I play the Smith-Morra Gambit as white against the Sicilian, and I’m thinking of getting The Modern Morra Gambit by Hannes Langrock, since it seems to be regarded as the latest and best book on SMG theory. But from online reviews, it seems that the biggest complaint about this book is that it doesn’t have much coverage of what to do when the gambit is declined. I think this would often transpose to the 2. c3 Sicilian, so maybe I should get a book on that, too. Any suggestions for books (or DVD’s) on that line, or other variations of the Smith-Morra declined?
Thanks for that info. I did see some of those older books on ebay while googling for useful stuff. But I know the theory on these openings has changed quite a bit lately, so I don’t know if I want to go with older books.
I ordered the book on the Smith-Morra, along with a book on the 2. c3 line that is recent and very well reviewed online. I’ll have to see how well the SMG book covers the declined lines that don’t really transpose to the c3 lines.
At my level of play, most of my opponents aren’t likely to know the really critical lines, anyway. I’m still at the point of mostly looking for general ideas and middle game plans, not specific critical moves. I’m mostly just worried because the gambit gets declined about half the time, so I want to be at least somewhat prepared.
I might have to try that bookup program. It looks interesting. Am I correct in understanding that on top of paying $30 for the express version of the program, you also have to pay separately for ebooks on specific openings? Also, I’m assuming you can create your own opening ebooks? I’d mostly just want to use it to store and quiz myself on lines that I’m learning from various paper books.
Also you can add annotations to what ever you put into Bookup.
So along with adding in pgn games that pertain to the lines you are interested in studying, you can also put in information from whatever books or magazines you have that cover that position and certainly whatever notes you want to add. Over time you will have a personalized e-book with all the information you could ever hope.
Here’s another nice little thing about using it.
We’ve been posting the pgn files from the monthly magazine here on the site. So you can also put those into a file and then read the magazine and use bookup to compare and test whatever ideas that you find interesting.
There isn’t any other software out there that does what this one does. It’s a pretty sweet piece of software.
One last thing, there are free chess engines that are GM strength. And you can use those in the program.
So I got those books faster than I expected. It’s not very often that you check the “free shipping” option at amazon.com and it takes less than 3 days for your stuff to arrive.
I like the foreward and introduction to the Morra book. The introduction chapter has over a dozen sample games and a basic introduction to all the major themes of the gambit, then chapters 1-10 give specifics about various accepted lines, with chapter 11 focusing on the gambit declined. The foreward by Karsten Muller recommends for lower level players to just read the introduction, then look up stuff in the other chapters as it comes up, rather than spending time reading the whole book. At my level, that’s probably a good plan, though I might want to read all of chapter 11, also.
Actually, no. I bought The Modern Morra Gambit by Hannes Langrock, since it’s apparently the latest and greatest when it comes to the theory. The introduction to the book gives a good overview of the gambit and major themes, then there are chapters on specific lines. I like it so far. The other book is specifically on the Alapin (2. c3) Sicilian, which should cover most possibilities of the gambit declined, but with more detailed analysis of recent, popular lines than any of the older stuff or the declined chapter of the gambit book.
