The plan for White is straightforward and consists of placing his bishop on c4 to attack the f7-square, and controlling both the c- and d-files with rooks, taking advantage of rapid development, open lines, and Black's difficulty in finding a good square for the queen.

[4] The Smith–Morra is named after Pierre Morra [fr] (1900–1969) from France,[5] and Ken Smith (1930–1999) of the Dallas Chess Club.

At the San Antonio 1972 chess tournament, Smith played it against Donald Byrne, Larry Evans, and Henrique Mecking, but lost all three games.

International Master Marc Esserman, author of the 2012 book Mayhem in the Morra!, is one of the leading advocates of the opening.

In the Chessable Masters tournament in April 2023, Hikaru Nakamura played it in two rapid games against Fabiano Caruana, winning one and losing the other.