Trading bishops early

I'm studying the French Defense for white and was suprised by this line where it's recommended to throw in an early check and I guess hopefully trade light bishops. I was wondering what the purpose is. I get that Black has the IQP but even with that stockfish isn't giving white that much of a advantage. What does white get out of trading bishops this early?

Edit: 5.Nf3 before Bb5+!

I don't know from were you study the French , but what I see on the diagram it's generally not favorable for white. White doesn't like so early the exchange variation exd5 in the French . It simplifying the center, it open the diagonal for blacks bishop to develop easy! when in other variations blacks main problem is what to do with the light sq bishop.

White face difficulties to prove an advantage over the exchange variation. After 3...c5 play 4.Nf3 , the Tarrasch variation is more flexible system were white has some chances to prove a better position in the middle game.

"I don't know from were you study the French"

Looking up games and checking engines and live book. Exd5 is played 5426 times and Nf6 3642.....

What move is played often in any kind of opening doesn't mean is the best choice. Don't let preferences from databases to guide your game. From the 5426 times exd5 has been played , at least the half is in rapid-blitz games were open positions offer more tactical approach that suit to a speed game.

From a theoretical point of view the exchange exd5 so early does not favor white, unless you have work with your engine some variations and have find some positional tricks to trap black in a sideline.

Ok but this is off topic though....

The most affective square for whites light square bishop is the d3 but if you play Bd3 , black is gonna play c5 and you need to go to e2 were you do nothing! Fianchetto the bishop with out the e pawn has no meaning, so with Bb5+ you trade a already bad bishop for you with a potential good piece for black, since you had the brilliant idea to open the light squares for black! This is why I am of topic. Usually in French black has the bad light square bishop and try to exchange it. Lol.

Fiveswords @

I forgot that you won your last title using this variation.

The plan of exchanging the light-squared bishops is very common and typical, and was played quite a few times at Baguio. 1976 between two patzers named Karpov and Kortchnoi. White gets a fairly riskless small endgame edge, but Black is not forced to comply- he can play 5...Nc6.

You should decide if you want Nf3 inserted before Bb5+, as there are a few differences between them (including 5.Ngf3 a6, which has an excellent reputation since Botvinnik introduced it almost seventy years ago).

Oh... and you shouldn't expect to learn anything about openings from an engine- would you?

Unbelieveable!!

Don't listen Jeanne1. If I was you I wouldn't even listen to what Bg5 had to say in the above text.

Bg5 believes this position is the exchange variation.

He doesn't even realize it is the Tarrasch.

He is so lost with out a compass.

The move 4.exd5 is the most played move and is very respectible.

Another move which I have tryed is 4.Ngf3 which is a nice alternative move.

However, No one will ever critize the move 4.exd5 in this position unless they have no clue what on earth they are talking about.

The simpliest reason 5.Ngf3 is played is to keep flexiblity for your bishop.

The reason why you want to be flexible with your Light Square bishop is because your Light Square Bishop is a Stud!

Your center d4 pawn is on a dark square which means by default your "bad" Bishop/problem piece will be the bishop on the same color complex. Which in this case is your dark one.

On the Flip side black's d5 pawn is on a light square which means by default his "bad" Bishop will be the light square bishop.

In a way your Light Square Bishop is a Stud muffin and you don't want to get rid of him for any old reason.

For example if you play 5.Bb5+ black can than block your check by offering a bishop trade with 5...Bd7.

In a way he would than be given up his weak stud vs your strong one! Which would benefit him not you.

Another thing to keep in mind is the Center d5 pawn for black is an Isolated pawn most times.

However, Their are disadvantages and advantages which come from an Isolated pawn

The disadvantage of black's Isolated pawn is it can sometimes come under heavy fire/attack.

It can be seen as a weakness because the d5 pawn has no fellow pawn buddy's to help him out or give him some support.

However, The advantage of black's Isolated pawn is it allows very great piece play.

If you could image the Isolated d5 pawn.

The d5 pawn allows both black rooks open files. As you can see because their is no pawn on the E pawn or C pawn the files are open. You can also see how the pawn is helping support knight outpost.

Again this is a small sample so you can see what I mean when I say the pawn can come under fire. However, at the same time it can help in dynamic possiblity's by having wonderful piece activity.

In a way both sides white and black try to prove the Isolated pawn is bad and/or good. It is a razor edge position for sure.

Ah! Really? What a mess! Thank God we have a world chess champion like X Patzer to educate us with his bulshit one time more.

First he points out why and how valuable piece is the light sq bishop for white for rediculus reasons and then he through it , to the garbage. You know X player, you can through your ATI RADEON graphics to the garbage. It worth shit as your brain to. 4. exd5 it's so respectable that played more times in speed games rather than in classical chess. Last time a 2700 super GM use it in a classical game he drew vs a 2500.

A world champion like X Patzer in speed chess has real problems to estimate the difference. We need to be gentle with him!

Yo!? X Patzer if you find my compass keep it for your self and don't recommend my suggestions if you disagree with me and don't use my words to support your examples, you are at least a hypocrite jerk doing that.

Yeah thats why I ask when I don't understand the real reason behind moves like this Bb5+. CB helps me regonize some errors I make in games but it doesn't give a deep understanding I agree. I guessed there had to be a more strategical reason behind the move, I doubted it was just a tactical move. But I still don't understand how it helps in the endgame?

FOS @

What to answer you?? French defense is not popular in the 2700 level! Listen to your self. I guess you believe that if it was played more often , then exd will be the first choice appeared on the board. JESUS!

Jeannie @

It doesn't help White to prove an advantage, neither help him to a favorable ending. After 4.exd5 White plays blacks game!

What IM Pfren told you is that after the simplifications , white has a small edge not a generally favorable ending. It's practically impossible to prove that he is better.

Ok, I give up! For the records I didn't confused any exchange variation with the Tarrasch. The Nbd2 does not make any improvement for White. I don't believe that White has practical chances when exchange the center so early but if we continue talk about it, we will end in stylish preferences, think that not help the OP neither our discussion. So...tracked off.

P.S : when the clown ( X Patzer ) post again , someone to tell him that the Moskow circus has an job application available for the " Bolsoi " balet . It's a lifetime opportunity, he can't miss it.

Jeanne1 the real problem you are having is:

The idea's behind the moves are actually deep rooted idea's based on how to play against and with Isolated Pawns.

For you to understand the moves you must understand how Isolated pawns work.

The side with the Isolated pawn which in this case will be black is long term/strategically in some trouble!

The reason why is because Isolated pawns can be very weak and they can be attacked. The white side can pill up pressure on the Isolated pawn with the desire to win it and be up material!

Bascially in a nut shell this is whites long term idea in the position. To attack the isolated D pawn.

Ok so we figure out what white is planning to do.

Now the way black plays out the position is to try and get compensation for the long term problem they have! The weak D pawn is their long term liablity.

What black try's to do is use it The benefits the Isolated D pawn is giving.

Bascially The long term pawn weakness gives out alot of piece play.

• Two open rook files
• Two outpost squares (e4 square and c4 square)
  

Why am I tell you this? How does this relate to the move Bb5?

Well the reason it relates is because the idea behind the move is to misplace the black pieces or to take out a specific black piece!

Lets start from move 5.

The 2 moves played are 5.Bb5+ or 5.Ngf3 Lets look at both moves.

What is the bishop Bb5+ trying to do?

The bishop checking move is trying to goat black into blocking the check with the knight.White wants black to play Nc6 to block the check.

WHY??

Remember the plan's!

White wants to attack the Isolated D pawn.

Black wants to use the D pawn as outpost squares(e4 or c4) and Open Rook files.

So the idea white had was:

"Hey I am going to misplace the black pieces so they can not do their plan! While at the same time continuing my plan!"

A knight on c6 will have alot of trouble getting to c4 or e4.Think of how many moves it would take a knight from c6 to get to c4 or e4. It would take alot of moves and by that time white might already have the D pawn under heavy fire! Black wants to get a knight to c4 or e4 because it is one benefit he has for having an Isolated D pawn.

The move 5.Bb5+ white plays is an effort to miss place the knight because on c6 the knight does not hit c4 or e4!

However, there is a problem! If white plays 5.Bb5+ black does not have to block with the knight! Black can block with the bishop!

Black would love to trade the bishop's because than he would gain further control of the c4 and e4 outpost. It is a fight for those squares! If the Light Square Bishop white has gets traded for black's bishop white has 1 less defender on those c4 and e4 squares.

Which after testing out 5.Bb5+ white players realized doing the check might not work very well because black could block with the Bishop and not the knight. Which is why they came up with another idea.

The idea they came up with was to do a very nice developing/waiting move. The move they tryed was 5.Ngf3

This move is a very sneaky trick! In doesn't pressure black which in turn allows black the chance to screw up by themselves lol. The move Ngf3 is a useful move for white which white will normally always play so it is not an inconvince to play this move for white. At the same time it keeps white very flexible with the Light Square Bishop.

After the move 5.Ngf3 the old mainline move black use to play was with 5...Nc6.

Than Bam white got his wish! Believe it or not the line above use to be the old mainline. Which has just tranposed into the 5.Bb5+ line.

The way white does it is by playing 6.Bb5 in the above position. Which is a very good move.

I will show you the other move order with 5.Bb5+ followed with Nc6 blocking to show you the comparision. You will see how they tranpose.

It is the same position with out white having to force black into it. Bascially they decided to give black enough slack so they can screw up by themselves.

Believe it or not this is how the line went which highlighted some of the issues black has with his knight on c6. It got played out for a long while and black sided players did have some trouble with it. Which is why I believe alot of high level players stopped playing it during that time. Which is how the Tarrasch got so much hype and popularity.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago with the help of some engines and some players looking in older books that another move was discovered lol.

Yeah 2 moves in fact which have been discovered and tryed.

In response to the move 5.Ngf3

The 2 moves tryed were 5...a6 and 5...Nf6.

Which is how the move 6.Be2 got introduced into the position.

I guess we can rule out the 5...a6 line kind of fast lol on how that stops any 6.Bb5+ moves lol.

Well it is kind of obvious after 5...a6 6.Bb5+ would be impossible because it would lose a piece lol.

6.Bb5+ loses a piece

6.Bd3 gets kicked away.

Only move for the bishop is 6.Be2 which is how it got introduced in that variation.

Now the other variation is actually a little harder to figure out.

How did the move 5...Nf6 stop the move 6.Bb5+?

Well believe it or not the move 5...Nf6 didn't stop the move 6.Bb5+.

However, It did stop white's deep rooted idea of misplacing the black pieces.

Remember the plan's!

White wants to attack the Isolated D pawn.

Black wants to use the D pawn as outpost squares(e4 or c4) and Open Rook files.

So the idea white had was:

"Hey I am going to misplace the black pieces so they can not do their plan! While at the same time continuing my plan!"

The move 5...Nf6 helps black from putting their knights on bad spots.

So lets give an example:

Lets say white plays 6.Bb5+ in this position which is a popular move.

Now how should black deal with this checking move?

Well if you said the move 6...Nc6 than terrible on you!

No we don't want the black pieces misplaced!

You have a plan as black and your plan is to get your pieces on the outpost squares your isolated pawns are giving you.

You do not want to misplace them and cause them to take 100 moves to get their!

White is trying to force his plan through and limit/prevent your plan as much as possible. Obviously white is trying to be a good/sick player!

This is what a good player does they try to stop your plans and force their plans though.

So lets go again what is the move you should be playing as black in this position after white plays 6.Bb5+?

The move you should be playing is 6...Bd7. WHY??

Because you want to exchange that bishop because your outpost are on light squares and with out the light square bishop white has 1 less defender of those squares.

It is hard to understand this because it is a deep rooted idea which is designed to prevent your future goal in the position.

It happens at move 6 but where ever your pieces go at move 6 it will effect your game play later down the road for example at move 10 or 20 etc.

Now lets show an example of what can happen after move 6...Bd7

Do you see it now? Notice how black is going through with his plan.

You don't see it? AAAAWWWWWWWW

Will highlights help?

Pretty kool when you see it and it makes sense!

Yeah and this line above is playable both sides still fight to do their plan's and give the opponent as much grief and misery as possible lol.

Another approach which some white players adopted was to reconsider their 6th move against 5...Nf6

For example:

In the above position they decide well if I play 6.Bb5+ black will trade off my bishop and still go for their plan.

So they decided to play 6.Be2 with the idea of just keeping pieces on the board.

If you think about it "If black plays correctly like I showed in the above example's" the move 6.Bb5+ achieved nothing pretty much!

Black still doing their plan. The Black pieces are not misplaced.

However, White's small mission to misplace black's pieces has failed and in the result is less pieces are on the board now!

In a way the move 6.Be2 could be seen has an acceptance move.

White realizes black is skillful enough to wiggle out of the problems so instead of having pieces trade off the board they decided to play it safe and keep things still on the board. Keeping the position complicated!

So instead of proceeding further the move 6.Be2 is designed to keep pieces on the board while at the same time trying to conjure up other problem's for black.

An this happens alot in chess as well. Especially when higher level players play against lower ranked ones. The higher level player sometimes decides to keep as many pieces on the board to keep things tricky. The less pieces on the board the less chance someone might get checkmated for example.

Its hard to drum up a mating net if all you have is 1 knight lol.

However, if you have all 7 pieces on the board it is much easier.

Which is how the position plays out. In some positions the bishop can only go to e2 in other positions white has a choice on what he wants to do. Its all in the efforts of trying to cause confusion and mistakes etc.

Yeah and against 5...Nf6 both bishop moves (6.Bb5+ or 6.Be2) are playable.

It depends on who you are playing against and if you think they will slip up or not slip up etc.

Yeah I think I rambled on long enough.

Hopefully that can give you some helpful insights of the idea's behind the moves.