Evan's Gambit is a chess opening for white. It has a reputation for being very aggressive. The Evan's Gambit begins with
- e4 e5
- Nf3 Nc6
- Bc4 Bc5
- b4
On move 4 white gambits a pawn in exchange for Rapid development. The beauty of this opening is that the best move for black is to accept this gambit by capturing the pawn on b4. In this article, I am going to talk about a variation in this opening that begins with a mistake but the move sequence is so wild that it will definitely confuse your opponent and will give you amazing chances in no time.
How I found this variation:
A few days ago I was playing a game with my coach in Evan's gambit line, I was quite better out of the opening but on move 10th I made a mistake and lost all advantage, but we both found this only while analyzing the game. And the move sequence suggested by stockfish to keep white in an equalized position is so wild, that it sacs piece after piece to reach an equalized position. And if black falls anywhere to gallop free piece or set any mating trap (there are many such juicy moves), they'll lose in no time.
If you want to watch this as a video, please be my guest
The Line begins
The line begins in Evan's gambit as shown below
Line :
On move 7 black plays d3. The idea behind this move is since white is attacking this pawn with 3 pieces (pawn, queen, and knight) this pawn will fall anyway. If white captures this pawn with cxd4, white will have good central control with e4 and d4 pawns. Hence d3 will make sure that the white's pawn will stay split.
I develop my bishop with tempo to attack the black king on e7, The idea is to move the queen away from controlling f7 square and then capture the pawn with the bishop and break the castle right (one of the purposes of Evan's gambit). White recognizes this threat and blocks the attack with d6. And on this position, I thought to attack this pinned pawn with e5, the queen can't capture this pawn because of Re1 and the pawn can't capture since it is pinned to the queen. But this turned out to be a mistake and I lost all advantage. The best move in this position is to play Re1 and then push e5. Here My coach played Kf8, Thinking that white's idea revolves around breaking the castle right, and right now the threat is to clear E file and pin the queen to the king, hence, he moved the king itself. whereas the best move is to capture the pawn with the knight.
The Engine line begins:
+2Line :
The above given line is suggested by the engine and there are multiple variations that are humanely possible and few of them again lead to an equal position but many of them fall into the losing trap.
Let's dissect this variation. White begins with e5 asking black what to do with d6 pawn.
- Black responds with Nxe5 and White recaptures the knight
- Black takes the knight with the queen. Please note that right now white can't play Re1 to pin the queen to the king as the rook will be undefended. Hence white plays Nd2 and now either of the rooks is ready to come to e1 and win the queen
- Seeing this threat of Rfe1 or Rae1 black plays Ne7 which frees up its queen. But White plays Rad1 anyway. It is important to understand why Rad1 and not Rfe1.
- Black plays Qc3 and White gives a check to black king from b5
- Here engine suggests Kd8 although Bd7 or c6 was equally good and we will see both of these variations separately
- After Kd8 White begins the sequence of hammering with Rxe7. giving an exchange sacrifice Black accepts with Kxe7 and white continues with Re1+
- Here black can go back to 8th rank but developing bishop and blocking the check also seems good and the engine suggests the same so black plays Be6 and white responds with another Haymaker Rxe6+ black accepts yet another exchange sacrifice with fxe6 and Now white bangs again with full Bishop sac Bxd6+. This bishop sac is required to capture the b7 pawn with check and force the black king to go to 8th rank and capture both rooks of black, right now the c7 pawn is blocking the check.
- Black accepts the sac with cxd6 and White captures the b7 pawn with check. Black king goes to 8th rank Kd1. Now white can take the rook but plays and in-between move Bxe6 threatening checkmate at d7 and Black has to do something about it. Black plays Qc7 offering queen exchange which is obviously unacceptable for white. White captures the rook at a8 giving a check to the king and the king goes to e7 attacking the e6 bishop. White captures another rook and after black captures the bishop white responds with Qg8 check followed by Qf8 check to control the f file from where it can support its knight which has been hanging for a while now.
- After black plays Kg6 white actually can play Qf3 keeping an eye on the d3 pawn and hence on the knight but plays g4 setting up a trap for checkmate, black responds with Qd7 controlling f5 square, and white finally plays Qf3, black captures the knight on d2 white equalize this exchange after few checks by capturing the bishop. Black captures g4 pawn with a check but since the position is wide open and both sides have queen, it's a draw position.
There are a few variations that are humanly possible to play let's look at them
Possible Variations
Below are variations that we will look into
- at move 13, white plays Rae1 and not Rfe1, it's because since Rxe7 doesn't come with a check hence queen can take the rook at a1 with a check and later capture the rook with the king
- on move 14th the engine suggests Kd8 but black can block the check with c6 or Bc7 as well
The first variation is quite easy to understand hence look at 2nd variation where Black blocks the check with Bishop.
Variation: 14.. Bc7
So black blocks the check with Bishop by Bc7, Check the variation below
+4
Line :
Variation: 14.. c6
on move 14th black can block the check with c6. below is sequence
+4Line :
I'll leave up to you to analyze further, Right now, although black is 4 pawns up the game is still in balance. The real reason behind this is except queen black is undeveloped, White will have to keep finding forcing moves and never let black develop its pieces.
Question for you what if black forks the queen and bishop by playing b5 on move 19 in this line? Click here to analyze this line.
I really hope that you will like this line. Keep analyzing further to find more lines and comment if I missed any line that you would like to see.
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