The Fabulous 00s: Chess.FM and Handling the Smith-Morra

Defending the Smith-Morra – Updated with PDF ‘treatise’

I recently made some videos for Chess.FM and they will be released in November 08.  The theme is playing black in the Sicilian when white diverges from the main lines.  One of the segments is on the Smith-Morra gambit.   I was happy to see Alex Lenderman present ideas for the white side so I could advance those and further his analysis from the black perspective.   That’s what chess theory is, the give and take of various opinions coupled with practical examples and reader independent analysis and Q&A.

This web entry will serve as a placeholder so readers can comment on the variations I presented.  If you don’t want to wait for the video release, I will post the key lines here.  I will also create a single PDF document covering all the lines that readers can download for a nominal fee.

It’s nice to see controversy swirling around an opening (see comment section of this web entry) and it is a nice impetus to motivate the web effort to get at the truth.  Much like the Internet Engineering Task Force “does not worship Kings of Presidents, only running code” so should we only really pay attention to chess positions and their evaluations, not chess personalities attacking one another.

Installment 1. Smith-Morra background and Historically Important Games

Installment 2 (PDF Format): Smith-Morra Introduction and Lenderman’s try 6…a6 7. e5!?

Update Oct 22, 2008:  Font problems fixed!  I saved the RTF as PDF on my end to capture the Diagram fonts.

Kramnik WC Problems and Mid-course Repetoire Change

Kramnik should switch to 1. e4! Critics said “he has nothing against Anand’s Petroff.”  Well he can try this. Other critics said “he has nothing against Anand’s Marshall.”  But there are a lot of scary Anti-Marshall treatments, aren’t there?  :O

ICC Best in the 5 minute pool

Thanks to exciting wins, losses, and draws mostly versus the same guy (GM Atomrod), I have made the big-time.

best 5
(Human only)
5-minute
2705 Dako(GM)             GM Dmitry Kononenko
2700 BOOO
2624 quangliem(GM)     GM Le Quang Liem (Vietnam, FIDE 2583, 17 years old)
2613 Shadeath(GM)        GM Andrey Deviatkin, 2563
2593 Olegas(IM)             Oleg Krivonosov (this guy flags K R v K R)
2561 MegaZZ(GM)         Now a GM,  Zong Yuan Zhao (Australia)
2541 DrainYou(GM)        GM Sune Berg Hansen (DEN) I beat Soren Bech Hansen. 🙂
2533 taktikus(GM)          GM Zoltan Medvegy (HUN, FIDE 2556) I recently drew him.
2531 Saint89(IM)           IM Sergei Yudin, FIDE 2556, RUS
2528 atalik(GM)             GM Suat Atalik, TUR
2521 Gor(IM)                 IM Igor Yanvarjov I have beaten him oodles of times, usually by swindle.
2519 UzbekDragon(GM)      GM Timur Gareev (UZB) FIDE 2580
2504 wasteoftime(IM)
2494 Dlugy(GM)             GM Maxim Dlugy
2493 aries2(IM)             me!
2493 Sauerkraut(GM)      GM Slavko Cicak  He has some pet Reti lines!
2478 Zirafa(IM)                IM Jure Skoberne
2470 Dinamit(IM)              Arthur Gabrielyan  I’m always playing him in Dos Hermanas.
2470 Me-better(IM)     IM Thomas Rendle  UK
2468 Snooker(GM)            GM Giannis Nikolaidis
2456 Josanz(IM)
2449 alexser(IM)

Probable Support from St. Petersburg

If Sports Illustrated model Anne V from St. Petersburg, Russia, played chess, she would probably agree with my Smith-Morra opinions.

Anne V:  Probably Excellent Support

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