White to Play and Win

In 1939 Weaver Adams, who would be the U.S. Open Champion in 1948, wrote a book called "White to Play and Win."  Adams, the prototypical romantic gambiteer, felt the White, with its first-move advantage, should always win, everything being equal.

                                                                Weaver Adams 1954

In 1962 "Chess Life" Larry Evans took Adam's analysis to task by tearing apart his beloved Adams Gambit (Adams died the following year):

white to paly and win nice. just messing with you nice article though

fixed. thanks.

Very interesting!

here is a nice game which illustrates the counter-chances Black gets against 6.Nb5 by White:

And here is another game, where Bronstein, playing Black, offers the rook on the Kingside!

Thanks for the interesting post.
Weaver Adams' legacy lived on through Hans Berliner's 1999 book, The System. Berliner applied some of Adams' ideas, such as the Option Principle, but developed his 'system' based on 1.d4 vs. Adams' 1.e4.

Thanks phillidor5946 and Mone49.

Thanks Kamalakanta for the Adams Gambit games.  

Evans' article, as he mentioned, was in response to analysis offered by Adams himself 2 months earlier. 

I can post that article but, since it's all in descriptive notation, I'm not sure many people, if any, will actually try to follow Adams' analysis.  

I vote please post.

Thank you!

In the last paragraph of Weaver's article above he referenced another article he contributed to "Chess Life" Sept. 1961, "White to Play and Win.".    Here is that article:

In the above article, Weaver referenced his previous article on the Sicilian in June 20, 1960 "Chess Life."
Here is that article:

You're correct between the distinctive notation, and Larry Evans' article being a image it makes it hard to comprehend.  Fortunately, some old men have time on their hands and I thought I would share this.

Just as unfortunately, this old man doesn't have enough time to do the same with the three other articles you have posted on the Adam's Gambit. 

It seems to me that Mr. Evans was quite  upset to see this printed in Chess Life and, I believe, with good cause.  Wiki states that Fischer successfully used the Adams Gambit with the 6.h3 line.  I could not find such a game in my Fischer collection (1052 games).  There is one game with the 6.d4 line

but as can be seen Fischer wasn't too successful. As far as the hardiness of the Adam's even my complete amateur reply of 6...Nxd4 7.Ne4 Ne6 8.Qxe5 Nxe4 9.Qxe4 seems to yield black an equal chance and probably more.  Yet, as there are so many lines in chess that have been in favor and fallen out of favor it would have been good to see how Weaver would have done if he had not published his best lines and instead used them in competition before publishing them.  Who knows? 

Where would chess be if not for old men?

Thank you.  Having done my part to dispel the myth that old men do nothing but chase young girls I can return to more rewarding pastimes.

Chasing young girls?

@SleeptheNb4: Fischer tried 6. h3 several times against the Najdorf Sicilian (for instance against Bolbochan, Reshevsky, and Najdorf himself). Certainly not in the Vienna!

No one plays the Vienna these days. The notion that 2.Nc3 is somehow "the winning move" is hard to credit. Adams discarded the Bishop's Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4) in favor of the Vienna. The Bishop's Opening is occasionally seen, mostly as a way of avoiding the Petroff. But I wouldn't say that Adams has had any influence in how modern GMs play the Bishop's Opening.

The one line Adams advocated that has caught on is 6.h3 against the Najdorf, which is named for him (the Adams Variation) and is very respectable. In 1962, Fischer played it thrice against GMs (Reshevsky, Najdorf, and Julio Bolbochan, beating all of them. He also won a simul game with it for good measure. https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=19233&side=white&node=1755188 His game against Najdorf appears in My 60 Memorable Games. ChessBase Online shows that 6.h3 is one of White's best-scoring moves against the Najdorf, scoring 54.7%, which is better than any commonly played move (5,000 games or more) against the Najdorf. It has been played by most of the super-elite players, including Carlsen, Anand, Caruana, Nepo, and MVL for starters. I guess that answers Evans' question: Weaver, crackpot though he was, did come up with one good idea.

Here is a game from the Alekhine-Euwe World Championship Match
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1013151