My Smith Morra Gambit 02

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shawkash

Hello all,

Here you are the 2nd post about my smith morra gambit, where I will analiyze a line which surprised me as a white, when I was playing in the cafe yesterday. And I will show you my mistakes, and what the moves in ECO, and what Fritz suggested.

The game was played in a cafe, but the player is a member here as he told me, we played with a timer, it was 5 minutes and 3 seconds additional to each move. However blitz game is always good idea to review openings. Let's see what happened.

 

Bad, right? So what should white do when he faces this varation? I worked on ECO to find a good system for me, and I think this is what I come up with..

 

But what if black tried to make a transposition?

 

Another post I had on morra smith:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/my-smith-morra-gambit

updated in september 2010, I found a very good line to respond in Smith Morra Gambit to this defense. Please take a look:

cbgirardo

Just so you know, the Smith-Morra leads to a theoretical edge for Black. So you shouldn't expect White to be better in every line. However, the critical variations all involve an early ...a6 so this should at least be okay for White.

In my database there are 22 games after this ...Bb4 in your last diagram position, and White scored 71%. This would indicate that it is not a particularly threatening line (if Black played 5...a6, for example, White's score is an abysmal 36.9%, and even lower when Black plays 4...a6). The main continuation is 7.O-O Nge7, enforcing the d5 push, where after 8.Qe2 Black should probably castle before exchanging on c3 and pushing d5. It is true that White's queenside pawns are weak and Black has an extra central pawn(see White's third move) but White has some compensation in the form of active pieces and kingside play, and Black's c8-Bishop has problems becoming developed actively.

shawkash
TeraIncognitia wrote:

And what would happen if u dropped a pieces after acquiring a += in the opening??


lol

rooperi

I dabbled a bit with the smith-morra.

I tried best lines out of my database, but if Black plays properly, I invariably get to the ending a pawn down.

I decided to look elsewhere, if I give a pawn, I want to see some advantage. I guess I just don't get it.

shawkash

Roopepri:

It needs someone who has an attacking style I guess.

shawkash

@cbgirardo

very useful information, really ty for sharing!

DrDCameOutSwinging

20. Bb2 looks pretty passive to me. 

rooperi

Here's a game I played (and lost) against a strong player. I still really don't know where it went pearshaped.

hilmp

i'm no expert :) but here are my thoughts rooperi.

i think e5 gave away all the action for you. with the bishop on d7 black is happy opening the d-file. 

maybe a better plan was to pressure d6 with Nb5 and Rc1 to make Qc7 risky, maybe forcing the black queen to b1. if he plays a6 then your black-squared bishop can go to the e3-a7 diagonal.

shawkash
rooperi wrote:

Here's a game I played (and lost) against a strong player. I still really don't know where it went pearshaped.

 


shawkash
Estragon wrote:

Ken Smith, the  late SM  and Chess Digest publisher who revitalized the gambit and attached his name (with full justification) was the local player selected to compete in the strongest GM event in the US since the 2nd Piatagorksy Cup, San Antonio 1972 - the "Church's Fried Chicken" tournament, which included the rising Karpov, Petrosian, and several other GMs.  Smith played his gambit at every chance, losing every game, but to very strong players. 

Observing Smith's game against Keres, when the latter played 1 ...e5, Petrosian remarked the move must be considered a mistake, "since 1 ...c5 wins a pawn."  GM Larry Evans, a friend and collaborator of Smith's, agreed the gambit was no good.

If you play it against an unprepared opponent, it can get you a great position early in the game.  But anyone who has had to play against it before and learned how will not fear it.


In my opinion, I think chess in 50s, 60s, and 70s is not like now, I highly doubt Ruy Lopez will play his opening as good as how a player like Kasparov will! I know it is not fair to compare between classic players and modern ones.

I mean here, a lot of lines has been played between grandmasters, and they are recorded .. And as for speaking of who won against a strong player with smith morra, here you are a game where someone crashed Magnus Carlson sicilian using Smith Morra.

http://www.redhotpawn.com/chess/grandmaster-games/viewmastergame.php?pgnid=39950&subject=M_Weighell_vs_Magnus_Carlsen

:)