The Evans Gambit is a chess opening with the moves (in algebraic notation) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4. This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... This image is originally from xboard. ... The first moves of a chess game are the opening moves, collectively referred to as the opening or the book. ... Algebraic chess notation is the method used today by all competition chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers to record and describe the play of chess games. ...

The gambit is named after Captain William Davies Evans, the first player to employ 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). 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. 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. Alexander McDonnell (1798-1835) was an Irish chess master, who contested a series of six matches with the world’s leading player in the summer of 1834. ... Louis Charles de la Bourdonnais (1795 - 1840) was a French chess master, the strongest player in the early 19th century. ... Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen (July 6, 1818 - March 13, 1879) was a famous German chess master, one of the most renowned of the classic masters of 19th century chess. ... Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 - July 10, 1884), The Pride and Sorrow of Chess, is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his time, an unofficial World Champion and, quite possibly, the greatest chessplayer who has ever lived. ... Mikhail Chigorin (12 November 1850 - 25 January 1908) was a leading Russian chess player and the first grandmaster from Russia. ... John Denis Martin Nunn (born April 25, 1955) is an English chess player and mathematician. ... Jan Timman Jan Timman (born December 14, 1951) is a famous Dutch chessplayer who had his greatest successes in the 1970s and 1980s. ... Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (, pronounced with stress falling on the second syllable: kas-PA-rov) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players in history. ... Vishy Anand Viswanathan Anand (pronounced Viswahnəhthən Ahnənd) (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. ... Riga (Rīga in Latvian), the capital of Latvia, is situated on the Baltic Sea coast on the mouth of River Daugava, at 56°58′ N 24°8′ E. Riga is the largest city in the Baltic States and serves as a major cultural, educational, political, financial, commercial and industrial center...

The Evans Gambit is basically an aggressive variant of the Giuoco Piano, 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. 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 are also played). White usually follows up with 6. d4. The first moves of a chess game are the opening moves, collectively referred to as the opening or the book. ...

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 less strong than accepting it, then giving up the pawn at a later stage.

The famous Evergreen game started off with the Evans' gambit. The evergreen game is a famous chess game played in 1852 by Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne. ...

External Links

• Overview of Evans Gambit (http://troyesd3.8k.com/the_evans_gambit.htm)
• Chessbase stats (http://troyesd3.8k.com/Evans/evans.htm)
• Kibitzer article, part one (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz89.pdf) (PDF file)
• Kibitzer article, part two (http://www.chesscafe.com/text/kibitz90.pdf) (PDF file)