Understanding before Moving 32: To trade or not to trade

To trade or not to trade?

The Ukrainian grandmaster Eduard Gufeld is known for being a great lover of  the dark-squared bishop on g7 and he liked to say that even the worst bishop is still better than the best knight.

Gufeld also loved to play the King's Indian Defence and he won many fine games with it. Of course, the question is how strong the black-squared bishop really is or how strong it might become. Which, of course, depends on the position and therefore a player must always  remain flexible in his thinking.

The following diagram is a good example of this approach. This position arose from a Modern Defence in which Black opted for an early ...e5xd4, which Nimzowitsch once called  "giving up the center". With 9...f7-f5 Black tried to free his  game and after 10.exf5 Black came up with a surprise. Which one?

This week’s show (for Premium Members only)

Links

• More videos...
• Understanding before moving 1: How to design a concept in the opening
• Understanding before moving 2: How to improve the activity of my pieces
• Understanding before moving 3: Queen in the corner
• Understanding before moving 4: King in the box
• Understanding before moving 5: Locked up pieces
• Understanding before moving 6: Paralyzed
• Understanding before moving 7: Divided in two - Part 1
• Understanding before moving 8: Divided in two - Part 2
• Understanding before moving 9: Hunting the king - Part 1
• Understanding before moving 10: Hunting the king - Part 2
• Understanding before moving 11: Pattern Recognition
• Understanding before moving 12: Advantage in Development
• Understanding before moving 13: Compensation
• Understanding before moving 14: Smoking the king out
• Understanding before moving 15: Knight on the Rim
• Understanding before moving 16: Limiting the opponent’s activity
• Understanding before moving 17: The Panno knight
• Understanding before Moving 18: The bad bishop
• Understanding before Moving 19: The rook lift
• Understanding before Moving 20: Activate your worst piece
• Understanding before Moving 21: Strong knight vs bad bishop (1)
• Understanding before Moving 22: Strong knight vs bad bishop (2)
• Understanding before Moving 23: "V" stands for Victory!
• Understanding before Moving 24: Strategic Thinking
• Understanding before Moving 25: The "Strategic Thinking Protocol"
• Understanding before Moving 26: Cooperation between queen and bishop
• Understanding before Moving 27: A "multi-stage" plan
• Understanding before Moving 28: A curious endgame
• Understanding before Moving 29: To exchange or not to exchange
• Understanding before Moving 30: To exchange or not to exchange (2)
• Understanding before Moving 31: To exchange or not to exchange (3)
• Herman Grooten - An interview with a chess authority