Ideas Behind The Jobava-Prié (part eight)

AFTER 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bf4 e6, White usually continues 4.e3.
The black reply 4...c5?! scores well, but it is doubtful if White plays the thematic 5.Nb5.
Then the forced 5...Na6 covers the c7 square, but leaves Black in a quandary over how to get rid of the pesky knight on b5.
Much more common is for Black to develop his dark-square bishop, with 4...Bd6 being narrowly more popular than 4...Bb4 in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database.
The latter scores a better percentage, and I will look at it in the next part of this series, but here I will cover ...Bd6..
Emilio Córdova (GM 2602) - Anton Kovalyov (GM 2602)
American Continental (San Salvador) 2016
5.Nf3
The main line. White saves a tempo on moving the light-square bishop and is unconcerned about contracting doubled f pawns - the continuation will show why.
5...Bxf4 6.exf4 0-0
6...Qd6 can be met by 7.Ne5, which is where the white king's knight likely wants to go at some point anyway.
7.Bd3 b6!?
Slightly more popular is 7...c5, but playing to swop off Black's bad bishop seems logical.

How should White proceed?

*****
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8.Ne2!?
Komodo10's choice. I presume the idea is that White hopes to attack on the kingside, and may castle long if the right conditions arise.
8.Qe2 prevents an immediate ...Ba6, but Komodo10 and Stockfish10 reckon Black is fine after a line such as 8...c5 9.b3 Qc7 10.Qe5 Qe7. It may well be that 8...a5!? is also reasonable, although the engines slightly prefer White after 9.0-0 Ba6 10.Bxa6 Nxa6 11.Ne5.
8...Ba6 9.Ne5 c5
White's light-square bishop cannot avoid a swop.
10.c3 Bxd3 11.Qxd3 Qd6 12.0-0 Nc6 13.Rfe1
White's game is a little freer, but Black can engineer queenside counterplay before the situation gets serious on the kingside, where the f4 pawn gives White more space.
13...Rac8 14.Rad1 Rfe8 15.h3 cxd4 16.Nxd4!?
This comes to be the engines' top choice, but not by much.
16...Qxd4 17.Qxd4
White avoids 17.cxd4?!, which gives him an isolated d pawn and opens the c file, where Black already has a rook.
17...Qc5 18.g4 Re7 19.a4 ½–½
This game suggests that if Black knows what he is doing, White cannot expect much from allowing a swop on f4. Perhaps 5.Bg3 is the way to go as 5...Bxg3!? 6.hxg3 gives White a half-open h file and promotes his h pawn, that covers one square (g3), to a g pawn that covers two squares (h4 and f4).