Why did Shirov not trade bishop for knight in this position to play against doubled, isolated b-pawns? In The wisest things ever said about chess by GM Soltis, he quotes this about tempi and gives the following example:


  Tempi should not be counted but weighed.


[FEN "r2q1rk1/pp1b1nb1/n2p1pp1/3Pp2p/2N1P2B/2N2P2/PP2B1PP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 1"]
[Site "Istanbul"]
[Date "2000"]
[White "Gelfand"]
[Black "Shirov"]

  1. a4             Qb8           
  2. Nb5 (2...Bxb5 3. axb5 Nc7)           Rc8           
  3. Bf2            Bh6           
  4. Qb3            Nc5           
  5. Qa3             *


The point of the example is that white started with 2 extra tempi in a King's Indian structure, that allowed him to place pressure on the queenside.

My question is, why didn't black play 2...Bxb5 3. axb5 Nc7 to gain chances to win one of the b-pawns?
why didn't black play 2...Bxb5 3. axb5 Nc7 to gain chances to win one
  of the b-pawns?


1) The bishop on d7 is a particulerly fine bishop fighting for control of some very important white squares contested by white pawns. Getting rid of it seems a shame.

2) It's not clear that black is going to win the resulting white pawn on b5 any time soon and in the meantime it is very annoying indeed.

3) Maybe white is going to follow up with b6 and either that pawn is going to be a monster or if it is swapped off white is going to end up with a knight on b6 instead supported by the bishop which is going to move to f2. The white squared bishop is going to come to b5 and there is no corresponding bishop for black.

4) It is going to be difficult for black to compete for the a and c files.

All in all only a masochist is going to go down that route.