Sicilian Defence: Morra Gambit VS Wing Gambit

Wing Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.b4

VS

Morra Gambit 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3

When learning a new opening, one of the most annoying things you have to deal with, is the new gambit lines that you have to learn.

In this article we will compare the two most popular early gambits against the Sicilian defence. We will use the lichess.com statistics to compare the scores for White in these two gambits to see if we can find any patterns.

In terms of popularity they couldn’t be further apart. The Morra gambit is very popular, on lichess it’s almost always the 1st or 2nd most popular move for White. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Wing Gambit which is so rare, that for certain ratings and time controls, there isn’t even enough games to get reliable statistics.

One thing that both of these gambits have in common is they both score very badly for white at professional level. White’s win/draw/loss:

Wing Gambit: 28% / 31% / 41%

Morra Gambit: 26% / 36% / 38%

However these terrible statistics for White don’t hold true at amateur level. In fact let’s look at the data. Below shows the difference between White’s winning percentage and Black’s.

From the above charts we can make 3 conclusions:

1.The Morra Gambit scores much better for White than the Wing Gambit.

This would explain why the Morra Gambit is so much more popular, it scores better for white at all ratings and time controls. Whereas the Wing Gambit actually scores better for Black when the players are higher rated.

2.Both Gambits work better when the players are lower rated.

As expected, lower rated Black players are more likely to fall for basic traps early in the game. Also lower rated players defend poorly and White can often win with a “cave-man” style attack. The higher rated Black players will know all the traps and will be able to get to the middlegame, where they can start to make use of their extra material.

3.The Morra Gambit is better for White at longer time controls whereas the Wing Gambit is better for White at faster time controls.

This shows a fundamental difference between the two gambits. The fact that, the more time Black has in Wing Gambit games the better he does, would suggest that the Wing Gambit is fundamentally unsound and White is relying on a blunder from Black. In complete contrast, when White has more time in the Morra Gambit, he does better. From this one could conclude that White has more complicated decisions than Black, but given time he can find some very dangerous attacking ideas.

In summary, conclusions 1 and 2 were expected, but I was quite surprised by the 3rd conclusion. I was under the impression that all gambits worked better at shorter time controls and performed poorly in classical chess. The Morra Gambit has made me rethink my approach to gambit play, as playing this would encourage me to stick to longer (better for improvement) time controls.