Chess Codex
Tree path 8 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Italian Game › Giuoco Piano › Italian Game: Evans Gambit › Italian Game: Evans Gambit Accepted › Italian Game: Evans Gambit, McDonnell Defense
  1. Chess Codex
  2. King's Pawn Game C20
  3. King's Knight Opening C40
  4. Normal Variation C44
  5. Italian Game C50
  6. Giuoco Piano C50
  7. Italian Game: Evans Gambit C51
  8. Italian Game: Evans Gambit Accepted C51
  9. Italian Game: Evans Gambit, McDonnell Defense C51 you are here
C51

Italian Game: Evans Gambit, McDonnell Defense

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Overview

Italian Game: Evans Gambit, McDonnell Defense belongs to the gambit family of chess openings (ECO C51, Open Games). It trades material for attacking chances — a classic trade-off that has fascinated players from the Romantic era to modern correspondence chess.

The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.

Play reaches this position via 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Bc5, after 10 plies of opening development.

The line refines Italian Game: Evans Gambit Accepted, which traces back to the root opening King's Pawn Game.

The line splits into 2 documented sub-systems: Italian Game: Evans Gambit, Harding Variation, Main Line.

In total, the branch covers 10 sub-variations across all depths.

Explore the position on the interactive board, study its real-world results from Lichess, and challenge the engine when you are ready.

ECO code
C51
Group
Open Games (C)
Plies
10
Parent
Italian Game: Evans Gambit Accepted
Direct variations
2
Total in subtree
10

This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. A more detailed, human-written description is on the way — and you can speed it up by suggesting one yourself.

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Variations (2)

Related variations at the same level

Sister lines that share the same parent Italian Game: Evans Gambit Accepted:

Show all 10 sub-variations (full subtree)

https://test.av-webdevs.com/openings/italian-game-evans-gambit-mcdonnell-defense