whiteshark: Dutch champ Jan Smeets continues his solid performance. Today he drew against Adams quite comfortably in a theoretical line of the Petroff. White’s <15.Nh4> avoids a long known idea where 15.Qxc7 0-0! leads to a forced draw, but black calmly sacrificed his c7 pawn anyways, cleverly realizing that he will later regain the d4 pawn, and thus equalizing.
<24...Kf7> might have been more accurate than what he played in the game, since black avoids getting double pawns on g5, but black was still not in danger.
After the game, Jan criticized his <33...a5> (another pawn on a dark square), but when white could not play 35.Qe8 because of 35...Bxf2+!, black entered a totally equal queen ending, and a draw was registered.
fm rd5 report
