morra gambit - the power of open files
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Lovely game. I wanna try out that gambit.
hitmenow - if you want to learn how to play it, check out some of these links
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/smith-morra-gambit
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/unsound-morra-smith-gambit
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/morra-gambit-in-blitz-play?lc=1
http://www.chessvictory.com/SmithMorra.pdf
I should learn how to do it. However, I thought I heard that there are some excellent systems Grandmasters use to play against it. In this game, Black's piece configuration looks like the Sicilian Kan or Taimanov variations.
The Siberian trap is meant to be quite deadly.
I'm not sure if the chessvictory article covers it.
One of the National Masters on this site, Reb, believes that the MG is quite a drawish opening with best play from black, if that means anything
I agree with Reb (although we both haven't a mathematical proof of this claim, I guess). To push white - who usually knows the gambit in detail! - into a terrain which is hopefully less known to him, less forced, and less analysed. I play
1. e4 c5, 2. d4 c:d, 3. c3 Nf6, 4. e5 Nd5,
which is the c3-system in Sicilian.
It offers good play for both, I believe.
Mandelshtam
This is a fun game I just played on live chess (15 mins + 10 seconds per move).
I played a morra gambit (the only thing I know how to do against Sicilians), and my opponent knew how to stop the obvious tactical weapons in the morra (with 4. ...e6).
After resisting early black attacks with the queen and black-squared bishop along the b8-h2 diagonal, I managed to get checkmate on the 23rd move.