More on Morra

The Morra or Smith-Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4) is an interesting gambit in the Sicilian Defense.  I co-wrote two books on the Smith-Morra with Ken Smith a few years ago and collected as many examples of the Smith-Morra Accepted and the Smith-Morra Declined as I could.  Some openings in the Sicilian transpose into a delayed Smith-Morra as this game does.  It came from a correspondence game in 1955.  White was able to make a few sacrifices to win, but Black may have missed a better line.  The opening itself is named after Pierre Morra (1900-1969) and Ken Smith (1930-1999).  The opening is not really played at the grandmaster level very much, and is mostly seen at club level and correspondence play.