Evans Gambit
Encyclopedia
The Evans Gambit is a chess opening
characterised by the moves:
, the first player known to have employed it. The first game with the opening is considered to be Evans - McDonnell
, London 1827, although in that game a slightly different move order was tried (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O d6 and only now 5. b4). In 1832, the first analysis of the gambit was published is the Second Series of Progressive Lessons (1832) by William Lewis
. The gambit became very popular shortly after that, being employed a number of times in the series of games between McDonnell and Louis de la Bourdonnais in 1834. Players such as Adolf Anderssen
, Paul Morphy
and Mikhail Chigorin
subsequently took it up. After Emanuel Lasker
's simplifying defense to the opening in a tournament in 1895, it was out of favour for much of the 20th century, although John Nunn
and Jan Timman
played some games with it in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and in the 1990s Garry Kasparov
used it in a few of his games (notably a famous 25-move win against Viswanathan Anand
in Riga
, 1995), which prompted a brief revival of interest in it.
, which normally continues with the positional moves 4. c3 or 4. d3. The idea behind the move 4. b4 is to give up a pawn in order to secure a strong centre and bear down on Black's weak-point, f7. Ideas based on Ba3, preventing Black from castling
, are also often in the air. According to Reuben Fine
, the Evans poses a challenge for Black since the usual defenses (play ...d6 and/or give back the gambit pawn) are more difficult to pull off than with other gambits (Interestingly, Fine was beaten by this gambit in a friendly game against Bobby Fischer, in just 17 moves: Fischer-Fine 1963 1-0.)
The most obvious and most usual way for Black to meet the gambit is to accept it with 4... Bxb4, after which White plays 5. c3 and Black usually follows up with 5... Ba5 (5... Be7 and, less often 5... Bc5 and 5... Bd6, the Stone Ware Variation, are also played). White usually follows up with 6. d4. Emanuel Lasker
's line is 4... Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 d6 7.0-0 Bb6 8.dxe5 dxe5 9.Qxd8+ Nxd8 10.Nxe5 Be6. This variation takes the sting out of White's attack by returning the gambit pawn and exchanging queens, and according to Fine, the resulting simplified position "is psychologically depressing for the gambit player" whose intent is usually an aggressive attack. Chigorin did a lot of analysis on the alternative 9.Qb3 Qf6 10.Bg5 Qg6 11.Bd5 Nge7 12.Bxe7 Kxe7 13.Bxc6 Qxc6 14.Nxe5 Qe6, which avoids the exchange of queens, but reached no clear verdict. Instead White often avoids this line with 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.dxe5, when Black can return the pawn with 8...Bb6 or hold onto it with 8...dxe5, though White obtains sufficient compensation in this line.
Alternatively Black can meet 6.d4 with 6...exd4, when White can try 7.Qb3, a move often favoured by Nigel Short
. 7.0-0 is traditionally met by 7...Nge7 intending to meet 8.Ng5 or 8.cxd4 with 8...d5, returning the pawn in many lines, rather than the materalistic 7...dxc3 which is well met by 8.Qb3 with a very dangerous initiative for the sacrificed pawns. Alternatively 7...d6 8.cxd4 Bb6 is known as the Normal Position, in which Black is content to settle for a one-pawn advantage and White seeks compensation in the form of open lines and a strong centre.
Alternatively the gambit can be declined with 4... Bb6, when 5. a4 a6 is the normal continuation. But due to the loss of tempo involved, most commentators consider declining the Evans Gambit to be weaker than accepting it, then giving up the pawn at a later stage. Also, Black can play the rare Countergambit Variation (4... d5), but this is thought to be rather dubious.
The famous Evergreen game
started off with the Evans Gambit.
The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
has two codes for the Evans Gambit, C51 and C52.
, this is Black's most popular retreat. It gets out of the way of White's central pawns, and pins the c3 pawn if White plays 6.d4, but it has the disadvantage of removing the a5 square for the black king's knight. Black usually subsequently retreats the bishop to b6 to facilitate ...Na5, which is particularly strong when White opts for the Bc4, Qb3 approach.
, this is the second most popular retreat, with White scoring better than after 5...Ba5. This is often played by people unfamiliar with the Evans Gambit, but is arguably not as good as 5...Ba5, because 6.d4 attacks the bishop and narrows down Black's options as compared with 5...Ba5 6.d4.
. The move reinforces the e5-pawn and been played by several grandmasters such as Andrei Volokitin
, Alexander Grischuk
and Loek van Wely
.
Chess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
characterised by the moves:
- 1. e4 e5
- 2. Nf3 Nc6
- 3. Bc4 Bc5
- 4. b4
History
The gambit is named after the Welsh sea Captain William Davies EvansWilliam Davies Evans
Captain William Davies Evans was a seafearer and inventor, though he is best known today as a chess player. He is buried at the Belgian port of Ostend.- Early life :...
, the first player known to have employed it. The first game with the opening is considered to be Evans - McDonnell
Alexander McDonnell
Alexander McDonnell was an Irish chess master, who contested a series of six matches with the world’s leading player Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais in the summer of 1834.- Early life :...
, London 1827, although in that game a slightly different move order was tried (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O d6 and only now 5. b4). In 1832, the first analysis of the gambit was published is the Second Series of Progressive Lessons (1832) by William Lewis
William Lewis (chess player)
William Lewis was an English chess player and author, nowadays best known for the Lewis Countergambit and for being the first player ever to be described as a Grandmaster of the game..-Life and works:...
. The gambit became very popular shortly after that, being employed a number of times in the series of games between McDonnell and Louis de la Bourdonnais in 1834. Players such as Adolf Anderssen
Adolf Anderssen
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...
, Paul Morphy
Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...
and Mikhail Chigorin
Mikhail Chigorin
Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin also was a leading Russian chess player...
subsequently took it up. After Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...
's simplifying defense to the opening in a tournament in 1895, it was out of favour for much of the 20th century, although John Nunn
John Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn is one of England's strongest chess players and once belonged to the world's top ten. He is also a three times world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician....
and Jan Timman
Jan Timman
Jan Timman is a Dutch chess Grandmaster who was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West"...
played some games with it in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and in the 1990s Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
used it in a few of his games (notably a famous 25-move win against Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand
V. Anand or Anand Viswanathan, usually referred as Viswanathan Anand, is an Indian chess Grandmaster, the current World Chess Champion, and currently second highest rated player in the world....
in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, 1995), which prompted a brief revival of interest in it.
General remarks
The Evans Gambit is an aggressive variant of the Giuoco PianoGiuoco Piano
The Giuoco Piano is a chess opening beginning with the moves:Common alternatives to 3...Bc5 include 3...Nf6 , 3...Be7 , or 3...d6 .-History:...
, which normally continues with the positional moves 4. c3 or 4. d3. The idea behind the move 4. b4 is to give up a pawn in order to secure a strong centre and bear down on Black's weak-point, f7. Ideas based on Ba3, preventing Black from castling
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
, are also often in the air. According to Reuben Fine
Reuben Fine
Reuben Fine was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the early 1930s through the 1940s, an International Grandmaster, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology.Fine won five medals in three chess Olympiads. Fine won the U.S...
, the Evans poses a challenge for Black since the usual defenses (play ...d6 and/or give back the gambit pawn) are more difficult to pull off than with other gambits (Interestingly, Fine was beaten by this gambit in a friendly game against Bobby Fischer, in just 17 moves: Fischer-Fine 1963 1-0.)
The most obvious and most usual way for Black to meet the gambit is to accept it with 4... Bxb4, after which White plays 5. c3 and Black usually follows up with 5... Ba5 (5... Be7 and, less often 5... Bc5 and 5... Bd6, the Stone Ware Variation, are also played). White usually follows up with 6. d4. Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...
's line is 4... Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 d6 7.0-0 Bb6 8.dxe5 dxe5 9.Qxd8+ Nxd8 10.Nxe5 Be6. This variation takes the sting out of White's attack by returning the gambit pawn and exchanging queens, and according to Fine, the resulting simplified position "is psychologically depressing for the gambit player" whose intent is usually an aggressive attack. Chigorin did a lot of analysis on the alternative 9.Qb3 Qf6 10.Bg5 Qg6 11.Bd5 Nge7 12.Bxe7 Kxe7 13.Bxc6 Qxc6 14.Nxe5 Qe6, which avoids the exchange of queens, but reached no clear verdict. Instead White often avoids this line with 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.dxe5, when Black can return the pawn with 8...Bb6 or hold onto it with 8...dxe5, though White obtains sufficient compensation in this line.
Alternatively Black can meet 6.d4 with 6...exd4, when White can try 7.Qb3, a move often favoured by Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
. 7.0-0 is traditionally met by 7...Nge7 intending to meet 8.Ng5 or 8.cxd4 with 8...d5, returning the pawn in many lines, rather than the materalistic 7...dxc3 which is well met by 8.Qb3 with a very dangerous initiative for the sacrificed pawns. Alternatively 7...d6 8.cxd4 Bb6 is known as the Normal Position, in which Black is content to settle for a one-pawn advantage and White seeks compensation in the form of open lines and a strong centre.
Alternatively the gambit can be declined with 4... Bb6, when 5. a4 a6 is the normal continuation. But due to the loss of tempo involved, most commentators consider declining the Evans Gambit to be weaker than accepting it, then giving up the pawn at a later stage. Also, Black can play the rare Countergambit Variation (4... d5), but this is thought to be rather dubious.
The famous Evergreen game
Evergreen game
The Evergreen game is a famous chess game played in Berlin in 1852 between Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne.Adolf Anderssen was one of the strongest players of his time, and was considered by many to be the world champion after winning the London 1851 tournament. Jean Dufresne, a popular author of...
started off with the Evans Gambit.
The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...
has two codes for the Evans Gambit, C51 and C52.
- C51: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4
- C52: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5
Bishop retreats
After 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3, the Bishop must move or be captured. The common retreats are listed here, with the good and bad sides of each:5...Ba5
According to Chessgames.comChessgames.com
ChessGames.com is a large chess community on the Internet, with over 156,000 members. The site maintains a large database of historical chess games where every game has a distinct message board for comments and analysis. Basic membership is free and the site is open to players at all levels of...
, this is Black's most popular retreat. It gets out of the way of White's central pawns, and pins the c3 pawn if White plays 6.d4, but it has the disadvantage of removing the a5 square for the black king's knight. Black usually subsequently retreats the bishop to b6 to facilitate ...Na5, which is particularly strong when White opts for the Bc4, Qb3 approach.
5...Bc5
According to Chessgames.comChessgames.com
ChessGames.com is a large chess community on the Internet, with over 156,000 members. The site maintains a large database of historical chess games where every game has a distinct message board for comments and analysis. Basic membership is free and the site is open to players at all levels of...
, this is the second most popular retreat, with White scoring better than after 5...Ba5. This is often played by people unfamiliar with the Evans Gambit, but is arguably not as good as 5...Ba5, because 6.d4 attacks the bishop and narrows down Black's options as compared with 5...Ba5 6.d4.
5...Be7
This has often been considered one of the "safer" retreats, and has been played by Anand. After 6.d4 Na5, White can attempt to maintain an initiative with 7.Be2 as played by Kasparov, or immediately recapture the pawn with 7.Nxe5.5...Bd6
This is called the Stone-Ware Defense after Henry Nathan Stone and Preston WarePreston Ware
Preston Ware Jr. was a U.S. chess player. He is best known today for playing unorthodox chess openings.Ware was born in Wrentham, Massachusetts, and died in Boston, Massachusetts.-Boston Mardarins:...
. The move reinforces the e5-pawn and been played by several grandmasters such as Andrei Volokitin
Andrei Volokitin
Andriy Volokitin is a Ukrainian chess player and International Grandmaster of Chess.As a junior, he was twice a medallist at the World Youth Chess Championship, taking silver in 1998 at Oropesa del Mar at under-12 level, and bronze at the same venue a year later in the under-14 category...
, Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster and Russian Champion in 2009.-Chess career:In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000, Grischuk he made it to the semifinals, losing to Alexei Shirov....
and Loek van Wely
Loek van Wely
Loek van Wely is a chess Grandmaster from the Netherlands. He won the Dutch Chess Championship six times straight from 2000 through 2005. He was rated among the world's top ten in 2001. In 2002, in Maastricht, Netherlands, van Wely took on the computer program Rebel in a four-game match. The...
.