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I recently played this incredible line in the Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted against the Sicilian Defense (1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3) with a win on move 8! It all starts innocently enough until move 6, where Black attempts to pin my knight against my queen (6… Bg4). Stockfish calls this move a blunder [+2.82] and I’m proud to have found an extremely devious line.

It all hinges on the Black’s weak f7 pawn, and the Black’s d6 pawn that is ALMOST pinned to the black queen. It’s “almost” as the queen is only defended by the king. Stockfish describes the “best” principled line (7. Bxf7+ Kxf7 8. Ne5+ Ke8 9. Nxg4 Nxg4 10. Qxg4) where pieces are traded and at the end, there is material equality by White has much better development [+1.90]. This is also entirely boring (and admittedly, I didn’t see this line in the game either!).

Instead, I found the extremely spicy (7. Ne5), seemingly hanging my queen and knight simultaneously!

However, BOTH hanging pieces are poisoned and both are devastating traps! If Black thought that this was an “oh no, my queen!” moment and captured the queen, then Bxf7 is checkmate! This is very similar to the trap in the von Hennig Gambit against the Caro-Kann (https://adventuresofachessnoob.com/2022/08/27/8-move-checkmate-against-the-caro-kann-defense-von-hennig-gambit/). However, if Black recognises that “it’s a trap” and feels smug and captures the hanging knight instead, which happened in this game, Bxf7 still works! With the d-file full open, the king is forced to escape check by capturing the bishop, relinquishing defence of the queen! On move 8, Black realised that their queen was lost and resigned. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/61778381625

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.11.10"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "Zorglub76600"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B21"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Sicilian-Defense-Smith-Morra-Gambit-Accepted-4.Nxc3-d6-5.Bc4"]
[UTCDate "2022.11.10"]
[UTCTime "00:14:24"]
[WhiteElo "1359"]
[BlackElo "1361"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "00:14:24"]
[EndDate "2022.11.10"]
[EndTime "00:17:36"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/61778381625"]

1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 dxc3 {Sicilian Defense: Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted [-0.31]} 4. Nxc3 d6 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. Nf3 Bg4 $4 {A blunder [+2.82]} 7. Ne5 {Stockfish calls this a mistake [+0.44] but it's a very tricky line $1} (7. Bxf7+ {This is the principled and objectively best line for White} 7... Kxf7 8. Ne5+ Ke8 9. Nxg4 Nxg4 10. Qxg4 {And chess continues [+2.08]...}) 7... dxe5 {Black saw the mate trap, but took the \"hanging\" knight, which results in Black losing their queen $1} (7... Bxd1 {If Black takes the \"hanging\" queen, it's mate} 8.
Bxf7#) 8. Bxf7+ {[%c_effect
e1;square;e1;type;Winner,e8;square;e8;type;ResignBlack] Black resigns} 1-0