Sicilian Defense | More Mayhem in the Morra!
#sicilian #smithmorragambit
Today, I had another game of the Sicilian Defense, and another day with "Mayhem in the Morra!". In the comments of one of my previous videos @MidnasLament of the "Chess Is Best with Stacia Melinda" YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@chessisbest) pointed me towards this excellent book on the Smith-Morra Gambit: "Mayhem In The Morra!", Marc Esserman. In the foreword to the book from GM Larry Christiansen, a three-time US Champion, he wrote:
"He [Esserman] has forced many opponents to spend countless hours preparing for the dreaded thing [Smith-Morra Gambit]. Many formerly proud acceptors have become meek, snivelling decliners when faced with Esserman's dreaded 3. c3... Answering... with the "beta" replies 3... Nf6 and 3... g6 is a significant psychological victory for White by move 3."
If that isn't a positive recommendation to play the Smith-Morra, I don't know what is!
This game began with a Smith-Morra Gambit Declined, Push Variation [+0.8] (1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 d3). And yes, it does feel like a psychological victory over the Sicilian getting Black to make concessions this early on! We win back the pawn with development. In the opening, Black throws forward their kingside pawns to deflect my bishop, and I get the better position, though, I drop an opportunity with a double attack on their e5 pawn for the sake of developing my light square bishop and attempting to set up a tricky attack on Black's f7 pawn (Stockfish thinks this doesn't work).
By around move 10, the position gets rather complicated and neither my opponent and I play accurately. However, my position with the White pieces is probably easier to play as their king is still in the centre of the board while I had castled.
Move 13 was fascinating. I centralised my rook (Rhe1) which though makes sense from the point of view of development and defending my hanging pawn on e4, was not accurate. The aggressive human move to play was Qxb7, capturing Black's b-pawn and infiltrating Black's defences with my queen. The engine finds an extraordinary and inhuman rook sacrifice (Rxd6) which seemingly doesn't make sense, until you see down the line - Black is eventually completely bound up with their king stuck in the centre of the board, facing a massive attack. Have a look at the PGN!
On move 14, Black falls for a trap (14... Nxc4) [+7.8]. Although it isn't immediately obvious, I can effective force Black to trade their queen for a piece. After (15. Nxc4), and I now have (16. Nxd6+). Black has only two legal moves - either capturing my knight with their queen (Qxd6), and then losing their queen to my rook, or, to side-step their king (Kd7), but they would then face (Nf5+) - a discovered check with a simultaneous knight attack on their queen.
Captures, captures, Black short castles, but after one more capture, the psychological injury has been done and they opt to resign. GG!
Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/75002592903
