Play the Evans Gambit like GM Sergei Zhigalko (Opening Champion Series)

Opening Champion - GM Sergei Zhigalko

This is the second installment of my Opening Champion Series where we are covering notable online blitz players who are champions of fun and crushing openings. Zhigalko is a three-time national champion of Belarus and winner of the European Blitz Champion in 2017. He also frequently crushes his competition in online speed chess tournaments and won the Yearly Bullet against many thousands of fierce competitors. We are very fortunate that he champions the romantic-era Evans Gambit!

The Study - Play the Evans Gambit like GM Sergei Zhigalko

The below study is the latest installment of my "Play like..." Interactive Lesson series which can be best enjoyed with the Lichess Tools browser extension installed. The idea of the study is to learn Zhigalko's treatment of the Evans Gambit with a spaced-repetition philosophy.

The study includes many of the 1800+ blitz games that Zhigalko has played in these lines up to move 20, which were downloaded, merged, and then I separated out the lines. In each chapter, I present a Zhigalko main line up to a certain point (typically when there's 10-20 games left in a particular line). After that, you are playing through his games in that line up to move 20. As you play through the games, you should be naturally internalizing the middle game plans.

Here is the study:

LichessTools

To get the most out of this study you should add the LichessTools browser extension. LichessTools allows you to play through all the games/variations in an interactive lesson chapter (rather than just the single main line). So if you decline to add LiChess Tools then you are only playing 10% of the study. Available here:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/langlhlcknngldkeliapahbhbcmlcbcj

Cheers,

Dsoul20