Towards the end of the 1820s ship’s captain William Davies Evans (1790–1872) worked out a gambit against the Italian Game which would soon start a victory procession through the world of chess. The attacking players of the age quickly recognised what a dangerous weapon they had received as a present and they made use of it as a welcome alternative to the King’s Gambit. Anderssen’s famous "Evergreen game" against Dufresne started as an Evans Gambit and the American Paul Morphy, the best player of his day, played it almost exclusively against 3...Bc5.
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