Morphy v The Evans (part two)

THE London-born, American-based master James Thompson played three Evans' Gambits against Paul Morphy in 1857.
As before I will compare their play with modern views on the Evans, as expressed in four books from the past four decades.*
Thompson - Morphy
New York (sometimes given as New Orleans, but New York is more likely)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4
Very much the mainline today. Back in 1857 it was starting to replace 6.0-0 as the favourite of top players.
6...exd4
Again this is overwhelmingly most-popular today, but Stockfish10 prefers 6...d6, while Komodo10's second choice for quite some time is 6...b5!? before switching to 6...Nge7.
Bologan recommends the intriguing 6...b5!?, which he calls Baxter's Line, stating: "[It] has one huge advantage over the theoretically accepted line: it doesn't have a pile of theory to learn. The idea is interesting: since 6...Nxd4? doesn't work because of 7.Nxe5 Ne6 8.Nxf7!, Black first removes the 'White Shark' [ie the white light-square bishop] from the dangerous diagonal." His mainline goes 7.Bxb5 Nxd4 8.Nxd4 exd4 9.Qxd4 Qf6 10.0-0 Bb6, with a position that appears just five times in ChessBase's 2019 Mega database. All games were played after publication of Bologan's book. White managed just two draws, with only one of the five games being a mis-match in Black's favour rating-wise.
7.0-0
This is almost automatic in modern Evans' Gambits, although Nigel Short has also tried 7.Qb3, which is preferred by Harding because of the move given in the next note. Kaufman agrees.

Position after 7.0-0

*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
7...d6
Botterill prefers 7...Nge7! (his punctuation), stating: "The variation introduced by this move constitutes my main reason for thinking that 6.d4 is not superior to 6.0-0." His mainline runs: 8.cxd4 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Ba3! Be6 11.Bb5 Bb4 12.Bxc6+ bxc6 13.Bxb4 Nxb4 14.Qa4 Qd6, citing analysis by Grigory Levenfish. The engines slightly prefer White.
8.cxd4
Botterill gives 8.Qb3 Qf6 9.e5! dxe5 10.Re1 "with a strong attack," which was how Morphy twice handled the white side in 1858.
8...Bb6
This was mainstream theory in 1857, having been thoroughly tested 23 years earlier in games between Louis de la Bourdonnais and Alexander McDonnell.
9.d5!?
Closing the diagonal of White's light-square bishop looks strange, but has scored well.
9...Nce7
McDonnell eventually tried this against Bourdonnais, having been rather unsuccessful with 9...Ne5 and 9...Na5 (+0=1-5), but it did him no good - he lost again.
10.e5 Ng6 11.Ng5?
A misguided attempt to improve on Bourdonnais's 11.Bb2, which was later tried by, among others, Szymon Winawer.
11...N8e7?
Morphy was not a pawn snatcher, but it is hard to see what he feared after the obvious 11...Nxe5, which not only wins a second pawn, but hits the bishop and prevents 12.Qf3.
12.Re1?
Thompson misses his chance. 12.e6 fxe6 13.dxe6 would have left Morphy with a tricky defence.
12...0-0
Still strong was ...Nxe5, but the text is also good.
13.Qh5 h6 14.Ne4 Nxe5
Black is two pawns up. Thompson tries a desperate piece sac, but to no avail.
15.Bxh6!? gxh6 16.Nf6+
16.Qxh6 is met by 16...Nf5 or 16...Ng4.
16...Kg7 17.Rxe5 dxe5 18.Qxe5 Kh8!?
Morphy realises a knight discovery cannot recoup the whole rook that White is down.
19.Bd3
19.Nd7+ can be met by, among others, 19...f6.
19....Qd6 20.Qb2 Qf4 21.Ne4+
21.Nd7+ Bd4.
21...f6 22.g3 Qe5 23.Qd2 Ng8 24.Nbc3 f5 25.Re1 fxe4 26.Rxe4? Rxf2 0-1
*Two specialist books: Open Gambits: Italian And Scotch Gambit play by George Botterill (Batsford 1986) and Evans Gambit And A System Vs. Two Knights' Defense by Tim Harding (Chess Digest, 1991).
And two are respected repertoire books: The Chess Advantage In Black And White by Larry Kaufman (McKay Chess Library, 2004) and Bologan's Black Weapons In The Open Games: How To Play For A Win If White Avoids The Ruy Lopez by Victor Bologan (New In Chess, 2014).