The Smith-Morra is the most direct way to put the Sicilian under pressure: White gives up a pawn and by move seven has a fully developed position, the open c- and d-files and pressure on f7. Play through the accepted gambit, the Siberian Trap and three ways to decline.
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You can also play the move on the board: pick the piece up and put it on the square.
The starting position. Choose your moves - at a branching point several continuations are available.
The dimmed moves are the rest of the main line, and the dots mark branching points. Click any move to jump to that position.
The Smith-Morra starts with 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3. White offers a pawn and gets three things at once: tempi for development, an open c-file for one rook and an open d-file for the other. By move nine White's pieces are usually all in place while Black is still finishing development.
White's set-up is almost always the same: Nc3, Nf3, Bc4, O-O, Qe2, Rd1 and Rc1. That is a huge practical advantage - you are not thinking about where the pieces go, only about how to increase the pressure.
The pawn really is gone, though. If Black trades pieces accurately and reaches an endgame, the extra material tells. The Smith-Morra is therefore an attacking weapon, not a positional squeeze.
The first way is to accept and defend properly: develop, do not get greedy, and trade off White's active pieces. The key moves are ...d6, ...e6, ...Nf6, ...Be7, ...a6 and ...b5, kicking the bishop off c4.
The second way is not to take at all. After 3...Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 the game becomes an Alapin with no gambit in sight. After 3...d3 Black hands the pawn straight back and gets a quiet position where White has none of the promised initiative.
The third way is 3...d5, a counter-strike in the centre. The position opens, but White's initiative disappears along with the gambit pawn.
The gambit has a famous trap that has caught strong players. After 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 Qc7 the queen takes the c-file, and the natural 7.O-O Nf6 8.Qe2? already loses: 8...Ng4! hits h2 and f2 at the same time.
Then 9.h3?? Nd4! is a double blow against the queen with mate in the air, and after 10.Nxd4?? Qh2# the game is over. The trap is named after the Siberian players who worked out the idea.
The lesson goes beyond one line. In the Smith-Morra White cannot watch only his own attack: once the black queen reaches c7 and the knight gets the g4 square, the habitual moves stop being safe.
These are the main named variations. Click any one of them and it loads straight onto the board above, where you can play it out move by move. The trainer itself holds more lines than this: it also covers main-line continuations and transpositions that have no name of their own.
What to avoid, and what catches an unprepared opponent.
The best-known trap in the gambit. After 8...Ng4 the knight eyes both h2 and f2 while the queen holds the diagonal from c7. The move 9.h3 looks like a refutation but loses: 9...Nd4 attacks the queen and uncovers mate.
Traps in other openings - the 12 most common opening traps.
Take a short quiz and find out which chess opening suits your MBTI personality type - 16 types, each with its own opening and a walkthrough on the board.
The Smith-Morra Gambit (B21) is a pawn for fast development and two open files against the Sicilian. It starts with the moves 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3. Its main branches: Gambit Accepted and Smith-Morra tabiya.
An engine will tell you Black equalises with accurate play. In practice defending is harder than attacking: White's pieces are ready to go while Black has to remember the right move order.
It is named after the French player Pierre Morra, and English sources add the name of the American Ken Smith, who played it constantly. Russian sources usually say simply the Morra Gambit.
Play a normal position. After 3...Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.cxd4 White has an ordinary Alapin centre; after 3...d3 4.Bxd3 the game is quiet and slightly freer for White. Neither is a failure.
Yes, it is one of the best choices for learning to attack. The set-up hardly ever changes, and the ideas - development, open files, pressure on f7 - carry over to every other opening.
On the board above: it plays through the accepted gambit, the three ways of declining and the Siberian Trap ending in mate.
Want the tactics that decide these positions? Start with the 12 most common opening traps and tactics for beginners. If you are just starting out, read the rules of chess and how to set up the board.
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