Today I want to show a game between two top players of the 1950's. Bobby Fischer was a rising star, and Reuben Fine, although he hadn't played competitive chess for a long time, had been one of the top players of the 1940's. Those two players seem an equal match, but Fischer surprised Fine with the Evan's Gambit, and the fight didn't last long--only 17 moves!
Until the late 1800's, the Evan's Gambit was perhaps the most popular opening of the day (the King's Gambit was also a competitor). However, the second world champion, Emanuel Lasker, found a defense:
Chess theoreticians scratched their heads over this, but nothing could be found than going into an equal ending after dxe5. Soon, the Evan's Gambit died, along with it chess romantisicm.
However, white has the possibility of playing d4! instead of 0-0, just as Fischer played in this game: