William Davies Evans

William Evans

William Davies Evans (born January 27, 1790 near Pembroke , † August 3, 1872 in Ostend ) was a Welsh sailor and chess player and inventor of the Evans Gambit .

He went to sea at the age of 14 and served on post ships from around 1815. Four years later he was promoted to captain .

He learned the game of chess from a ship's officer at the age of 28. Around 1824 he developed the gambit , later named after him , which he showed in London in 1826, among others, to Alexander McDonnell , who was one of the world's best players at the time and who later often used the Evans gambit . In 1838 Evans played several games against Howard Staunton . Staunton mentioned it several times in his chess-player's Handbook (1847), and calls his gambit as "witty and interesting" ( ingenious and interesting ).

In January 1840 Evans was retired because of his poor health, but then spent another two years as a captain in the Mediterranean . He also made a name for himself as the inventor of three-color ship lights to avoid collisions at sea at night. Although he received a large sum of money from the British government and a gold pocket watch from the Russian tsar in recognition of this , Evans eventually died impoverished in Ostend. Shortly before his death, English chess players called for donations for him. His wife Marie Thérèse Duncan Evans outlived him by several years.

literature

• Max Lange : Development of the Evans Gambit. In: German chess newspaper . January 1873, pp. 1-13.

Web links

Commons : William Davies Evans  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Extensive biographical notes from the British Chess Magazine 1928 ( memento from June 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) via Internet Archive (PDF, English; 64 kB)
• Replayable chess games by William Davies Evans on chessgames.com (English)