The name given to a famous game of chess, played between
Adolf Anderssen and J. Dufresne in 1852, at Berlin. Known as "Evergreen" because its fame is expected to last forever, while the game remains eternally fresh.
A bold combinational game in the high romantic style, it illustrates how Anderssen could always see a few steps ahead of his opponent, and could take advantage of a lead in development which resulted through natural intuitive play, though the principles of position play were unknown. He would happily sacrifice a knight, then rook, then queen, for an attack on the king which he foresaw before his opponent could have been aware of the danger, and he calculated more accurately.
Though, as Richard Reti points out in Masters of the Chessboard, with reference to Emanuel Lasker's analysis, Anderson failed to grasp the full implication of the middle game position, he played with a strong fighting spirit and triumphed through his greater combinational skill.
The moves, in algebraic notation are as follows:
Evans Gambit
- e4 e5
- Nf3 Nc6
- Bc4 Bc5
- b4 Bxb4
- c3 Ba5
- d4 exd4
- 0-0 d3
- Qb3 Qf6
- e5 Qg6
- Re1 Nge7
- Ba3 b5
- Qxb5 Rb8
- Qa4 Bb6
- Nbd2 Bb7
- Ne4 Qf5
- Bxd3 Qh5
- Nf6+ gxf6
- exf6 Rg8
- Rad1 Qxf3
- Rxe7+ Nxe7
- Qxd7+ Kxd7
- Bf5+ Ke8
- Bd7+ Kf8
- Bxe7++