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| I have just played 10.Bc1-f4, and it is up to Black to decide what to do about the attacked c7 pawn |
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As is well known, White in the Spanish Exchange gives up the bishop-pair in order to obtain the superior pawn-structure.
White gets a healthy 4-3 kingside majority, from which a passed pawn can be made with normal play, while Black gets a damaged 4-3 queenside majority, which will not produce a passed pawn with normal play, unless White gets careless.
In the diagram position, Black has three plausible ways of saving c7: (i) by castling, (ii) by defending the pawn with the dark-square bishop, (iii) by advancing the pawn.
I suspect most players would pretty quickly dismiss 10...c6 as not helping development, as well as weakening Black on the b8-h2 diagonal, including the square d6.
The overwhelmingly most popular choice in ChessBase's 2026 Mega database is 10...0-0-0, which not only defends the pawn, but gets the king to safety, and develops the rook - three good things for the price of one!
However, I was surprised 10...Bd6 appears only once in Mega26.
After 11.Bxd6 cxd6, Black no longer has the bishop-pair, but also no longer has doubled pawns. However, Black has also contracted a backward pawn on a half-open file.
The engines very much disapprove of 10...Bd6.
Part of the reason, no doubt, is the backward pawn, but there is also the fact that engines rate the bishop-pair as more than cancelling out the disadvantage of having doubled pawns - indeed, engines are not keen on White playing the Spanish Exchange from the get-go.
The move 4.Bxc6 sees Stockfish18 and Dragon1 drop their evaluation of the opening from slightly better for White to a game with equal chances.
Garry Kasparov might well agree, as I recall a John Watson review for The Week In Chess in which he quotes Kasparov as joking that "the bishop is always better than the knight!"
LESSON: the bishop-pair is a major factor in chess, and should not be given up without very good cause.
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