Stonewall Dark Square Bishop

In many of Botvinnik's Stonewall games he placed his dark square bishop on e7. From what I gather, d6 seems be the current choice from a theory perspective. Can anyone let me know why d6 is currently the prefered square?

Thanks,

Ted

In the stonewall variation the e5 square is weak, and black plays Bd6, to take contol over that square, so if the knight will go to e5, black can take it with Bxd6.

Thanks for the response, and that does make sense. But there is NO WAY that Botvinnik didn't understand that . . . why did he use e7 so frequently? Is there a benefit to e7 for the dark square bishop?

Thanks,

Ted

There's a few reasons possible.

If at any time Bf4 from white was still playable, then Bd6 allows exchange of black's main attacker.

On d6, the bishop is attacked and possibly forked if you ever play Nxe5. 

The bishop defends the g5 pawn stab from e7. 

It is very very VERY rare (though not never) that ...Bxe5 is good.  The tension should be left there.  Black can contest the Knight by playing ...Nbd7, ...Ne4, and only then take with the Knight.

Black should keep the Dark Squared Bishop at all cost unless White really wants to put in the extreme amount of time to force it to be traded off.  For example:  1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 d5 5.c4 c6 6.O-O Bd6 7.b3 Qe7! (Don't make life so easy for White, 7...O-O? 8.Ba3!) 8.Bb2 and Black has options here.  8...O-O or 8...b6 are the main choices.  If White wants to trade Bishops and Black doesn't want to go into the chaotic lines with c5, blocking the trade, then he will have to play 9.Qc1 and 10.Ba3, consuming a lot of time, during which, Black should be developing his Light-Squared Bishop to b7 and trying to get in ...f4.

There are a number of rules with the Stonewall.  One of them is not to trade off the Dark Squared Bishop without making White pay for it, whether that be in the form of winning material, or making White spend a lot of time setting it up, and you get free development as compensation for it!

Other rules about the Stonewall include:

1. Don't allow Bf4 and Bd3 without inflicting structural Damage in the Stonewall.  If White plays a line that allows Bf4 and Bd3 to both be played, you can't play the stonewall.  For example:  After 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3, 4...d5? is a strategic error, and should be punished with 5.Bf4, 6.e3, and 7.Bd3.  Black should play 4...Bb4 with an improved version of the Dutch Variation of the Nimzo-Indian.

2. Don't play ...c6 until White has played c4.  For example, 1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.Nf3 d5 5.O-O, play 5...Bd6, not 5...c6.  Now Black doesn't have to worry too much about trades on d6 as he can take back with the c-pawn and get in ...e5 easily.

3. If White is able to get in Bf4, Black must either be able to recapture on d6 with the pawn, or else inflict damage to White's structure.  Allowing Bf4xd6 Qd8xd6 is the ultimate sin in the Stonewall Dutch.  In the line shown in #2 above, if 6.c4, then 6...c6, and now if 7.Bf4 (which is a line), Black must take and inflict damage to White's pawn structure!

4. Answer early Nh3 lines with a Classical setup, NOT a Stonewall setup.  For example, 1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6, if White plays 4.Nh3, play ...d6 and NOT ...d5.  Black will switch gears to a classical setup, getting in ...e5, removing the f4 square from the Knight, and the Knight has trouble getting active.  Note that if White tries to delay the Nh3 move, Black has move order tricks.  For example, if 4.c4 (instead of 4.Nh3), then 4...c6!, where 5.Nf3 can be answered by 5...d5 and 5.Nh3 by 5...d6 (or 5...Be7).  If White delays a second time with say, 5.Qc2 or 5.Nc3, then Black can play 5...d5, answering 6.Nh3 and 7.Bf4 with 7...Be7.  Also note that 5.Nc3 destroys and 5.Qc2 delays White's idea of b3, Bb2, Qc1, and Ba3 as the in the first case, the Knight is no longer on b1 covering a3, which means White would have to play a4, and after ...a5, the b4 square is very weak for White, which 5.Qc2 White would have to move the Queen again when it's ready to go to c1, and Black, in essence, got a free move!

If you do normally play the Stonewall Dutch, keep in mind you can't make it your end all be all defense and succeed.  You have to be willing to play a Classical Dutch setup in certain circumstances.

I didn't say Bxe5, that would have been Nd7xe5. How else can there be a fork from the pawn?  

I do agree about the importance of the bishop, I'm not so sure if everything else applies so rigidly as you say it.

Dutchday, Message 2, the one I quoted, advertised to take with the Bishop, not you.

The Ne4 move first gets out of the potential pawn fork.

As for the rest of it, I played the Dutch Stonewall (and occasional Classical when necessary) for a few years around 2008 to 2010.  Johnsen's book on the Stonewall is critical for anybody wanting to play the Stonewall Dutch, and it explains everything in extreme detail that I listed above.  The above are cliff notes.

Totally missed the quote, my bad. I may take a look in more detail later.