Timeline for Why was castling bad for white in this game, and engine strongly prefered trading queens?

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May 11, 2019 at 12:50	comment	added	user1583209		@David I agree that from a practical perspective, trading pieces is often a good idea if you have a material advantage. Still, here it is also objectively better to trade (engines don't care about "risk"). Without calculating concrete lines, I would be mildly scared playing against the bishop pair in this open position, so I'd disagree with the statement that the c6 knight (which soon has to move is as good as the dark squared bishop.
May 11, 2019 at 12:24	comment	added	David		Indeed, with one or two pawns up simplification is even more effective! The reason is that, with equal pieces and a pawn up, your opponent may have plenty of chances to counterattack but still most endgames will be lost. If you are a piece ahead, reaching an endgame is great, but also if there is a wild attack, it is likely to be in your favour (except maybe in a situation where your king may be very unsafe, which is far from the case in the game you've shown)
May 11, 2019 at 12:19	comment	added	Baldrick		Thanks for your answer. So being 2 pawns up can be a good enough reason to trade down and head for an endgame? I usually do this if I'm a whole piece (or equivalent) up, but generally I'll try to keep my stronger pieces such as a queen until I've got a bigger material advantage. I'll bear that in mind in future games.
May 11, 2019 at 12:08	history	answered	David	CC BY-SA 4.0