Originally posted by greenpawn34
Without seeing what else was happening it is hard to say.

The lad giving the simul has the advantage that you HAVE TO MOVE the
moment he appears at the board. He is looking to roll over all the weaker
players quickly so he can use his sudden appearance to force blunders amongst
the more experienced players.

I now specualte.
Jessie had marked d ...[text shortened]... P/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 4[/fen]
4.cxd4 d5. 5.exd5 Nf6 Black gets his pawn back. This is playable.

Hi RB.


It looks like an Advanced French 'cept Black has not played e6. (yet)

Someone posted stats favouring White after 3...d6.

My OTB DB has 778 games with this postion.
Black winning 56% of the games.

Looking at the grades they tend to go with the games.
(The better player wins either side in most cases - no need
to call Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out.)

But in the majority of the games 5.exd5 was played here.
Again stats favout Black 1020 games Black wins 55%.

I think it simply shows us that Morra Gambit players (often the lower graded
player) not getting the game they want (or aided by memory of book moves)
drift into lost games.

On the RHP DB after 5.e5 the figure is 58% favouring Black.


Playing over a few of the Black wins a developing pattern emerges.

The Knight skips out to h6 and thanks to e4-e5 he now has the square f4.
The b8 Knight develops to c6 and with the other knight on f4 the blocked
pawn on d4 is feeling the pinch.

The c8 Bishop goes to g4 after Nf3 and then Black plays e6.
Bg7 - 0-0 and Black then plays f6. A ready made developing plan.


The Knight is good there in a locked centre. White can shift it with g4
but where is he castling? Note also it covers h6 twice so no Qd2-Be3-h6 ideas.

Two games - first an OTB game.

Liberadzki(1969) - Solnicki (2010) Rewal 2008

Thanks for all your had work putting that together.