All at Sea

John B. Henderson • Mar 10, 2023

The redoubtable Captain William Davies Evans (1790-1872) invented the internationally recognised system of tri-coloured lights that made sailing at night less dangerous. Over the chessboard, he also invented his eponymously-named gambit 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 that equally could have used a similar warning system for unsuspecting opponents! 


Capt. Evans was born at Musland Farm, in the Parish of St. Dogwells, Wales, on January 27, 1790. He had an early fascination for both chess and the sea - and after serving in the Royal Navy, and rising to the rank of captain, he left the service in the 1820s to take command of a sailing packet that carried mail between Milford Haven and Waterford.

It was during one of his many regular crossings that Capt. Evans had his ‘eureka’ chess moment, with the brainwave at sea of a daring new move in the Giuoco Piano that led to the birth of his Evans Gambit that became his lasting legacy to the game he loved. The seafarer’s swashbuckling gambit soon took the romantic age of chess by storm also, being adopted by the game’s 19th-century elite stars, including McDonnell, Labourdonnais, Anderssen, Morphy, Chigorin and Steinitz, before it fell out of fashion.


It would all have been a nice story for the annals if this particular sea adventure ended at this point - but Capt. Evans and his gambit endured by making a sensational top-level comeback in the 20th century, plus he also went on to be historically memorialised in the 21st century for both his maritime and chess achievements.


Chess-wise, in 1995 Garry Kasparov relit the dying embers of the Evans Gambit by unleashing it against a very surprised Vishy Anand during the Tal Memorial in Riga. After being endorsed by Kasparov, the Evans Gambit momentarily came back into vogue once again - and still, just over 150 years after his death, his gambit still has not been refuted.


And in 2019, a blue plaque monument was unveiled by descendants of the Captain in recognition of his maritime and chess inventions and affixed to a stone located on Wolfscastle village green. The stone was provided by Paul Evans of Musland Farm, where Capt. Evans was born.


At the top level, with more and more tournaments, not to mention a plethora of additional online tournaments, and many younger players ‘databased & engined up’, it is not unsurprising that we occasionally see such ‘forgotten’ lines being unleashed like thunderbolts on unsuspecting and unprepared players. Such variations may not be completely sound but they can confine an unsure opponent to using up lots of clock time plus face prolonged and tedious defence.

Conversely, they can also demonstrate why computer engines can spot hitherto obscure hidden tactical points that can dramatically bust a game wide open — a case in point coming with this Evans Gambit rare outing during the recent Tata Steel Challengers at Wijk aan Zee. 


Long live the memory of Capt. Evans and the spirit of the gambit that bears his name!

IM Thomas Beerdsen - GM Jergus Pechac

Tata Steel Challengers 2023, (3)
Evans Gambit, Tartakower Attack

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Capt. Evans' trademark calling card - and yet, 150 years after his death, his legacy lives on with his enterprising gambit that has never been refuted. 4...Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 d6 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.O-O Bb6 9.Nbd2 Na5 10.Qc2 f6 All known to theory - and other solid options here are 10...Nxc4 11.Nxc4 Qc6

or even 10...Ne7 11.dxe5 O-O!?.11.a4 Ne7 12.Ba2 Nec6 13.Ba3 exd4 14.cxd4 Nxd4?This is the wrong way to go about it, as Black's king is left stranded in the middle of the board - and that's never a good idea in the Evans Gambit! The best was 14...Bxd4! 15.Nxd4 Nxd4 16.Qd3 c5 with an unclear position. Mr Engine likes to think that Black is marginally better, but, as often occurs in the Evans, in practice, such positions prove incredibly difficult for Black to contain the scope of the bishop-pair raking across his position.15.Nxd4 Bxd4 16.Rad1 Qe7 17.e5!? The young Dutch IM is very much keeping in the swashbuckling nature of the Evans - but he missed a better and more dangerous shot with 17.Nf3! forcing 17...Bc5 (You can't try to consolidate with 17...Be5? as 18.Nxe5 fxe5 19.f4! and the dream Evans scenario with White set to rip the game open; alternatively 17...Bb6 18.e5! fxe5 19.Nxe5! is a typical Evans theme.)18.Bxc5 dxc5 19.e5! f5 20.e6! O-O 21.Rfe1 with the deadly threat looming of Rd7!! with a crushing attack. 17...fxe5 18.Nf3 Nc6 19.Bd5 Kd8 20.Rfe1 Qf6 21.Bxc6 bxc6 22.Qxc6 Beersden misses his big 'Evans moment' with 22.Bxd6! cxd6 (If 22...Qxd6?? 23.Nxe5! quickly wins.) 23.Nxd4 exd4 24.Qxc6 Rb8 25.Rc1 and the Black king is well and truly snared by the 'heavy furniture' in the middle of the board, where not even offering up the queen with 25...Qe7 26.Rxe7 Kxe7 27.Qc7+ offers any hopes of a miracle save. 22...Rb8 23.Rc1 Bb6 24.Nxe5 Re8 [see diagram] 25.Bxd6? In his gut, Beerdsen would have felt that White 'had something' here - and he would be right to have this feeling, but he goes about it all the wrong way, meanwhile, our Silicon Overlords shows how to turn that gut feeling into reality with 25.a5!! Bxa5 and only now does  26.Bxd6! work, the game ending in spectacular fashion with a flurry of tactics of 26...cxd6 27.Nf7+! Qxf7 28.Qxd6+ Qd7 29.Rxe8+ Kxe8 30.Qxb8 Kd8 31.Qf4 Qf5 (If 31...Qe7 32.Rd1+ Ke8 33.Qa4+ also picks off the loose bishop.) 32.Qxf5 Bxf5 33.Rc5 which is the whole point of the 25.a5!! deflection in the first place, as both Black bishops are skewered. After this miss, the game ended more amicably. 25...cxd6 26.Nf7+ Qxf7 27.Qxd6+ Qd7 28.Rxe8+ Kxe8 29.Qxb8 Kd8 30.Qf4 Qf5 31.Qg3 g6 32.a5 In the words of the comedy classic Morecambe & Wise Greig Piano Concerto sketch with the fabled conductor, Andre Previn, Beersden is playing all the right moves, but not necessarily in the right order! 32...Bxa5 33.Qd6+ Bd7 34.Qb8+ Ke7 35.Qxa7 Qd5 36.Qc5+ ½-½

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • 02 Oct, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • 29 Sep, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • 27 Sep, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • 25 Sep, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • 22 Sep, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • 19 Sep, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • 14 Sep, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • 11 Sep, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • 08 Sep, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • 04 Sep, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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