Why does analysis suggest pinning with the bishop in the early game?

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spicy_cornbread

When I'm doing post game analysis, a pinning move with the bishop is often suggested as best like in the above position, Bb5. But, I don't have any answer to the end pawn attacking the bishop and retreating it. From my perspective it loses me tempo for no real gain.

Can anyone explain why the engine thinks this is a good move?

goodbye27

to weaken pawn chain, useful especially on the king side

spicy_cornbread

I was going to mention the pawn structure weakening, but I'm not skilled enough to exploit it later in the game yet. When I have done the bishop move I found it harder to attack than pawns that haven't advanced, at least against other weak players at my level.

goodbye27

in ruy lopez sometimes you may steal a central pawn after a poor response. you exchange your bishop for a knight which is protecting the pawn.

study some ruy lopez variations, you will get a better understanding why it is popular

goodbye27

in the picture above if you pin the knight and get a pawn push on a6, you may simply exchange and after bxc6 your opponent will end up a double + a isolated pawn.

which are weak targets in middle / endgame.

Srimurugan108

Pawn structure , placement is vital

BeastBoy06
spicy_cornbread wrote:

I was going to mention the pawn structure weakening, but I'm not skilled enough to exploit it later in the game yet. When I have done the bishop move I found it harder to attack than pawns that haven't advanced, at least against other weak players at my level.

Thats alright. Don’t worry about these kinds of moves if you cant exploit the benefits wink.png. But yeah if Black lets you take you get rid of your weak Bishop (if you ever played d3 it would have been weak) then thats good!

BlindThief

Keep in mind, not always. There are exceptions to the rule, specifically Legals mate, where such a pin would leave the bishop “hanging” due to the threat of a checkmate. But, the rational is it blocks in the c or f pawn, removes the knight from the game (as Fischer once quipped, “is a pinned piece really a piece?”), and gets your bishop on an active diagonal

JamesColeman

You normally need to look to play a pawn break, in this case d2-d4 (playing b3 doesn't really achieve too much). So playing Bb5 first is indirectly helping to take control of the center (immobilizing a piece that defends d4). After Bb5, if he challenges the B with ...a6, you have a pleasant choice between taking on c6, or retreating to a4, in both cases following up with d2-d4 soon, when all your pieces should find nice squares.

ArtNJ

It is not the end of the world that you are currently not seeing the value of double isolating black's pawns.  Most beginners have the exact opposite problem - someone teaches them about pawn structure, and they get all kinds of stupid trying to mess up the other side's pawn structure, and crazy focused on playing h3/h6 or a3/a6 to prevent the pin.  Isolated (or here double isolated) pawns are often quite weak and eventually winnable.  However, everything in context, have to look at the whole position including issues such as JamesColeman points out.  Beginners just don't get this stuff right, but you should certainly be aware of these issues and start thinking about them.  

spicy_cornbread

Ok, I completely forgot I could trade with the knight and created doubled pawns grin.png. I was able to make a pin and trade on the king's side in a game earlier today that lead to a win. Thanks for the input folks. happy.png