Jerome Gambit: The Deadly f-File, Once Again

When Black'sKing captures the Bishop on f7, in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), it needs to be careful if White castles Kingside, putting his Rook on the same file; and, doubly so, if the White Queen lines up with the Rook.

MrFiore - nyanisi

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 

7.Qd5+ Kf8 8.Qxc5+ d6 9.Qe3 Qf6 

MrFiore has also faced 9...Nf6, 9...Qe7, 9...Be6 and 9...N8e7.

10.d3 Ne5 11.Nc3 Ng4 

It is tempting to harass the Queen.

12.Qe2 a6 13.h3 Ne5 14.O-O Ne7 15.f4 N5c6 

Nothing exciting has happened yet, but White's Rook on the same file as Black's Queen and King could turn out to mean something.

16.f5 Nd4 17.Qf2 Ndc6 18.g4 Qd4 19.Be3 Qb4 20.f6 Black resigned

It is going to cost Black material - starting with 20...Nf5 - to try to slow down White's attack, and he is not likely to be able to develop his remaining pieces in time to provide safety for his King.

Jerome Gambit: Queens Offside

The following game is a curious one: White's Queen goes offside, and Black's Queen does likewise. Only one suffers from the move.

Redtheone - giulianoprs74

3 2 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Nf7 

It is not clear if this is a creative way to return material, which is inescapable, or simply a slip.

9.Qd5+ 

According to The Database, the alternative, 9.Qxf7 has scored 5 - 1 - 0.

9...Ke7 10.Qxc5+ d6 

Later, he faced 10...Nd6 in Redtheone - SebRia, lichess.org, 2025 (1-0, 48).

11.Qc4 

Or 11.Qd5 as in Redtheone - ANIwarrior007, lichess.org, 2024 (1-0, 65).

11...Be6 12.Qb4 

Or 12.Qe2 Qd7 13.f5 Black resigned, Redtheone - arcade129, lichess.org, 2024.

12...Rb8 

White's Queen has been doing a lot of work.

13.O-O c5 14.Qa3 Nf6 15.d3 

White cuts off his Queen from the Kingside, instead of centralizing the piece with 15.Qe3. Fortunately for him, Black now decentralized his Queen.  

15...Qb6 16.Kh1 

The King wants to escape any disclosed check from the Queen. He also had 16.c4. 

16...Nd8 17.f5 Bd7 18.Nc3 Nc6 19.Bg5 

With a simple threat. Do you see it? Apparently, the defender does not. Remember, this is a 3-minute game.

19...Rbf8 20.Bxf6+ gxf6 21.Nd5+ Black resigned

Jerome Gambit: An Unfortunate Pawn-Grab

In the following Jerome Gambit game, Black defends well, until he is distracted by a pawn, and, unfortunately, grabs it.

CassomaD4 - jdkybej

2 1 bullet, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 

The Two Knights Defense

4.O-O Bc5 5.Bxf7+ 

The game has transposed to a "modern" (not Nxe5+) Jerome Gambit line, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.O-O Nf6 5.Bxf7+ - for the moment.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 

Transposing to an odd variation of the main, "classical," Jerome line, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 Nf6 7.0–0, although there are 84 examples in The Database (White score 50%).

7...Ng6 8.dxc5 Nxe4 

An unfortunate pawn-grab, the kind of thing that can happen in a bullet game. 

9.Qd5+ Black resigned

White is ahead a pawn. In a slower time control, he could grind his opponent down. In this game, perhaps he has the skills to do so, quickly. Possibly, Black suspected that his opponent could do that, or was upset at dropping the Knight.

Jerome Gambit: Not Annoying Enough

One serious defense to the Jerome Gambit is the "annoying defense." 

In the following game, Black passes on that defense, and his King pays the price.

alpingo45 - HAL-9000

5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.f4 Kd6 

Black's King tries to edge away from the danger. 

He would have done better with 7...d6, the annoying defense. 

8.Qxe5+ Kc6 9.Qd5+ Kb6 

If 9...Kb4, White has a checkmate in 14 moves.

Still, the King is in serious danger.

10.Nc3 Nf6 

Black needed to move his a-pawn so that his King had a place to retreat to from the coming Knight attack. Even so, the relatively safest retreat will be to the a-file.

11.Na4+ Kb5 12.Qxc5+ Kxa4 13.b3 checkmate

Jerome Gambit: Recent Miniature

Quite often, Jerome Gambit games end quickly - even (especially) the ones that the first player wins.

Here is a recent miniature.

MrFiore - Thal-011

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 

Blackburne's defense, tricky, but leading to a draw with best play - although Stockfish 14.1 evaluates the current position as 3 1/3 pawns better for White!?

On top of that, The Database has 952 games with the Blackburne defense, with White scoring 73%

Contrast that with Whistler's defense, 7...Qe7, which Stockfish 16.1 evaluates as about 2 1/3 pawns better for Black.

In 617 games in The Database, White scores only 51%.

8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.d4 

White's response to Black's Queen's arrival is best.

Instead, 9.O-O leads to 9...Nf6 10.Qd8 Bh3 11.Qxc7+Kf8 12.Qxb7 Bxg2 13.Kxg2 Qg4+ 14.Kh1 Qf3+ 15.Kg1 Qg4+ etc, drawing by repetition of position. Both players should be aware of this line of play.

9...Qxe4+ 

The computer sees 9...Bb4+ as the best choice for Black, here, although it does not come up with any move that changes the evaluation from "Better for White"to "Better for Black". 

There are only 3 games in The Database with 9...Bb4+, and White wins all of them, starting with 10.c3, but they are all messy; for example, perrypawnpusher - bakker, blitz, FICS, 2007 (1-0, 33).

10.Be3 Bb4+ 

Here, Black resigned.

He is down the exchange and a pawn. His King is uneasy. Possibly, the clock was working against him, as well.

Jerome Gambit: Ouch, That's Got to Hurt

I have hit my thumb a number of times while driving in a nail.

It should be an easy task, but it requires a certain amount of care.

As in the following Jerome Gambit game.

alpingo45 - Grandfather19

5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.f4 Qf6 8.Rf1 g6 9.Qh3+ Ke7 

10.Nc3 Nc4 

Black "aggressively" removes his Knight from the pawn attack, but he overlooks something. He has forgotten the lesson from one of his earlier games:  10...c6 11.fxe5 Qxe5 12.d3 (Better 12.d4, but it can be wild: 12...Qxd4 13.Bf4 d6 14.Qg3 Ke8 15.Rd1 Qg7 16.Na4 Bb4+ 17.c3 Nf6 [17...Ba5 18.Bxd6] 18.cxb4 Nxe4 19.Qe3 Qe7 20.Rd4 d5 21.Nc5 Nxc5 22.Qxe7+ Kxe7 23.bxc5 Bf5 = ) 12...d5 13.Bg5+ Ke8 14.Qf3 Qxg5 15.Qf7+ Kd8 16.exd5 Bf5 17.dxc6 bxc6 18.Qg7 Qf6 19.Qb7 Rc8 20.O-O-O Ne7 21.Ne4 Qd4 22.Nxc5 Qxc5 23.d4 Qxc2 checkmate, alpingo45 - amamba1966, lichess.org, 2025. 

As you might expect, best for Black is 10...d6 11.Nd5+ Kd8 12.Qg3 Nd3+ 13.cxd3 Qf7 with advantage. 

11.Nd5+ Black resigned

Ouch, that's got to hurt...

Jerome-Knightmare

I would like to add a couple of things concerning the line 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Bxf7+, a Jerome Gambit relative, to the posts "Jerome Gambit: Review of the Jerome-Knight Gambit" and "Jerome-Knight Gambit".

First, it is worth going back to the pair of posts, "A GM plays the Jerome Gambit ??" and "Here, have a bishop..." to take look at Grandmaster Larry Christiansen's blitz game, LarryC - therealwizard, blitz, 3 0 blitz, Internet Chess Club, 2008 (1-0, 51).

Also, here is a recent bullet game where Black underestimates his opponent's chances.

dziuba - KnightOfZero1205

1 0 bullet, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 

The earliest example that I have of this beginning in The Database is R.W. - H., Leipzig, 1874 (1-0, 8)  given the December 1874 issue of Schachzeitung.

Of course, as Yury V. Bukayev points out, Wikipedia shows even earlier examples

The Bishop's Opening is one of the oldest openings to be analyzed; it was studied by Lucena and Ruy Lopez. Later it was played by Philidor, whose influence gave the opening long-lasting popularity.

3.Bxf7+ 

Stockfish 16.1 (42 ply) evaluates this position as about 3 1/4 pawns better for Black - pretty sobering when you consider that, from a material perspective, White has given up a piece (3 pawns) and gotten a pawn (1 pawn) in return, only a 2-pawn investment. Does that mean that the computer assesses Black's positional "advantage" at 1 1/4 pawns?

By the way, the earliest unambiguous example of this sacrifice in The Database is Cunningham - Brookshire, IECC, 1999.

3...Kxf7 4.Nf3 

The computer suggests 4.f4, which is either very adventurous, or a sign of dispondency - Go ahead, play anything, it doesn't matter...

 4...Nxe4 

This position can also arise from the Petroff Defense, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Bxf7+

5.Nxe5+ Kf6 

Looking for trouble. The safe move was 5...Kg8.

6.Qf3+ 

Sharp, and in 1-minute games sharpness counts for something.

Duller, but more sound, was 6.d4.

6...Ke6 

Unless you have examined this line previously, you would be unlikely to see as "best" 6...Kxe5 7.d4+ Ke6 8.d5+ Ke7 9.d6+ Nxd6 10.Bg5+ Ke8 11.Bxd8 Kxd8 when White has 3 pieces for his Queen, and Stockfish 16.1 evaluates the position (29 ply) as a bit better for the first player.

7.Qxe4 Bd6 8.Nc6+ Black resigned