The Rare Exception Of Trading Bishops In The Spanish

Introduction

As most Spanish, also known as Ruy Lopez players know, trading light squared bishops is typically not a good idea. Why? We will see two following examples that I gathered where White trades their Light squared bishop but in the wrong situation and the wrong idea.

1. The "Free Pawn" Illusion

Where White's knight is going back and forth like dancing tango.

Where White's pieces are tangled and cannot easily move around.

2. Draw Intentions

Usually, if they don't take the free pawn like the previous example, they would have tried to draw because the Exchange Spanish is usually boring and drawing where both sides has no interesting ideas whatsoever.

These examples show that taking the knight isn't good as it opens up diagonal for the queen and let Black have more space between diagonals. But why, in this one particular case in a rather popular position, White should take the bishop?

The Mainline 4... Bc5

The first moves for this rather weird but good line is below:

Firstly, we have to know why taking the knight is good. The reasons follow:

• This exchange gives White a superior pawn structure, with only one pawn island compared to Black’s two. In return, Black obtains the bishop pair, but exploiting it is difficult due to the closed nature of the position.
• We can then break in the center with d4 and f4. Our chances of playing f4 are more promising than Black’s ...f5, since we retain the d-pawn to support e4. As a result, this plan is easier to prepare and carries less risk.

Now let's jump into the follow up variations! Spoiler alert: It's super duper hyper long.

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6... O-O

As Black's most popular move, I will cover it, of course! The most popular move. Black start with this move and only then decide where to place the queen and light-squared bishop, since our king will end being on the kingside.

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6... Bg4

The plan for this is typically paired with Nd7, f6 and dropping the bishop back to f7. Black's king castles long and then aims to reroute the knight to e6. Naturally, we will not allow that to work!

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6... Qe7

Protecting the e5 pawn with the queen is a sensible move. However, the queen isn't particularly well placed on e7 and it can easily become the target of a future Nf5.

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6... Nd7

Black's fourth most popular move, and Fish's recommendation. In this move order, the second player can opt to get f6 in without first committing to castling short.

That's all for our mainline Bc5 variation! Now, we will discover lines without Bc5, which means we will not always (Spoiler alert: Yes we will play this move again later.) play the one and only Bxc6 anymore... But anyways let's dive in to the "Sidelines" section!

The Sideline 4... d6

Let's explore the first moves for this rather popular sideline first.

With 4...d6, Black opts to keep the bishop inside the pawn chain. The second player is hoping to quickly develop with Be7, O-O and then look to break in the center with d5. Our respond is a simple castling move, nothing special. Now we will continue the branches, enjoy!

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5... Be7

The most popular move, clearing the way for O-O.

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5... Bd7

This position bears several similarities to the Deferred Steinitz variation. The main differences are that Black has play a6 and White has spent a tempo on d3, as opposed to the usual plan of c3 followed by d4. While this is in Black's favor, the extra tempo we spent on d3 is not overly significant as the position is closed.

But in reality, this line always transposes to the above 5... Be7 variation! Guess you don't need to remember another major issue now.

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5... a6

This move forces White to give up the bishop for the knight. However, it comes at the cost of weakening Black's pawn structure and spending an entire tempo on a6, which is not terribly useful.

Conclusion

Bxc6 in particular is missed by a lot of players as it is weird but there are significant benifits in it. To remind you again, where are the reasons why we should play Bxc6:

• This exchange gives White a superior pawn structure, with only one pawn island compared to Black’s two. In return, Black obtains the bishop pair, but exploiting it is difficult due to the closed nature of the position.
• We can then break in the center with d4 and f4. Our chances of playing f4 are more promising than Black’s ...f5, since we retain the d-pawn to support e4. As a result, this plan is easier to prepare and carries less risk.

Did you get it, fellow Spanish players? Hopefully yes. That concludes our journey to the weird Bxc6, hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to leave this blog a like, and Goodbye and see ya in the next opening blog! :)

Kind regards,
Howard Y (@No_Weakness_Found)