Evans Gambit

White offers a pawn to divert the bishop away from the centre.

White would like to play d4 and put both d and e pawns in the centre. At the moment, Black has too much control over the d4 square for that to be worthwhile. White can prepare d4 with c3, as in 4. c3, the classical variation. However, this gives Black extra time to develop and get ready to castle. The idea of 4. b4 is to achieve c3 and d4 with tempo instead.

If Black accepts the pawn, 4...Bxb4, 5. c3 prepares d4 while also forcing Black's bishop to move again. c3 also gives White's queen access to b3. 5...Ba5 (5...Bc5? and the bishop can be kicked again) 6. d4 and the main reply is 6...d6. 6...exd4 appears to be winning because the c-pawn is pinned to the king, White doesn't have to take back immediately and can unpin first. 7. Qb3 (battery against f7) Qe7 8. O-O (unpins) Bb6 9. cxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 Bxd4=, and though Black is up two pawns, White is thought to have compensation.

6. O-O before playing d4, known as the slow variation, avoids the c3 pawn becoming pinned and was popular in the Romantic era.

4...Bb6 declines the gambit and White switches plans to expanding on the queen's side. 5. a4 a6 (to prevent the bishop becoming trapped) 6. Nc3 is the Showalter variation.

Welsh sea captain William Davies Evans originated the idea of 4. b4. He first played the idea in the order 4. O-O d6 5. b4 against MacDonnell in 1827^[1]. He played 4. b4 a few years later in 1833.^[2]

This new gambit received lots of attention, leading to lots of open, tactical games and more importantly opportunities for sacrifices favoured by chess players of the era, who preferred quick, sacrificial games over long positional games. It became featured in many well-known miniatures like the "Evergreen Game" and one of the main lines of the 19th century.

The Evans gambit began to fall out of popularity with the rise of positional play, introduced by Wilhelm Steinitz, which aimed for long term advantages instead of attacking all the time. The coup de grâce came in the 20th century from Emmanuel Lasker, who's defence against the gambit was to return the pawn and trade queens, sucking the energy out of the position. This was bad for the gambit player.

Lasker's defence killed the preferred slow variation. The 6. d4 line was briefly revitalised in the interwar period by Savielly Tartakower's attack, 7. Qb3. This turned out to be the best variation.

A later outing for the Evans gambit was in Garry Kasparov versus Vishwanathan Anand, 1995,^[3] but otherwise it is now rare at the highest levels of chess.

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4

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Wikipedia has related information at Evans Gambit.

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.