Friday, July 25, 2008

Jerome Gambit Tournament: Chapter V



I'll be the first to admit that sometimes the Jerome Gambit does not appear to be such a fearsome beast at all. Since my goal in this tournament was to beat the opening nine times, this seemed to be a good idea to keep in mind.
drewbear - perrypawnpusher
JG3 thematic www.chessworld.net, 2008


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d3


The modern Jerome Gambit approach (see "Jerome Gambit Tournament: Chapter IV"). My opponent is familiar with this line: including this tournament, he has played it over 20 times.

5...Nf6 6.0–0 Rf8 7.Bg5 Kg8

I suppose that I'm an oldster, but it seems to me that any line that allows Black to castle-by-hand like this can't be very promising for White. "Keeping Black's King in peril" is a major Jerome Gambit theme.

8.h4


The idea behind this is unclear, but my own moves are pretty easy to figure out: don't do anything risky, swap pieces, keep the pressure on and look forward to the piece-up endgame.
8...d5 9.exd5 Qxd5 10.Nc3 Qf7 11.Ne4 Nxe4 12.dxe4 Bg4 13.Qd3 Bxf3 14.gxf3 Be7 15.Qd5 Bxg5 16.hxg5 Rad8 17.Qxf7+ Rxf7 18.Kg2 Nd4 19.Rad1 Rdf8 20.Rh1 Rxf3 21.Rd2 Ne6 22.Rd3
An oversight that ends the game.

22...Rxf2+ 0–1

No comments: