Openings · B21

Sicilian, Smith–Morra Gambit

A pawn for the c- and d-files, offered on move two — the most direct way to make a Sicilian player think for themselves.

1.e4 c5 2.d4played as White

The idea

After 2…cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 White has one pawn fewer and every piece coming to a natural square: bishop to c4 pointing at f7, rooks to c1 and d1 on two open files, and a knight coming to d5 or b5 the moment Black relaxes. Black's extra pawn is on the queenside and takes a long time to mean anything.

The gambit is not sound the way a Ruy López is sound, and it does not have to be. It costs a pawn and produces positions where the player who understands them wins, and at club level that player is usually the one who chose the opening.

Practise the line

You play White; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 20/2

1.e4c5
2.d4

Your move. Drag a piece, or tap it and then its square.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

The Siberian Trap

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 Qc7 7.O-O Nf6 8.Qe2 Ng4

The mistake: Developing the queen to e2 with the black queen already on c7.
Why it costs: 8…Ng4 threatens mate on h2, and defending it costs the queen: 9.h3 Nd4 attacks her, and every retreat drops material to …Nxe2 or allows the mate. It is the best-known trap in the whole gambit and it catches White, not Black.
Instead: 8.h3 first, or 8.Bb3 and Qe2 later. With a queen on c7 and a knight able to reach g4, h2 has to be covered before the queen leaves d1.

Winning the pawn back

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Nb5

The mistake: Spending moves recovering material instead of using the lead in development.
Why it costs: A pawn on the queenside is not what was bought. What was bought is three tempi and two open files, and they are spent the moment the pieces start chasing pawns rather than squares.
Instead: Bc4, O-O, Qe2, Rd1 and Rc1 — the whole set-up, every game, before anything else. The pawn comes back on its own in most lines, or it does not and the pressure pays for it.

The decline nobody prepares for

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.cxd4 Nc6

The mistake: Assuming the pawn will be taken.
Why it costs: 3…d5 hands it straight back and leaves White with an isolated d-pawn and none of the open-file pressure the gambit is played for. Most prepared opponents do this, so it is the position that decides whether you can play the Morra at all.
Instead: Know it as an isolated-queen's-pawn game: 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.Be2 and play for d5 and the kingside, rather than hoping for the gambit proper.

Where it fits

The Sicilian, Smith–Morra Gambit is a variation of the Sicilian Defence, whose page covers the ideas this one takes for granted.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.