The player who uses the Sicilian, as I do, as his main defense to 1.e4 must of necessity confront the Smith-Morra Gambit. It is important to take this gambit seriously: consider the well known case of Grandmaster and world Champion ship Candidate Svetozar Gligoric, who gave up a Gambit Accepted draw to the virtually unknow Pokojowczyk in 1971 (see the notes Game 2).
Not wishing to share Gligoric's grief, I have seriously studied the black counters to the Gambit for twenty years. I believe my results speak for themselves: six wins, no draws, no losses. I defeated such opponents as current US Champion Patrick Wolff (though the game was played long before he won that title), IM Jim Rizzitano, and various amateur gambit specialist. Also, in a game specially played for this book, I defeated my Zarkov chess computer. If I learned one thing from these games, it is that black must attack. Passive play may allow White to work up adequate pressure for the pawn. Black must strive to take over the initiative at the earliest point. ~ Tim Taylor.



Enjoy ;^)