Attack with LarryC : Smerdon’s Creative Attack Goes Astray in Bundesliga Battle

Smerdon’s Creative Attack Goes Astray in Bundesliga Battle

Opening: B38: Sicilian: Sicilian, Accelerated Fianchetto, Maroczy Bind, 6.Be3

Player(s): Smeets, Smerdon

Today GM LarryC starts with a 'black to move and win' puzzle. Black is apparently lost at a first sight, but with an amazing sequence of sacs - in the best Tal's tradition - he delivers a stunning checkmate. The Larry moves on to show us a nice combo happened in a recent game played between Fridman and Rodshtein in the Bundesliga. In a complicated and highly tactical position, Rodshtein shows how two well-coordinated knights can be fatal. The main dish today is a game - again from the Bundesliga - played between two ICC's commentators: Jan Smeets of the Netherlands and David Smerdon of Australia. An accelerated dragon - very popular opening - leads to the usual struggle to dominate the center. Smerdon plays very well and gets ahead. Taking advantage of Smeet's slightly passive play, David goes for a piece-sac, ripping open white King's defense. David at this point has a murderous attack, as Larry shows us, but he falters, with one sacrifice too many, giving Jan a chance to activate a powerful counter-play action and win the battle. A tough loss for our friend David Smerdon, but a very instructive and theoretically important game.