The Isolated Queen's Pawn is perhaps the ultimate acquired taste. Its owner, reluctantly or otherwise, gains some nice open lines for his pieces, especially the c- and e-files, but in return has a structural weakness which will gradually consume a greater and greater proportion of his pieces. Some people like the chances to attack, some people like to target the pawn. I number myself among the latter; don't get me wrong, I've scored some very nice wins with the IQP, but even against 160s, I have made a career out of gobbling it up sooner or later. In fact, in recent months I have come to simply hate having to defend it.
I am sure you will understand my mindset after 5 moves of this game, then:
For context, this came from the away day school match, Hampton - Sutton Grammar. Our grade distribution was 192-156, 143-144, 129-159, 125-130, 114-135, 123-102; in the end we won 4-2 with wins on boards 1, 2 and 6 and split points on 4 and 5. So it didn't matter much in itself, despite Hampton's rather interesting board order.
According to Steinitz, "the best way to refute a gambit is to accept it!" From an objective viewpoint, I agree, but my opponent displayed good practical judgement in taking me down a path that he correctly guessed I wouldn't be so comfortable with, and quickly seizing the advantage. Absurd though it might seem to some, 1 hour for 30 moves is not very much, and should Dias have gone in for a Smith-Morra, then two things would be in my favour: i) I play it a lot, OTB and online, so know it pretty well (at Richmond, I once got a briefly winning position against a 203 with it), and ii) Black has a miserly defence to conduct for 20 moves if white plays well - and with little time it's easier to attack than defend. Results talk, in any case.
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