Smith-Morra Gambit, or stick with main lines?

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crazedrat1000

For starting out in the sicilian I'd recommend playing some anti-sicilians just to limit the size of the theory you need to learn. However there are much better anti-sicilians than the Smith Morra, especially its main line. The Closed is immeasurably better. If you want something more creative... there are multiple good lines with a delayed b3 or delayed Qxd4. The Smith Morra is not scoring well and is not that hard to deal with for black. Yes you can win with it, but all that means is it isn't totally unsound.

It's also not nearly as surprising or difficult to respond to as people think it is.

MaestroDelAjedrez2025

I don't understand why some black players play d3 after white plays c3