The dark-squared bishop in Queen's pawn games

Hi, in many higher level queen's pawn games i observe players tend to lock their dark squared bishop in voluntarily.

And i don't really get why.

For example:

I wish if someone could enlighten me on why blocking in the bishop is so popular, for me it would seem much more natural to develop to f4 or g5, but many players choose not to, and why players are so eager to play an early e3, when they eventually want to play e4 anyway.

Greets,

Attox

Good question

Aaaaaah if your opponent does not have 2 active Bishops why worry for now. Nothing wrong with a Bishop having a defensive to later attack. Just wait till the middle game and then start opening up diagonals with pawn exchanges if you want the Bishop to be active.

Plus the only time it can do real damage early is when black o-o into a finachetto position.

McNastyMac wrote:

Doing defensive tasks is as important as attacking. In f4 or g5 the bishop is doing nothing in a Queen's Pawn, even less if your pawn structure tells you to go wild on the queenside and be careful on the kingside. Moreover, locking the bishop with the 4 squares available on the kingside is (in my opinion) worse than leaving it on the opening square, where you don't have to worry about moving it twice in the opening or being trapped or kicked to the h2 square, where it's not doing much. Here white keeps it flexible and waits for the position to open up and decide wether the diagonals on the queenside or the kingside are better for his bishop.And if you ask me why this isn't valid for the light colour bishop, I'll answer that he's begging you to get developed to d3 or e2.

I dont know enough about chess to talk about those things but i have the feeling nothing of that is true

Im also no master. I believe the pawn structure only applies to unflexiable pawn chains and is only general guidance anyway. Its also the bad bishop, maybe the position opens but if not both bishop D2 and B2 have disadvantages.

Yes i know its the slav and not the qgd but i like my bishop outside, even though masters probably couldnt care less.