Saturday, 24 March 2012

Compensation thief

 For the final round, I played the 156 Daniel Sutton for the third time this season. Having had a win and a draw from our previous encounters, I perhaps have something of a psychological advantage, although I must concede I was rather fortunate to get the win (blogged here.) Anyway, this time he at least could look forward to playing the white pieces. He soon squandered this advantage by misplaying a promising position from my favourite gambit, the Smith-Morra, and one is soon left wondering exactly what white sacrificed two pawns for:


 Perhaps I was a little harsh on white in my introduction above. After all, I remained worried all the way up to 14... O-O, even if I was winning by then, and white certainly has chances whilst the black King remains in the centre. However, 14. Bxa7? was a flawed attempt to muddy the waters that only made things worse for white, and it was soon black who had the tactics working for him, with unsurprising results.

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