[Event "Evan's Gambit: The Evans Gambit, Traps and Tricks."] [Site "https://lichess.org/study/woCRJTzl/adydgqLC"] [Result "*"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "C52"] [Opening "Italian Game: Evans Gambit, Mieses Defense"] [Annotator "https://lichess.org/@/Dugbug"] [UTCDate "2020.08.11"] [UTCTime "19:01:24"] [Source "https://lichess.org/study/woCRJTzl/adydgqLC"] [Orientation "white"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 { The evans gambit is a gambit that branches out of the Italian Game. White sacrifices the b2 pawn for a tempo, a strong center, and a very tactical game. The Evans is likely one of the most commonly played gambits in chess. } 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 { Here white is now down a pawn, but is ready to strike aggressively in the center with moves like d4. White can also play moves like Qb3 or Ng5 to place pressure on the weak f7 pawn. White is leading in development, and is ready to castle and play moves such as Ba3 to prevent black from castling. The 2 most common moves here are Ba5 and Be7. All other bishop retreats for black are inferior, so I will only go over these 2 variations. } { [%cal Gd2d4,Gc3b4,Gd1b3,Gf3g5,Ge1g1,Gc1a3] } 5... Ba5 (5... Be7 { If Be7, we can now take control of the center and dominate for the rest of the game. } 6. d4 Na5 7. Bd3) 6. d4 { Here, black can either take the pawn or try and hold on to their center with d6. } 6... exd4 (6... d6 7. Qb3 { White places pressure on f7. Black has 2 moves to defend, Qe7 and Qd7. One of them is a blunder. } { [%csl Gf7,Gc4,Gb3][%cal Gb3f7] } 7... Qe7 { The blunder. } (7... Qd7 { The better move, but black still needs to play very presicely. } 8. dxe5 dxe5 9. O-O Bb6 { A powerful move, threatening Na5 to remove our Queen-Bishop Battery. } 10. Rd1 { [%csl Gd7][%cal Gd1d7] } 10... Qe7 11. a4 { Preparing for an incredible tactic. } 11... Na5 { [%csl Gb3,Gc4][%cal Ga5b3,Ga5c4] } 12. Bxf7+ Qxf7 (12... Kf8 { The move a4 was preparing for Kf8, so we can now play Qa2 and save our queen. } 13. Qa2 Qxf7 { Black still cannot take out bishop } 14. Rd8+ { [%cal Gf7e8] }) 13. Rd8+ { Black cannot take the rook because we would then capture blacks queen. } { [%cal Gb3f7] } 13... Ke7 14. Bg5+ { [%csl Ge7][%cal Gg5e7] } 14... Nf6 15. Qxf7+ Kxf7 16. Rxh8 { White is now up a rook. }) 8. d5 Nb8 9. Qb5+ { White forks the king and bishop, and will be up in material } { [%csl Ge8,Ga5][%cal Gb5e8,Gb5a5] }) 7. O-O { Notice that the c3 pawn is pinned, so we need to castle. } 7... Nge7 { The most common move in Ne7, where white follows up with the aggressive Ng5. } (7... dxc3 { If black gets greedy and takes more material... } 8. Qb3 { [%csl Gf7][%cal Gb3f7] } 8... Qe7 9. Nxc3 Nf6 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. exd5 Ne5 12. Nxe5 Qxe5 13. Bb2 { White has finished development with a very strong possition. } { [%csl Gg7,Gf7,Gc8][%cal Gb2g7,Gb3f7,Gd5d6,Gc7d6] }) 8. Ng5 { [%csl Gf7][%cal Gg5f7,Gc4f7] } 8... O-O { Castling is clearly not an option after Qh5. } (8... Ne5 { Here if black plays Ne5, white has a nice tactic to follow. } 9. Qxd4 Nxc4 10. Qxg7 Rf8 11. Nxh7 { So many checkmate threats! The only way to escape mate is Ng6, which loses the queen after Bg5 } { [%csl Gf8,Gf6][%cal Gh7f8,Gh7f6] }) 9. Qh5 { [%csl Gf7,Gh7][%cal Gh5h7,Gg5h7,Gh5f7,Gg5f7,Gc4f7] } 9... h6 10. Nxf7 { Black either loses the exchange or loses the game :) } 10... Qe8 11. Nxh6+ Kh8 12. Nf7+ { [%cal Gh5h8,Gf7h8] } 12... Kg8 13. Qh8# *