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french defense trying to trade off bad bishop

I played a game earlier and tried to deliberately get rid of my light squared bishop straight away. Ive noticed there is no master games that play a5 early to try and get rid of it. Why is that? Is it because it is too tempo consuming? I am still learning this defence so I guess what I am asking is it advisable to go out of your way to get rid of it or just play normally.

Here is the game

It is pointless to play 7...a5. You can just play 7...Ba6 right away if you want to trade bishops. After 7...a5 white can stop your plan with 8 Qe2.
I play the French and normally I find there are many more useful things you could be doing instead of trading off the bishop as it's normally released later in the game anyways. The position, however, is fairly blocked so the wasted tempi aren't as important as in an open position, but still.

I once heard that if you're getting hung over the 'bad bishop' then you're not understanding the French....

Additionally, I would say white misplayed the position. Instead of 4.Nf3, 4.c3 is much more solid. Normally, you wouldn't want to play cxd4 too early either (in fact, in some variations you end up playing c4 instead, but you have to know when it is beneficial) and instead crank up the pressure a bit with moves like Nc6 and Qb6. But since your opponent played Nf3, he allowed you a solid position with plenty of queenside play especially after taking on c6.

However, you will notice your oppoent developed much quicker than you, BUT to no effect. Instead of the knight going to g6, another possible maneouver is h6 and to f5.

It also seems to me Stockfish didn't like your f6 as it allowed white to open the position and take advantage of his development. Particularly with his rooks bearing down on your pawns.

However! Take everything I saw with PLENTY of salt, on account of my inexperience! If you ever want to practice the French (or any other opening, or just play, or whatever), send me a message :)
Yes the bad French Bishop is often better than one thinks.
No 4 c3 is not better or worse than 4 Nf3. 4 Nf3 was given by Nimzovich as better than 4 c3, which he had played earlier. Also Alekhine has played like this. It is a matter of taste.
No, 4...cxd4 is logical and good here. You can wait 4...Nc6, but after 5 Bd3 you have to take 5...cxd4 just the same. White goes 6 o-o and you are temporarily up a pawn, but you lose that later.
As I said, PLENTY of salt :)

Thanks @tpr Also, I wasn't saying cxd4 was early HERE. Quite the opposite, if that wasn't clear. Personally, I would look at it like this: if you play Nc6, your opponent has the chance to play c3 and the centre appears harder to undermine. And I personally like the position if white chooses Bd3 (which I hadn't considered, me being a patzer) and after the exchanges for black, but that's taste more than anything else.

Of course, I figured 4. Nf3 was playable, after all it was in the opening book and Stockfish didn't label it a mistake. But I thought (wrongly) that it was inferior. Second most common move, if I remember it correctly but it was by a huge margin. 4 c3 had almost 10000 whereas 4 Nf3 had only a couple of hundreds.

And you'd be surprised how many times you are able to hold on to a pawn you really shouldn't be able to :) At my level, of course.
There are only 5 master games in this position, because white already misplayed it. So nothing special that a5 (which I find perfectly ok) was never played. However, the main reason you are actually not obliged to trade this bishop is that your c and d pawns are mobile in this line (unlike typical French Advance when d5 is blocked), so this bishop can become very effective from b7 in the future.

Also despite SF says 5. Nxd4 is the best move I really do not recommend to play this line for white. I was on the black side of this line bazillion times and can say that black has quite an easy play there.
Yes that makes sense Wolfram. I think like you said if white has already made inaccuracies in the opening then there is probably better ways to play for the advantage than trying to trade off a bad piece. I never thought about the mobile pawns. That makes a lot of sense too. Thanks.

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