On 23 occasions the games continued 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5, and 13 of those saw White play 4.b4.
As these figures suggest, Evans' Gambit was phenomenally popular in Morphy's day.
He frequently played it as White, so how he dealt with it as Black - he scored +11=0-2* - should be instructive for those looking for a line against the Evans.
To help me I will be comparing the play of Morphy and his opponents' with the views expressed in four modern books that have much to say on the Evans.
Two are 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).
Not that I planned it, but this is one book from each of the last four decades, so it may be interesting to see how attitudes to the Evans have evolved.
First up is a game played when Morphy was 13.
James McConnell - Morphy
New Orleans 1850
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4
Morphy always accepted the Evans.
5.c3 Ba5
As we will see, Morphy split his affections between this move and 5...Bc5.
6.0-0!?
Far more popular today is 6.d4, but the experts are not unanimous in their opinions.
Botterill: "Which is the better option? In the words of some anonymous author of graffiti, 'I used to think I was indecisive ,,, but now I am not so sure'."
Harding says 6.d4 "has to be the right move."
But in Kaufman's view, 6.0-0 "is now rare, but may be best."
Bologan does not give an opinion on the respective merits of 6.0-0 and 6.d4, or of the other popular choice, 6.Qb3, although he covers all three.
 |
| Position after 6.0-0!? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
6...Nf6
Botterill points out that 6.0-0 went out of fashion because of Emanuel Lasker's plan of giving the pawn back, starting with 6...d6 7.d4 Bb6 (Lasker's thinking, along with his views on other variations of the Evans, can be found in Common Sense In Chess - I have the 1965 Dover reprint). Botterill goes to say: "If it had not been for Lasker, [6...Nf6] would probably have become mainline theory in the Evans." Well, even with Lasker, 6...Nf6 is today the main move, at least according to ChessBase's 2019 Mega database.
Harding dismisses 6...Nf6, saying: "I have experimented with [it] but am not happy with my results."
Kaufman and Bologan do not mention 6...Nf6, only covering 6...d6.
7.d4
This is considered automatic by Botterill.
7...0-0
Serious alternatives include 7...Nxe4, 7...exd4 and 7...d6. My main analysis engines, Stockfish10 and Komodo10, like the text and 7...Nxe4.
8.dxe5?!
Botterill only covers 8.Ba3, but the text is today more popular although probably not best. The engines give 8.Nxe5!? Nxe4 9.Bxf7+ Rxf7 10.Nxf7 Kxf7 11.d5 Ne7 12.Qa4 Bxc3 13.Nxc3 Nxc3 14.Qc4 Ncxd5 15.Bg5, with an unclear position, eg Stockfish10 continues 15...Kf8 16.Qxd5 Nxd5 17.Bxd8, when Black has a knight and two passed pawns for a rook.
8...Nxe4 9.Ba3 d6 10.exd6 Nxd6 11.Bb3 Bg4 12.h3 Bh5 13.Qd5 Bg6 14.Ne5 Nxe5 15.Qxa5?
15.Qxe5 is better, although White has no compensation for his pawn-minus.
15...Qg5
Black has a winning attack.
16.Kh1 Be4 17.f3 Bxf3 18.gxf3 Qg3 19.Nd2 Nf5 20.Rae1 Qxh3+ 21.Kg1 Rfe8 22.Rf2 Qg3+ 23.Kf1
This allows a mate in six, but White's position was hopeless anyway.
23...Nd3 24.Rxe8 Rxe8 25.Bxf7+ Kh8 0-1
*All these figures are from ChessBase's 2019 Mega database.
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