Why does Stockfish recommend this bishop exchange early on? When reviewing my games on Lichess, I very often find the Lichess engine recommending to me to sacrifice the bishop early on after checking the enemy king. I have created a sample game where you can see it happening. I don't see myself in any better position there, so I am curious what I gain by doing this.
[FEN &quot;&quot;]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c4 Nd4 4. Nxd4 cxd4 5. d3 e5 6. Be2 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Bxd2+ 8. Qxd2

I just don't understand why it wants me to move my bishop to b4 in the first place. I'd much rather want to develop my position more by doing c5 or knight f6 or similar.
I wouldn't say it was a &quot;sacrifice&quot;, it was more like an exchange of bishops.
My lichess engine was actually giving me ...Bd6 as the first move.

I don't understand why it wants me to move my bishop to b4 in the first place

Me neither. I doubt anyone here will have an idea. Stockfish doesn't tell us why. If I have to make a guess, I would say the bishop is being blocked by the d4-e5 pawn chain, so it makes sense to exchange the bad bishop off.