Not all doubled pawns are bad. Isolated doubled pawns are weak, especially if they are on an open file. But sometimes doubled pawns help strengthen your center, and you get an open file!
Why is dxe4 a good move here?
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Dec 5, 2020
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#3
dxe4 forces white to play Bxf6 or he will lose a pawn. After Bxf6 black has nice development and a good position. For example:
Black wins a pawn.
Possibility to double whites f pawns.
Possibility to deny white castling.
It allows black to develop comfortably basically. In general when considering an exchange you just have to analyse what will happen. What is the potential activity of the pieces being exchanged for both sides? Is there a better alternative? Whilst it's generally true that you shouldn't exchange just for the sake of it, your rule of thumb about only doing it when you are going to emerge ahead in material takes things a bit too far. The example you posted shows that black will get positional advantages by exchanging dxe4 because white is forced to respond a certain way if he does not want to lose a pawn. This is good for black because the game is still in the very early stages and by doing this you can get everything you could want out of the opening - easy development, a comfortable position. Was there anything better? Probably not...your Bb4+ can be answered by c3 which is better for white, expanding and chasing your bishop away. Be7 is a more logical place for the bishop, but black is still a bit cramped. dxe4 is the best option.
The computer probably likes the idea that you can take away the white K's castling rights by trading the Queens. Then your N can capture on e4. White then has to move his g5 B to e3 to prevent the K and R fork leaving you time to trade off the f3 N and save your e5 pawn. I was too lazy to use an analysis board, but I think that's right...
I completely missed the Bxf6 line. My bad...
Just trying to understand why this is a good move. It leaves me with doubled pawns, down a pawn, and either forces me to trade queens or let his queen have complete access to the d-column.
A lot of times the engine recommends moves where I would take a piece just to immediately lose the capturing piece and that intuitively seems like a really bad idea (trading my most developed pieces away) but I'm clearly wrong about it, so how should I change my thinking on capturing pieces?
I generally prefer to never capture unless I'm going to come out ahead on pieces. Is this wrong?