Accepting the gambit

The most obvious and most usual way for Black to meet the gambit is to accept it with 4...Bxb4,^[5] after which White plays 5.c3 and Black usually follows up with 5...Ba5 (5...Be7 and the less common 5...Bc5 and 5...Bd6, the Stone–Ware Defence, are also played). White usually follows up with 6.d4. Emanuel Lasker's line is 4...Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 d6 7.0-0 Bb6 8.dxe5 dxe5 9.Qxd8+ Nxd8 10.Nxe5 Be6. This variation takes the sting out of White's attack by returning the gambit pawn and exchanging queens, and according to Fine, the resulting simplified position "is psychologically depressing for the gambit player" whose intent is usually an aggressive attack. Chigorin did a lot of analysis on the alternative 9.Qb3 Qf6 10.Bg5 Qg6 11.Bd5 Nge7 12.Bxe7 Kxe7 13.Bxc6 Qxc6 14.Nxe5 Qe6, which avoids the exchange of queens, but reached no clear verdict. Instead White often avoids this line with 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.dxe5, when Black can return the pawn with 8...Bb6 or hold onto it with 8...dxe5, though White obtains sufficient compensation in this line.

Alternatively, Black can meet 6.d4 with 6...exd4, when White can try 7.Qb3, a move often favoured by Nigel Short. 7.0-0 is traditionally met by 7...Nge7, intending to meet 8.Ng5 or 8.cxd4 with 8...d5 returning the pawn in many lines, rather than the materialistic 7...dxc3, which is well met by 8.Qb3 with a very dangerous initiative for the sacrificed pawns. Alternatively, 7...d6 8.cxd4 Bb6 is known as the Normal Position, in which Black is content to settle for a one-pawn advantage and White seeks compensation in the form of open lines and a strong centre.

Declining the gambit

Alternatively, the gambit can be declined with 4...Bb6, when 5.a4 a6 is the normal continuation. But due to the loss of tempo involved, most commentators consider declining the Evans Gambit to be weaker than accepting it and returning the pawn at a later stage. Black can also play the rare Countergambit Variation (4...d5), but this is thought to be dubious.

Aron Nimzowitsch states in the book My System, however, that by declining the gambit Black has not lost a tempo, since the move b4 was, in the sense of development, unproductive,

as is every pawn move, if it does not bear a logical connection with the centre. For suppose after 4...Bb6 5.b5 (to make a virtue of necessity and attempt something of a demobilizing effect with the ill-moved b-pawn move), 5...Nd4 and now if 6.Nxe5, then 6...Qg5 with a strong attack.^[6]

5...Ba5

Black's most popular retreat according to Chessgames.com. It gets out of the way of White's centre pawns, and pins the c3-pawn if White plays 6.d4, but it has the drawback of removing the a5-square from the black queen's knight. Black usually subsequently retreats the bishop to b6 to facilitate ...Na5, which is particularly strong when White opts for the Bc4, Qb3 approach.

5...Bc5

The second most popular retreat according to Chessgames.com, with White scoring better than after 5...Ba5. This is often played by those unfamiliar with the Evans Gambit, and is arguably inferior to 5...Ba5, because 6.d4 attacks the bishop again and limits Black's options as compared with 5...Ba5 6.d4.

5...Be7

The Anderssen Variation has often been considered one of the "safer" retreats and has been played by Viswanathan Anand. After 6.d4 Na5 White can attempt to maintain an initiative with 7.Be2 as played by Kasparov, or immediately recapture the pawn with 7.Nxe5.

5...Bd6

The Stone–Ware Defence, named after Henry Nathan Stone and Preston Ware, reinforces the e5-pawn and has been played by several grandmasters such as Andrei Volokitin, Alexander Grischuk and Loek van Wely.

5...Bf8

The Mayet Defence, named after Carl Mayet, is played very rarely as it undevelops a good bishop.