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The Morra Gambit is an interesting opening against the Sicilian Defence. It is not common in Grandmaster games or correspondence chess, but at club level chess it is an excellent weapon.

White sacrifices a pawn to develop quickly and create attacking chances. In exchange for the gambit pawn, White has a piece developed and a pawn in the center, while Black has nothing but an empty space on c7.

If black wants to refuse the gambit, he can do so with 3... d5 or 3... Nf6, both of which transpose to the Alapin variation of the Sicilian (usually introduced by the move order 1.e4 c5 2.c3). Alternatively, 3... d6 is the Smith-Morra declined proper, and leads to unique lines.

Some interesting games played on FICGS by David Angeli : Game 563, Game 565 (accepted gambit) or Game 555 (declined, with 3. ... d5).

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Contributors : Thibault de Vassal

[ECO "B21"] [Opening "Sicilian"] [Variation "Smith-Morra gambit"]

dxc3 : 350 games, White ELO av : 1780, Black ELO av : 1770
1-0 : 41.5% , 1/2-1/2 : 22.9% , 0-1 : 35.5%

Nf6 : 68 games, White ELO av : 1852, Black ELO av : 1850
1-0 : 32.4% , 1/2-1/2 : 38.2% , 0-1 : 29.4%

d5 : 13 games, White ELO av : 1696, Black ELO av : 1668
1-0 : 76.9% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 23.1%

g6 : 12 games, White ELO av : 1749, Black ELO av : 1726
1-0 : 66.7% , 1/2-1/2 : 16.7% , 0-1 : 16.7%

e5 : 10 games, White ELO av : 1628, Black ELO av : 1651
1-0 : 60% , 1/2-1/2 : 10% , 0-1 : 30%

Nc6 : 7 games, White ELO av : 1563, Black ELO av : 1664
1-0 : 57.1% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 42.9%

d3 : 6 games, White ELO av : 1668, Black ELO av : 1579
1-0 : 50% , 1/2-1/2 : 16.7% , 0-1 : 33.3%

d6 : 2 games, White ELO av : 1311, Black ELO av : 1209
1-0 : 50% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 50%

e6 : 2 games, White ELO av : 1162, Black ELO av : 1130
1-0 : 50% , 1/2-1/2 : 0% , 0-1 : 50%

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