Letter #27 -  2003

Sub:    Anti Smith-Morra gambit
Date:   7/30/2003 6:39:32 PM MDT
From:  Richard Moody Jr
To:      service@chess-poster.com

Greetings,

Is Chess really this simple? 1.e4 c5 2.d4 e6 (played by Gary Kasparov) 3.Nf3 Qc7 (my improvement over Kasparov--- I think he played cxd4 here) 4.Nc3 a6 = If either side has an advantage here, I'd prefer black:

There is simply no way that white can force black to play cxd4 and if white tries something like 5.a4, black has 5...b6. The only try white has, in my opinion, is d5 which looks dubious.

Obviously, if black can play this against the Smith-Morra, then he can play this concept against most variations of the Sicilian. White could try an early Bf4 but then black has Qb6.

What looks very bad for white is that black is guaranteed a very active Queen safely. White will not have comparable Queen activity. If we give specific moves: 5.a4 b6 6.d5 d6 7.Be2 e5 and, again, white has nothing.

Richard Moody Jr

Dear viewer,

Your “Anti Smith-Morra” gambit analysis is a very interesting one and we're still trying to figure it out.

If we find that such moves sequence is a novelty or unpublished, we will add it to our openings section under the “Anti Smith-Morra gambit / Moody variation name.

Thank you for visiting us,
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