a couple things:
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I think you are right that Morra-Smith is perfectly fine opening for a bit lower rated players. I would say that up to like ~1800-1900 level if White has good knowledge of Morra they would probably be scoring really well, as it is not easy to play for black if they don't know what to do. However, at a big higher level Morra is definitely just not good for White, because as long as Black knows a couple lines they are at least = and most often =+ with some tiny compensation.. The simplest setup IMO is just e6, a6, Qc7, Nc6, Nf6, and then it depends on white's play, might be Ng4 followed by Bc5 (as long as white doesn't miss the good old Nd4 trick) or even Be7 and d6, or Bc5 and d6 without Ng4, all of them are followed by 0-0, b5 and Bb7, in all of which White is just a pawn down for a little bit of compensation, in other words its balancing between =+ and worse for white.
Yeah, the passivity of black's setup is what often loses him the game. And at our level, people suck at defending/being passive whn there is a sound attack going on. I'm not saying it's a flawless opening, but I'm saying that at our level and slightly higher, you should achieve good results with it.
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I appreciate what Kingcrusher is (was) doing and respect that, but I mean at least for this video he chooses the most passive setup for black possible and then states that gambit is perfectly good for white, you just cannot do that..
Yes, that's true, but he's just giving examples for white's plans and giving black "null moves" or whatever. He plays quite a lot of blitz games which he's posted on youtube, and drew with an IM in 1 game. I don't know his overall results in the MS, but the point is that he gets interesting, dynamic, open games. And sometimes he screws up, but that's standard for humans, especially under time pressure in blitz. But in those blitz games, out of the openings, I would usually rather be playing with the white pieces. And at my level, games are seldom decided by a pawn out of the opening. You have to realize that...
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And lastly, 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 has probably 20x more theory than 1. e4 c5 2. f4
I know this, the open sicilian is the most frequently played opening, right?