Play the Smith-Morra Gambit like IM Marc Esserman (Opening Champion Series)

Opening Champion Series - IM Marc Esserman (MassterofMayhem)

This is the latest installment of my Opening Champion Series where we are covering notable online blitz players who are champions of fun openings. IM Marc Esserman literally wrote the book on the Smith-Morra Gambit (Mayhem in the Morra). Is there any better place to learn this dangerous gambit than from the blitz games of Mr. Mayhem Himself?

The Study - Play the Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted like IM Marc Esserman (Part 1)

The below study is the latest installment of my "Play like..." Interactive Lesson series which can be best enjoyed with the Lichess Tools browser extension installed. The idea of the study is to learn Esserman's treatment of the Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted with a spaced-repetition philosophy. Forthcoming posts will cover the remainder of the accepted lines as well as Esserman's treatment of the declined variations which are also must-know if one wishes to play the gambit.

The study includes many of the 2700+ blitz games that Esserman has played in these lines up to move 20, which were downloaded, merged, and then I separated out the lines. In each chapter, I present a Esserman main line up to a certain point (typically when there's 10-20 games left in a particular line). After that, you are playing through his games in that line up to move 20. As you play through the games, you should be naturally internalizing the middle game plans.

Here is the study:

LichessTools

To get the most out of this study you should add the LichessTools browser extension. LichessTools allows you to play through all the games/variations in an interactive lesson chapter (rather than just the single main line). So if you decline to add LiChess Tools then you are only playing 10% of the study. Available here:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/langlhlcknngldkeliapahbhbcmlcbcj

Cheers,

Dsoul20