Bobby moore v jeremy silman.

in the hands of a senior master the morra can be a weapon.

no doubt.

i know bobby btw.

I can show you many games that I've won with smithmorra in blitz even against 2000+ playres, It is the surprise element that works the best for white in rapid and blitz games that "might" work for him to win the games like me.. but above club players this gambit is all useless, I use it just to avoid learning all mammoth books of opening theory involved with sicilian defense. Here main lines are very few and if you play the best and fast in blitz games least you get is a draw against equal or slightly higher rated players. Still not for the GMs may be but are we all Grandmasters or IMs ?

Gambits are about position – the end.  And the Smith-Morra gambit doesn’t give white any positional advantage as far as we can see.  We can all agree that white is developed, files are open, pieces are ready, etc.  But after reading the many different analyses above, I think white would be better off AVOIDING this gambit, even against an average player who has never heard of this opening.

White loses with this opening unless black has suicidal ambitions of his own.

Wow, the guy who singlehandedly raised my rating 200 points is on chess.com =D!!!

Got a kick out of this blog :P... "I know nothing about this line but..." and then proceeds to rhyme off the most precise analysis of the smith morra I've seen in ages. :P.

Welcome aboard chess.com!  I'd die for a correspondence game if you're up for one? :P

thank you!!!

Check out my article offering a basic statistical analysis of the results of amateur opening choices: http://www.chess.com/article/view/amateur-opening-preparation-the-evidence. There you will see that the Smith-Morra scores very well on the amateur level, but either of the standard methods for declining the gambit (3... Nf6 and 3... d5) result in white losing all advantage. Of course, IM Silman is correct that this opening is objectively garbage, which is why it is rarely played on the GM level, but it is difficult for amateurs to play against. That is why I would suggest that all but the true theory dogs among amateurs avoid it when playing the Sicilian.

easy =

gg

Na4??? why cant black just leave it if its worst to take?

I have been learning on the Smith-Morra because it keeps my usual gambit lines in full progress (Danish/Goring/Maybe Scotch) and I am going to need to look out for some of those equalizing moves because I am not looking out for the pawn here but blood... (muhahahaha.... whoops got a head of myself again...)

I would agree with littleAlekhine that the best Morra killer on the amateur level is a simple transposition into a c3 Sicilian. A c3 Sicilian is certainly not what white was looking for when playing the Morra! You might call it a psychological refutation.

After 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 Black should also consider declining the gambit with 3...e5

One reason this idea has merit is that the system can also arise from Alapin's line  1.e4 c5 2.c3 e5!? 3.d4 cxd4

Just like accepting the gambit, I think that a prepared Black player can expect equality at worst and sometimes an edge.

Very nice articel, thank you Mr Silman

I play the Sicilian with black and normally i play 3. ...Nf6 against the Morra (to transpose into an Alapin variation), but some of your variations (especially the "Morra Killer variation") look very very interesting and good for black.

So maybe i will change my weapon against the Morra :)

I your talking off the last game in question. then Rd1 is Bxd1.

Why not play 9.Rd1 in the first line followed by Bg5 or b4 (if black plays Nc6)? That one might be better?

hmm.....