Comparing the Smith-Morra Gambit to the Danish Gambit in terms of d5 declined

Hi all

In my research for the Smith-Morra Gambit decline mechanism which runs:

The engines suggest Whites does maintain a slight advantage here. And this seems to ring true from my own personal experiences, of trying to play the "Knight accelerator" against 1.e5 which is technically trying to play the Danish Gambit. The Danish Gambit decline position is very different as it turns out:

By contrast is seems engines give a slightly less positive verdict. in fact, they seem to think Black has equalised completely with d5 in this particular position!

The differences don't end there culturally. In the Smith Morra Gambit, if Black accepts the pawn instead, White usually plays Nxc3 with the "accelerated knight development":

Here Nxc3 is the most common move by far: (1207 games in masters games vs just 3 for Bc4)

In the Danish Gambit by contrast, Bc4 is a very popular alternative to Nxc3:

Bxc4 has in fact more games than Nxc3 - 27 games compared to 18 games for Nxc3

So in fact my intuitive laziness to re-use a Knight acceleration idea in reality is not re-used by master players at all. The finesses really do count! The statistical difference in move patterns is enormous. And it seems in fact the d5 decline against the Danish Gambit gives White ZERO ADVANTAGE.

I experienced the Danish Gambit ZERO ADVANTAGE with games that have this variation:

This key move Qc4 is super-annoying:

And it doesn't occur in the Smith-Morra gambit.

Be2 is a key move:

It is tactically possible because if black plays Bxf3 for Bxf3 and Qxd4, this runs into Bxc6+ winning the queen:

White's King is not hassled after Be2

Key takeaway points

• The super-lazy Smith-Morra gambit player can't play the Danish Gambit with the same great positions for the Knight-acceleration concept!
• In chess, the finessess count - re-use of an idea is a risky thing - one needs to be precise like using a scalpel for move suggestions based on the nuances of positions!
• The d5 decline is more of a pain to the Danish Gambit player - it seems to equalise fully!
• The d5 decline for the Smith-Morra gambit player is no problem - still a small edge for White!

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K