Good Knight V Bad Bishop example

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Avatar of Marshall7593

3. ... d6 is very passive for black. Its not a losing move, but it does make it harder for the f8 bishop to develop as easily.

Lets take a look after black plays: 
11. ... Be6 Black clearly wants to capture whites knight on d5 (the knight on d5 is very well positioned.) But lets envision as white what happens IF black on the next move does play Bxd5, a reasonable idea....but alas they are left with a terrible dark square bishop, considering all their pawns are on dark squares. A classic "Good knight V Bad Bishop" Scenario. 12. c4 threatens to fix whites pawn structure should black play Bxe6, and it creates a massive space advantage on the queenside/center for white. 

13. ... f5 was a great move for black. It tries to demand their darksquare bishop gets activity at some point, and it weakens whites pawns. I decided to respond with exf5 in order to save time to rebuild my pawn chain on the queenside with b4. Whites knight on d5 is a god, and it must remain there until it is needed elsewhere. 

16. Qb3 is a move that I imagine many people dont want to play. Black can damage whites pawn structure after all. We should be concrete. Sure, we open up the G file and double our F pawns as white. But how does black actually get in?? There is no clear way in that white cannot easily stop. The pawns may be doubled, but they are not accessible targets for black. If black foregoes Bxf3 we have cleared the pin, and are now ready to move the knight as white. 

19. Qe3 stops any Qg5+ shenanigans for black. White also prepares to defend the kingside should it be necessary. Alternatively a kingside attack for white is possible in the future if black isnt careful regarding the G file. 

21. axb5 rather than cxb5. What an odd choice. Of course cxb5 is the BEST move regarding pawn structure, but what about the rook on a1?? 

22. Qe4 ties down blacks queen to the defense of their bishop. and prepares to maneuver to put pressure on the light squares in blacks position. 

23. ... Bf4. Blacks darksquare bishop does nothing to stop white B pawn, or even prepare an attack at all. Sure it defends the bishop....but the bishop was worth nothing anyway. 

24. Ra7 applies pressure along the 7th rank. White aims to play b6, using the fact that black c pawn is pinned to Qg7#

24. ... Rf7 defends this mating idea, and guards the pawn. But the pin still exists!! b6 anyway!

28. Ra8. Black must now defend the backrank. After Rff8, the weak C pawn is no longer guarded. 

In hindsight black played very reasonably. And made no blunders. They simply just did not understand how incompetent their darksquare bishop was in comparison to my knight. A few inaccuracies and slow moves allowed white to push the B pawn to victory. A classic tale of Good Knight v Bad Bishop  

Avatar of yha_ba

Nice