The Evans Gambit — a romantic weapon, reloaded
Few openings carry a pedigree quite like this one. The Evans Gambit was conceived in 1827 by William Davies Evans, a Welsh sea captain, and every attacking generation since has reached back for it — Morphy and Chigorin in the romantic era, and later Kasparov, who reintroduced it at the highest level against Anand in 1995. It is one of those ideas that never truly retires; each generation rediscovers its bite and adds something of its own.
That is exactly what GM Baadur Jobava and GM Pier Luigi Basso do here. The gambit's logic is unchanged since 1827: after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4, White hands over a pawn to gain time on the bishop, build a broad centre with c3 and d4, and open lines straight toward f7. What is new is the modern, engine-tested precision the authors bring to it — including a fresh queenside idea in the main line that gives the whole system a second life.
What makes this course stand out
The heart of the repertoire is the main line after 4...Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.Qb3 Qe7 8.O-O Bb6, where the queen and bishop already bear down on f7. From here Jobava and Basso offer two distinct roads: a fresh queenside novelty and the classical central recapture, so you can choose the character of the game rather than memorise a single path.
Just as importantly, the lines where Black declines the pawn are given full weight. Many Evans repertoires wave at 4...Be7 and 4...Bb6 and hurry on; here each retreat gets its own treatment, so you keep a comfortable pull whether Black takes the pawn or steps aside. The authors' reasoning is practical throughout — the positions are sharp and concrete, and a single imprecise move by Black is often enough to hand White a decisive initiative.
Variation map
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 — the gambit
- 4...Be7 — the modern decline, trusted by Grischuk → Chapter 1
- 4...Bb6 — refusing the pawn offer→ Chapter 2
4...Bxb4 5.c3
- 5...Bc5 — the bishop stays aggressive → Chapter 3
- 5...Be7 — the modest retreat → Chapter 4
- 6.d4 Na5 — the knight lunges at the bishop → Chapter 5
- 5...Ba5 6.d4 — the main battlefield
- 6...d6 — the solid setup → Chapter 9
- 6...exd4 7.Qb3 — instant pressure on f7
- 7...Qf6 — the untangling defence → Chapter 6
- 7...Qe7 8.O-O Bb6 — the main line
- 9.a4 — fresh queenside novelty → Chapter 7
- 9.cxd4 — classical central recapture → Chapter 8
Inside the course
- 9 Chapters
- 20 test positions
- Memory Booster
- To Go version of every chapter
- Video instruction
- Multilingual PGN (English, German, French, Spanish)
For your 1.e4 games
Players who also want an aggressive 1.e4 answer to the Sicilian can explore Jospem versus the Sicilian, a separate series in the same attacking spirit.
Take it into your own games
Whether you have long admired the Evans Gambit from a distance or want a fighting weapon after 3...Bc5 that puts the opponent under pressure from move four, this course gives you both the lines and the ideas behind them. Sacrifice the pawn, seize the centre, and let the initiative do the talking.