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A great tourney....but would never work!!

A great tourney....but would never work!!

Only Chess

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Does anyone remember the Thematic in Buenos Aries in 1994 when some of the best players in the world Anand, Karpov, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Polagr, Kamsky etc played all games in the Open Sicilian.

Would be great to do that here but fear that it would not be possible

I think the games went 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 2.e6/d6/Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 and then anything went after that!!

Bet there would be loads of interest!!

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I'd rather see a Morra gambit accepted tourni.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if some IM's & FM's got shock wins for white against stronger opposition.

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Originally posted by Squelchbelch
I'd rather see a Morra gambit accepted tourni.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if some IM's & FM's got shock wins for white against stronger opposition.
I doubt it sadly.

Mind you Michael Adams once beat GM William Watson with the Morra at a British Championship - that was a while ago though. 1989/1990. Can't remember if Adams was a GM then. Perhaps not.

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Originally posted by JonathanB of London
I doubt it sadly.

Mind you Michael Adams once beat GM William Watson with the Morra at a British Championship - that was a while ago though. 1989/1990. Can't remember if Adams was a GM then. Perhaps not.
Ben Hague beat openings guru GM Jim Plaskett in 2004 with the Morra.

Patrick Ray beat Morra accepted defence theorist IM Ben Finegold with the gambit last year.

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Originally posted by Squelchbelch
Ben Hague beat openings guru Jim Plaskett in 2004 with the Morra.

Patrick Ray beat Morra accepted defence theorist IM Ben Finegold with the gambit last year.
Jim Plaskett is an openings guru???

Anyway, I'm not saying it's possible that an FM/IM would beat a stronger player with the gambit but it's just not that likely. Certainly wouldn't be a common occurence.

I'm quite fond of the Morra - played it a few times myself years ago. Not sure it's tremendously good though.

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Originally posted by Squelchbelch
Ben Hague beat openings guru GM Jim Plaskett in 2004 with the Morra.

Patrick Ray beat Morra accepted defence theorist IM Ben Finegold with the gambit last year.
Ben Hague also plays the Wing Gambit against the Sicilian.

I know cos i saw him play it against our Board 1 when my team played against him team this year.

P.S. He won 😉