Understanding before Moving 60: The advantage of having the two bishops

In strategy books we sometimes come across Steinitz's "Table of Strategic  Elements". The first official World Champion regularly talked about certain "laws" that he believed to exist in ches. But it later turned out that it was Lasker, who was responsible for the "Table of Strategic Elements", though Lasker credited Steinitz for finding the essential "elements" of chess put down in this table.

I have used this table in my book "Chess Strategy for Club Players", in which I review the positional and strategic elements. One important element in middlegame and endgame is the pair of bishops. Usually, having the bishops is considered to be an advantage but there are opening variations in which one side gives up the bishops pair right in the opening.

For example, in one line of the Accelerated Dragon Black is  more or less forced to exchange his light-squared bishop for a knight, and after an exchange of queens Black lands in a position, in which he is forced to play against the bishops.

For a long time, the theoretical verdict on this line was that Black is slightly worse but should be able to hold. However, a closer analysis revealed that Black is in considerable trouble. One advantage of the bishop pair is that the side with the bishops can often favourably liquidate into another type of endgame. In the diagram position, the Dutch Grandmaster Hans Ree  managed to convert the advantage of the two bishops into other advantages and could win a nice game. What did he play in the diagram position and how would you proceed afterwards?

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• 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)
• Understanding before Moving 32: To trade or not to trade (1)
• Understanding before Moving 33: To trade or not to trade (2)
• Understanding before Moving 34: The principles of Dick Van Geet
• Understanding before Moving 35: Advantage in Development (1)
• Understanding before Moving 36: Advantage in Development (2)
• Understanding before Moving 37: Advantage in Development (3)
• Understanding before Moving 38: The Critical Move (1)
• Understanding before Moving 39: The Critical Move (2)
• Understanding before Moving 40: The Critical Move (3)
• Understanding before Moving 41: The Critical Move (4)
• Understanding before Moving 42: Mating Patterns
• Understanding before Moving 43: Good bishops, bad bishops
• Understanding before Moving 44: Attacking with opposite-coloured bishops
• Understanding before Moving 45: Cooperation between the pieces (1)
• Understanding before Moving 46: Cooperation between the pieces (2)
• Understanding before Moving 47: The target on h6
• Understanding before Moving 48: The target on g6
• Understanding before Moving 49: The beginning of an attack
• Understanding before Moving 50: Typical Sacrifices
• Understanding before Moving 51: The black squares!
• Understanding before Moving 52: Space advantage
• Understanding before Moving 53: Space advantage (2)
• Understanding before Moving 54: Pawn vs knight
• Understanding before Moving 55: Pawn vs knight (2)
• Understanding before Moving 56: The Octopus
• Understanding before Moving 57: The Elephant
• Understanding before Moving 58: "Hemmungsstrategie"
• Understanding before Moving 59: Dynamic vs Static
• Herman Grooten - An interview with a chess authority