At Dos Hermanas the following year, he shared third behind Fridman and Bu Xiangzhi (with Sergey Volkov) and at the 2005 Hengelo Stork Young Masters event, he finished one-half point behind the Russian grandmaster Alexander Riazantsev.

This was a year of significant breakthrough for Smeets, when he recorded one of his best performances at Wijk aan Zee's Corus 'B' tournament, finishing equal with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov for a share of second place, behind Teimour Radjabov.

Left in his wake were a multitude of other strong players, including Peter Heine Nielsen, Ivan Cheparinov, Alexander Onischuk, Magnus Carlsen and Predrag Nikolić.

He played successfully at the Essent Open in Hoogeveen in 2007, finishing once more as runner-up, this time with Friso Nijboer, Jan Werle and Evgeny Postny, behind surprise winner Eltaj Safarli.

In 2008, there were a number of excellent results; he was the winner of the Dutch Championship at Hilversum and finished third at the Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament, after Michael Adams and Loek van Wely, but ahead of Jan Timman, Ivan Sokolov and Nigel Short.