Smith-Morra Gambit | Fatal open centre file!
#sicilian #smith-morragambit #openingtactics
Earlier in the week, I had a video and article on a tactic from my book, "50+2 Chess Quick Wins" - "Attack using open centre files". This game is another good demonstration of that tactic!
As noted in that video, this is a relatively more subtle tactical idea. Opening the centre files early is potentially risky, but it is something that can naturally occur in certain openings or may be something that simply evolves in a game in the opening and early middlegame. Being sensitised to the possibility and the potential of this attack, will help identify opportunities for an attack, as well as defend against a weakness.
This was a game of the Smith-Morra Gambit against Black's Sicilian Defense, but where they decline the gambit with an interesting (3... a6). One of the advantages of the Smith-Morra Gambit is that declining the gambit typically gives the advantage to White.
The opening itself in this game is not especially interesting, other than Black freestyling against the Smith-Morra. On move 7, this allowed me to have castled kingside, while Black was significantly down on development, having committed (? wasted) moves for a potential future queenside attack.
In line with the tactical idea, "Attack using the open centre files", I've focussed on this in this game review. Notice that on move 10, both the d- and e-files are semi-open. With Black having their king still stuck in the centre, this makes their king safety a bit loose.
On move 13, the d-file is fully opened, meaning that there is a critical weakness to king safety for Black. The Stockfish evaluation in this position (roughly [+1]) can potentially be misleading in a sense. With perfect play of the engine, Black is "fine" but under human conditions, Black must play very accurately as mistakes can be fatal.
We see this very quickly - after a series of trades, the d-file is controlled by White's rook on d1, and Black's king is almost trapped against the file. Black now plays a single inaccurate move with Rb8, and there is [+M8]! The mistake is immediately apparent after (16. Bc6+) and Black resigns, GG!
The big takeaway from this game is to recognise the possibility and potential of attacks on the king down early open centre files.
