How do you counter this?

I recently played a chess game when my opponent played this: (I'm black)

I know it's worse for him in the long run for a multitude of reasons, but I don't want to double my pawns, which is what he wants. If I move my piece twice then I'll lose my tempo. How should I counter this?

By playing Nh5, he is losing tempo. He has moved that knight twice, so by moving your bishop, you are not worse than him.

You should play Bg6. Although it will double your pawns, you will get an open file, and this will be important in the endgame.

honestly you could undevelop the bishop or move it to d7 because even though you move a piece again in the opening so did he, and your bishop is much better after retreating to d7 or c8 compared to the weak knight on h4

Also you can refer to engines or master games for opening lines you have questions about

In the game I moved the bishop to E4, but I think that Bd7 was probably better.

I see, kinda like the london system?

Bg4 is best i think. As you want to double pawns and give double bishop advantage only if his kingside pawn structure is disturbed. Your double pawns are strong defense if you want to castle there. If not then u can use rook's open file to always keep pressure on his h3 (after g4)

B-q2. The point is his knight is doing nothing on the rook file and the knight will have to come back or remain misplaced..

Yes, @newauto is kinda right, but White may not always follow up with h3 and g4 after Bg4. White may continue developing, and your bishop is not doing anything. On the other hand, if Bg6, your bishop is much better than White's knight on the edge.

After Nc3, I like c5 for black, and if dxc4 you can push the pawn with a nice advantage (which will happen a lot at your level.) If you play what you did and they play Nh5, you can play Bg6, or Bg5 without fear. (Don't worry about doubled pawns or waste of tempo because Nh5 uses two tempos for white and the double g-pawns aren't bad (if you take with the h-pawn) because they are hard to target in an endgame)

The bishop on g4 isn't doing nothing, it is hampering white's development (stopping the light-squared bishops development via the pinning of the e-pawn) and also make Nh4 very awkward.

Bd7 seems really odd and unnatural, but the chess.com computer approves, so maybe it is good. I still would choose Bg6 or Bg4

Stockfish 16.1 on high depth gives -0.2 for Bc8 (completely developing the bishop) and -0.19 for Bd7. I think the computer just doesn't like the bishop on f5 and thinks that undeveloping it is justified because white's knight is misplaced. (It gives Nf3 as the best move for white after Bc8 transposing to move 3)

I wouldn't play Nc3. Play c4 on move 2, as this puts more pressure on the center and you don't have to worry about these shenanigans, as the black position becomes pretty shaky if he brings the bishop out like this. If you prefer Nc3, there's no real "counter" as Bf5 is a reasonable move. Just play your game if your opponent plays like this. In general, this is my strategy if my opponent plays a weird setup but I don't see a way to punish it

Stop doing it. It's annoying and everyone knows how to counter it. Play a different opening.

I think the first question to answer is whether 3 ... Bf5 is the best 3rd move. I would have played 3 ... c5 there. I don't know it is a better move, but I think it is.

You meant Nh4 ? And not Nh5. But it’s ok I thing I’ve got the point.

yes thx

I would say you can go back for bd7 and argue that the knight looks like an idiot on h4 compared to your bishop