Michigan Master Bob Ciaffone is known in American Chess circles as a man who takes his openings seriously. It comes as no surprise that Smith-Morra Gambit: Finegold Defense, where he has teamed up with IM Ben Finegold to take on 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3, should reflect his passionate desire for the truth. Many strong players treat the Smith-Morra casually, facing the gambit so seldom that they often prefer to decline it with 3...Nf6 or 3...d3 rather try to refute it by accepting the pawn. Not Ciaffone who advocates the sequence 3...dxc3 4.Nxc3 d6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 Be7 7.O-O Nf6 8.Qe2 a6 9.Rd1 b5 10.Bb3 Nbd7 which he dubs the standard position of the Finegold Defense.

Finegold and Ciaffone have put together a first-rate book, full of original material that has been analyzed both by themselves and GM Dmitry Gurevich and IM Jack Peters. The result is that rare book that is almost one hundred percent new material. The standard work on the opening, Graham Burgess' Winning with the Smith-Morra Gambit, has only seven pages on this little-known line.

This variation won't remain little known when word gets out about this book. Though there is plenty of analysis, there is also lots of explanatory prose and a various rigorous examination of typical White tactical threats. These are just the sort of things that amateur players (below 2200) should find useful, which is fitting as these are exactly the sort of players who will encounter the Smith-Morra on a regular basis.