Is the Bishop pair overrated?

Hi all

In this game example which I studied recently and I have visited a few times before as well, it is interesting to consider the concept of the advantage of "the bishop pair".

Of course in a theoretical sense the "bishop pair" is often great to have because they "have each other's back" so to speak - they look after complementary square colors. This can be really important and also they serve often as great weapons of attack when one bishop takes away escape squares and the other helps deliver a killer check.

"Soft-spots" though in chess is also an important tactical consideration. Usually one can consider where the opponent's king is defending by itself key pawns, then those pawns can be considered lucrative targets or "soft-spots" and often tactics such as "removal of the defender/ guard" revolve around this idea of exposing those soft-spots even more.

In this game, these two themes battle with each other, as well as two legends of the chess board.

Mikhail Tal plays an e5 break and positively encourages a little tactical move from Petrosian which fits the principle "The advantage of the bishop pair".

It seems however in the aftermath of this, White has significant pressure and in particular black's light square bishop has issues. In fact, it seems that Black King's "soft-spots" come under heavy scrutiny and Tal is able to crush the opponent's King position it seems in quite an easy manner.

So the principle of "Is the bishop pair worth getting?" - has to have the usual answer "It all depends". Here in this example, the soft spots come under fire. Tal is a menace when it comes to the "soft-spots" around the opponent's king and this game serves as a vivid demonstration of why.

At move 19, there is a lovely knight sac which has the aim it seems of routing the Queen potentially to h4 to eye h7 if needed. It seems in this game example the White Queen works wonders in cooperation with the Knights to probe both f7 and h7 - key "soft-spots" of Black's king position.

When there is a hint of a "cold shower" to White's attack after Petrosians Nd7 move, this dream of the "cold shower" is crushed with Rxd7.

A truly brutal kings-crushing game - Tal is a great hero of mine, and he wasn't just a flash in the pan. Although he was only World champion for one year, his strength remained for many years later often in the top 10 or 20 of the FIDE rating lists at the time.

Final position where Tigran Petrosian resigned:

Takeaway Points and Conclusions

• Appreciate the importance of tactical soft spots around King
• Don't always believe the bishop pair is "good"
• "It all depends" is a powerful qualifier for many chess principles!

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.Cheers, K

Cheers, K