Which defense against the Smith-Morra gambit accepted do you think is best?

I love accepting the Smith-Morra gambit as black. Everytime I do I get a rush of excitment, it's a feeling of knowing your castle is about to be bombarded, but if you can hold the attackers at bay you can get a comfortable endgame.

There are a lot of opening systems black can use to weather the storm that ensues when the Smith-Morra Gambit is accepted. Some of them are: the Chicago Defense, the Taylor Defense, The Finegold Defense, the Nge7 lines, the classical mainlines, the fianchetto line, the Siberian Trap, and more.

Which systems do you prefer to play as black against the Smith-Morra gambit accepted and why?

Also, what's it called when after black accepts the gambit with the capture on c3, white then goes bishop to c4 and allows the b2 pawn to be captured as well, and recaptures with the dark square bishop?

Personally I believe the best defence to be 3..nf6 transposing into alapin lines.

But to answer your question I think evans defense is best. There's an ICC series which I think you can find free on youtube on the evans, it uses a e6 d6 a6 type setup and is super solid.

If you go 3 Nf6 what would you do if white goes e5, attacking the knight?

If you watch the Foxy DVD "Sicilicide" by Nigel Davies, he shows all kinds of winning attacks white can get in the Sicilian if black plays Nf6 without a preparatory d6.

i'd guess at least most of these games weren't played in the alapin (c3) sicilian. after c3 the immediate Nf6 makes a lot of sense.

i personally like the taylor, or 3.. g6 with a possible transposition that may or may not catch the opponent unprepared.

Thanks for the input.

In the Sicilicide DVD, Nigel Davies doesn't go into the Alapin but instead delays the d4 push and switches the move order up playing Nf3 and/or Nc3, then if black plays Nf6 without d6 he attacks the knight with e5, and knight g4 counter-attacking the pawn doesn't help.

I haven't studied the Alapin quite as much as the Smith-Morra, when I face the Alapin I use the d5 push recapture with the queen line, and I've been looking over Kasparov's game against Deep Blue where he used that same line against the Alapin.

In any case, I don't know why someone would try and transposition into the Alapin against the Smith-Morra, as wouldn't that be a way of declining the gambit and not getting the free pawn?

I've heard the Taylor Defense is one of the best systems, is there any particular reason you prefer it over the Finegold? I'm hoping to try them all, but so far I've been using the Nge7 lines.

i like black's, uh, "potential flexibility". (yay that sounded superbly vague)
i mean, after 6.. a6, depending on what white does, black might play Bg4 before e6, or e6 first, or b5, or Nf6, or something. i like that.

you could say "personal preference" :P

and people decline the free pawn a) to feel comfortable b) to make the opponent feel uncomfortable. :D

I'm going to try the Taylor defense next time I get a Smith-Morra game. I know IM Lawrence Trent who is a Smith-Morra specialist rates the Taylor defense very highly too.

I've been wanting to try the SIberian Trap but that seems too much like playing "hope chess".

As for transpositioning into the Alapin, here's my viewpoint as someone who almost always plays as black and always plays c5 against e4. When I set out to learn the Sicilian I was at first dismayed by all the second move alternatives and detours white had at their disposal to avoid going into the open Sicilian lines. It's actually very rare for me to get an open Sicilian game because white almost always uses one of these. So what I try to do against all these detours (the Smith-Morra, the Alapin, Closed Sicilian, Wing Gambit, etc) is "punish" white for being too scared to go into the open lines and beat them at their own game. If they use the Smith-Morra, I want to beat them in a Smith-Morra game. I don't want to try and detour them away from the Smith-Morra out of fear, because then I'd be just as bad as them.

sometime, you might feel the heavy burden of theory upon you.

in practice, just as it's hell for white to keep up with all the theory in all the main (and some slightly obscure) open sicilians, it's hell for black to keep up with the theory in the anti-sicilians, many of which are perfectly sound. good luck :D

Yeah, I can see why white would use a second move alternative. I was somewhat kidding about being mad at white and wanting to punish them for not going into open Sicilian lines. I actually appreciate it when white uses one of those alternatives because the complexity is what makes chess an interesting game. I especially appreciate the Smith-Morra because I think the games are exciting.

I will always accept the Smith-Morra gambit because I like the free pawn. There's always a thrill I get taking that pawn and I have fun defending the onslaught.

But does anyone know what it's called when they gambit two pawns and end up with bishops on c4 and b2?

nd5, look into the sicilian alapin variation with 2..nf6, it completely equalises and is quite easy to play, white has no attack.

Maybe the DVD does, except I bet the positions it shows do not have c3 played.