Confused about master's consensus

Hi,

A friend of mine did an analysis of a game we just finished and in doing so, we were both bewildered by a move made by all masters from a particular position. Here it is:

Any insight appreciated!

Well 7...Bxd6 8.Qxd6 and there are menacing ideas like Nb5 coming up hitting Black's hole on c7. Should Black try to shoo away the queen with 8...Qe7 then 9.Bf4 and I don't see White castling anytime soon, period. (9...e5 10.QxQ and KxQ is forced as NxQ drops the e5 pawn).

Regardless of how solidly black can play on with ...Bxd6, I find it less complicated to do a poor man's castle of Ke7, Re8, Kf8 at some later point.

Needless to say, White locking any piece firmly on d6 is unpleasant for black. Even worse if it is a queen.

An interesting question, and a good answer by Shivsky.

Agreed. Thanks Shivsky.

Hmm, I didn't think of that at all -- my reason is different -- for example after Bxd6 playing a6 covers any c7 business, even after Bf4 the infiltration on c7 is meaningless and black can still get castling in.  Tactically Bxd6 is fine as far as I can tell.

The reason is the dark square bishop is black's best minor piece and trading it off would leave him forever weak on the dark squares and give white a lasting initiative.  He can still castle and regain d6 with something like Bxd6 Qxd6 Qe7 Bf4 0-0 with ideas like Nh5 or Nf8 but black's position is simply worse IMO for example he'll have to go through even more contortions to get his queenside developed and into the game.

Ke7 side steps the painful manuvers and regains d6 immediatly with a gain of time and without giving up his best minor piece (or putting his king in danger for that matter).

If it's one of thoes moves that's ok then it's one of thoes moves that's beyond my understanding

ke7 followed by Bxd6 if passible

At depth 16, rybka says that k e8-e7 is 0.06, k e8-f8 is 0.26 and Bc5xc6 is 0.88.