Kill or let live.

Hi. I was wondering when to take the knight in the beginning as shon in the diagram. I have often taken and also pulled back. But thats not based on any solid knowledge. Just to experiment.

Thank you.

i suggest you to do ba4, keeping the bishop and not allowing him to play d5 and he gets the massive center.

This is just one example. I agree with you. But this also often happens on the king side. And also sometimes later in the game.

With the exchange black gains the two bishops, the open b file, and the center.

Well...people with higher ratings than I seem to be in agreement that better to retreat rather than trade your bishop for the knight.  Therefore, there's not much for me to respond except to say that I would most likely in this situation make the trade.  One reason, I tend to defend better against bishops than I do Knights, so I don't mind trying to get my opponents Knights off the table when I can.  Also, I tend to make better use of my knights than my bishops, thus I'm more willing to trade my bishop than trade my knight.  Also, the resulting pawn structure leaves him doubled up in the c-file - which can be exploited later.  But again, guys stronger than me indicate otherwise, which probably explains why I'm sitting on 1400 

My advice: kill his knight, they always end up causing problems for me later in the game, and I really don't like bishops to begin with anyway.

>>renegade

Yeah, knights can be much better assets than bishops, which are generally useless if not in pairs.

Watch out for bish attacks along the long diagonal though, they can be real mean!

Hi, I suggest that before you listen to anyone's advice you have a quick look at there rating to see if they are better rated players than you are.  There have been some really dopey comments here, especially renegade's from a couple above mine. 

At the non master level of play whether or not to capture the bishop is really a matter of deciding which type of positions you like to play.  It maybe true that keeping the bishop on the board is objectively better in some sense but that is small potatos compared to you being comfortable with the kinds of positions that arise based on  YOUR choice.  I think BxN is perfectly good but NOT for the reasons given by "renagade".  Look at some lasker games or Fischer games to see what's up with that line. 

Here are a couple of "exchange variation" games, first a Lasker game and then a Fischer game:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1271259

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044018

that makes sence:) Im not great at figuring out whats a good position and whats not. But lately I've tried to take only when it corrupts something of the opponents. So far I havent realised any changes because of that:P

And I took a look at those games you recommended. They have some good examples for what to look for when makin a trade. Im greatful. thanks:)