Is the Winawer bad for black!?

Hi all,

My question is the same as the title: Is the Winawer variation of the french defense bad for black? First of all, with the move order 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3  , besides inflicting doubled pawns upon white, what does black recieve? Basically, in 5 moves, black has traded off his good bishop for one of white's knights, giving white the bishop pair. This seems ill-advised. Also, although not as important as the previous statement made, black has also helped white strengthen d4, a square which black goes after in the french.

Thanks 

That's what Blackburne thought in the 1880s. But there is enough to keep White on his toes, as it turns out.

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White gets messed up pawns and no good breaks on the Black center for a while and Black can start counterplay Q-side.

At least two 2700+ players play the Winawar on a regular basis:  Ivanchuk and Panomariov.  Just this year, Ivanchuck defeated Carlsen with it.

Black gets a half-open C file with a clear target at the end of it.  The position is blocked, making the bishop pair less valuable, and white's natural pawn break (F5) is sloooow to carry out.  The difficulties arise when black is unprepared for white's kingside attack with pieces since black's pieces can't efficiently switch to the kingside.

Check out Game One of Tal-Botvinnik 1960 for a great example of how Black can get into trouble.  But no, that doesn't mean that this opening is "bad" for Black.

There is actually a huge advantage to the Winawer. In the classical, white almost always gets to press on e5 for free, chasing the black knight away from the king's wing with tempo. In the Winawer white used a tempo with a3 and he gets doubled pawns. In other words it looks a bit like the Nimzo Indian in that regard.

There are several positional ideas from there. Black can chase away Bd3 with c4 and completely block it off from the game. Or, maybe black has Ba6 or Bb5, leaving black with just the bad dark squared bishop. Then there's the idea of Qc7 or Qa5, threatening the weak c3 square. Black has plenty to play for, and economically, it is one of the best set ups since black doesn't commit his pieces to any squares they get chased away from early.