stuck staring at pawns, no obvious way of improving its position
knights are stuck, pawns control most of the squares they could reposition to
h8 rook is stuck behind a knight that can barely move (Nh6 is a move, but really ugly, and from there the knight can only go back to g8)
light squares are weak (pawns on dark squares) and no light squared bishop to control them

I wrote the following two points looking by mistake at the position a ply earlier, with black to move when the queen was on d8:

queen only has 3 forward squares to move to, 2 of them controlled by white's excellent bishops
to be able to castle either the knight or the queen have to make the only move they can reasonably make, and neither looks good

It just looks to me like black tied their shoes together, AND is a pawn down.

user18809: It's hard to explain why Stockfish goes for such a big advantage to White despite the fact of there being no direct winning continuation (according to Stockfish, White has several different moves and plans that keep the advantage). Anyway it doesn't matter much whether the position is +3, +5, +7 or forced mate in 23. A human can figure out that this position must be winning for reasons like:

White is one pawn up, so even if a potential attack doesn't work there's still good chances to win in the endgame.

White has more active pieces and, perhaps more importantly, better ways to activate the pieces that are still passive. Compare the knights on d2 and g8 or the rooks on h1 and h8 for instance.

Black has several weaknesses on the light squares. The defense of the f6 pawn is not an easy problem to solve.

Black's king has no hope to find a safe square to go. Castling kingside is almost out of the question due to all the weak light squares on that side of the board. Staying on the center means Black has to worry about Qh5+ threats in almost eveyr move. Castling queenside is bad because White can easily start an attack by chasing the enemy bishop. For instance, after 0-0 0-0-0, White can play Nc4 followed by a4 and a5 (as you saw in your game, the bishop must retreat because ...b6 leaves the Black king hopeless)



29938: <pre><code>[fen &quot;r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14&quot;]
</code></pre>
<p>This game was played by me on chess.com recently. (I am white). The material balance is +1 (for white). Then why is Stockfish evaluating such huge advantage for white? (White to move)</p>
<p>My complete game (just in case):</p>
<pre><code>[fen &quot;&quot;]
1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. d4 Bb4+ 4. c3 Ba5 5. Bxf4 d6 6. Nf3 f6 7. Bc4 g5 8. Bg3 Nc6 9. Nbd2 d5 10. Bxd5 Bg4 11. h3 Bxf3 12. Qxf3 Nce7 13. Bb3 Qd7 14. O-O O-O-O 15. Nc4 b6 16. Nxa5 bxa5 17. e5 fxe5 18. Qa8# 1-0
</code></pre>
<p>The given position is after move 13.</p>
 9192: <p>The main approach seems to be:</p>
<pre><code>[FEN &quot;r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14&quot;]

1. Nc4 Bb6 2. Ne5 fxe5 (2... Qd6 3. Nf7 Qc6 4. O-O f5 5. Nxh8 O-O-O 6. Nf7 Rf8 7. Nxg5 Nf6 8. Rae1 a5 9. exf5 Qxf3 10. Rxf3) 3. Bf7+ Kd8 4. Bxe5 Nh6 5. Bxh8 Nxf7 6. Qxf7 Qe8 7. Qxh7
</code></pre>
<p>At the end, White has the following major advantages:</p>
<ol>
<li>Up a rook and 3 pawns for a knight. Roughly +5.</li>
<li>A candidate passed pawn (e4) in a connected pair.</li>
<li>Black king cannot castle and is stuck in the middle (high king-danger).</li>
</ol>
<p>The second factor can often be used to force the opponent to sacrifice a minor piece, which would result in a material advantage of a rook plus 2 pawns even ignoring all other advantages. In fact, the pawn at g5 is kind of dead, and so after a few more moves Stockfish sees the outcome as more or less like:</p>
<pre><code>[FEN &quot;r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14&quot;]

1. Nc4 Bb6 2. Ne5 fxe5 3. Bf7+ Kd8 4. Bxe5 Nh6 5. Bxh8 Nxf7 6. Qxf7 Qe8 7. Qxh7 Qg6 8. Qxg6 Nxg6 9. O-O Ke8 10. Bf6 c5 11. d5 c4+ 12. Kh1 Bd8 13. Bxd8 Rxd8 14. Rf5 Rd6 15. Rxg5
</code></pre>
<p>The other main option for Black also leads to ruin:</p>
<pre><code>[FEN &quot;r3k1nr/pppqn2p/5p2/b5p1/3PP3/1BP2QBP/PP1N2P1/R3K2R w KQkq - 3 14&quot;]

1. Nc4 Qb5 2. d5 O-O-O 3. O-O-O Kb8 4. d6 cxd6 5. Rxd6 Ka8 6. Rxd8+ Bxd8 7. Nd6 g4 (7... Qc6 8. Nf7 Bb6 9. Nxh8) 8. hxg4 Qg5+ 9. Kc2 Nh6 10. Bf4 Qxg4 11. Bxh6
</code></pre>
 29943: <p>I'm a beginner so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Here is what I see. The difference in quality of the pieces does really stand out.</p>
<p><strong>White</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>wide open bishops on the long diagonals</li>
<li>dominant center control with solid pawn structure</li>
<li>good prospects for the knight</li>
<li>can easily castle and create an attack by pushing the already advanced pawns</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Black</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>bishop is stuck staring at pawns, no obvious way of improving its position</li>
<li>knights are stuck, pawns control most of the squares they could reposition to</li>
<li>h8 rook is stuck behind a knight that can barely move (Nh6 is a move, but really ugly, and from there the knight can only go back to g8)</li>
<li>light squares are weak (pawns on dark squares) and no light squared bishop to control them</li>
</ul>
<p>I wrote the following two points looking by mistake at the position a ply earlier, with black to move when the queen was on d8:</p>
<ul>
<li>queen only has 3 forward squares to move to, 2 of them controlled by white's excellent bishops</li>
<li>to be able to castle either the knight or the queen have to make the only move they can reasonably make, and neither looks good</li>
</ul>
<p>It just looks to me like black tied their shoes together, AND is a pawn down.</p>
 18809: <p>It's hard to explain why Stockfish goes for such a big advantage to White despite the fact of there being no direct winning continuation (according to Stockfish, White has several different moves and plans that keep the advantage). Anyway it doesn't matter much whether the position is +3, +5, +7 or forced mate in 23. A human can figure out that this position must be winning for reasons like:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>White is one pawn up, so even if a potential attack doesn't work there's still good chances to win in the endgame.</p>
</li>
<li><p>White has more active pieces and, perhaps more importantly, better ways to activate the pieces that are still passive. Compare the knights on d2 and g8 or the rooks on h1 and h8 for instance.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Black has several weaknesses on the light squares. The defense of the f6 pawn is not an easy problem to solve.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Black's king has no hope to find a safe square to go. Castling kingside is almost out of the question due to all the weak light squares on that side of the board. Staying on the center means Black has to worry about Qh5+ threats in almost eveyr move. Castling queenside is bad because White can easily start an attack by chasing the enemy bishop. For instance, after <strong>0-0 0-0-0</strong>, White can play <strong>Nc4</strong> followed by a4 and a5 (as you saw in your game, the bishop must retreat because ...b6 leaves the Black king hopeless)</p>
</li>
</ul>
