Saturday, June 21, 2008

Were they talking about the Jerome Gambit or...?


Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty – Dominic Lawson

This is totally unsound and should never be tried! – Raymond Keene

Some part of a mistake is always correct – Savielly Tartakover

What would Chess be without silly mistakes? – Kurt Richter

The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake – Savielly Tartakover

Without error there can be no brilliancy – Emanuel Lasker

Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine – Mikhail Tal

We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for sacrifices is part of a Chessplayer's nature – Rudolf Spielman

What is the object of playing a gambit opening? To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing the game – Siegbert Tarrasch

In the laboratory, gambits all test unfavorably; but the old rule wears well, that all gambits are sound over the board – William Napier

You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one – Mikhail Tal

The delight in gambits is a sign of chess youth. In very much the same way as the young man, on reaching his manhood years, lays aside the Indian stories and stories of adventure, and turns to the psychological novel, we with maturing experience leave off gambit playing and become interested in the less vivacious but withal more forceful maneuvers of the position player – Emanuel Lasker

A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused – Rudolph Spielmann

A player surprised is half beaten – Proverb

You need not play well - just help your opponent to play badly – Genrikh Chepukaitis

Later, I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhaps because I realized a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent – Mikhail Tal

A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me with artistic horror – Wilhelm Steinitz

The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made – Savielly Tartakover

Adequate compensation for a sacrifice is having a sound combination leading to a winning position; adequate compensation for a blunder is having your opponent snatch defeat from the jaws of victory – Bruce A. Moon

No; the Jerome gambit is not named after St. Jerome. His penances, if he did any, were in atonement of rather minor transgressions compared with the gambit – Emanuel Lasker


(Thanks to chess-poster.com for their cache of chess quotes.)

Friday, June 20, 2008

Stuff happens...

Well, well, well...

It seems that greenpawn34, at RedHotPawn.com, recently decided to try out the Jerome Gambit in a blitz game, against the willing Homedepotov:

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

"Elsewhere on here" greenpawn34 posted, "I advocated playing the Jerome Gambit. I practise what I preach in this very good natured four minute game."

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5 Nxe5 6.Qh5 Ke6 7.Qf5 Kd6 8.Nc3


Practically a "TN" - I have only one other game with it in my database, another internet blitz game from 7 years ago.

8....c6 9.d4 Bxd4 10.Bc1-e3 Bxe3

There is nothing wrong with this move, per se, but I sense an underlying theme of cooperation that will doom Black.

11.fxe3 Qf6 12.O-O-O+ Kc7 13. Qh3 d5 14. Qg3 dxe4

Not the best time to stop and snack.

15.Rhf1 Qe7 16.Rf7!

Guaranteeing indigestion.

16....Qxf7 17.Qxe5+ Kb6 18.Na4+ Ka6 19.Nc5+ Kb6 20.Na4+ Ka6 21.Nc5+ Kb6 22.Na4+ Ka6+ draw

"Good fun – it's what the chess pieces were designed for" smiled greenpawn34 gracefully, "Thank you Homedepotov for the compliment on my Rook sac."

And then, suspecting that he might receive some celebrity or notoriety for his game – is the point half-lost or is the point half-won, I wonder? – he noted: "I've not looked at it yet – I bet some wise guy is going to show me a forced win when I took the perpetch."

Rest easy, greenpawn34. It's a draw.

An impressive one.

Who knew that the best way to get out of a two-piece-down situation was to sacrifice a rook?

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Breaking News...

I've mentioned Kaissiber, before.

Truth be told, I'm also partial to the online Chessville Weekly and the Unorthodox Openings Newsletter (both of which I write for) but nothing quite matches the work of International Master Stefan Bücker.



Don't take my word for it, though – check each issue's Table of Contents: http://www.kaissiber.com/html/heftarchiv.html



I'm highlighting Kaissiber #27 here because it contains an article titled "Alexander Alekhine and Marshall’s 1 d4 d5 2 c4 Nf6!?" – by me.

It's not every day that I can brag that I have something published in two different languages that I can't read – German and Italian.




Anyhow, I just had an exchange of emails with Stefan and as a realistic Editor he had some good news (for me) and some more good news (for Kaissiber readers).



He's still interested in publishing an article on the Jerome Gambit, based on all the information I've been sending him. In the fall. In a much more succinct format than what I've written.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Is This Blog About YOU??

Do you play the Jerome Gambit – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ – or do you have it played against you?


Have you
analyzed
the opening
and its
offshoots?



Do you know of games that might be of interest to others
following this blog?
Have you done your own studies of this line?
Why not send them in:
richardfkennedy@hotmail.com and I will share them with fellow readers.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Flaws (Part II)

Amateur - Blackburne
London, 1885
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6

"Not to be outdone in generosity," Blackburne added in his 1899 collection Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess.


In the American edition of Cook's Synopsis [American Supplement to the "Synopsis," Containing American Inventions In the Chess Openings Together With Fresh Analysis in the Openings Since 1882; also a list of Chess Clubs in the United States and Canada, 1884, edited by J.W. Miller] ...Ke6 is given as the best defence, but Mr. Blackburne's ingenious counter sacrifice in the present skirmish would seem to show that the text is at least as good -- Brooklyn Chess Cronicle, August 15, 1885 [Here and below, the annotation has been changed from descriptive to algebraic notation.]

Not considered in Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's earliest analysis, 6...g6 was seen at least as early as in the 5th game of the second match between Mexican Champion Andres Clemente Vazquez and American William Harrington, Mexico 1876 (Vazquez won the match 12-3-1): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Nf6 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Re8 10.d3 Ng4 11.Qf3+ Kg7 12.0-0 Rf8 13.Qg3 Qf6 14.h3 Ne5 15.Nc3 c6 16.Bg5 Qe6 17.Qh4 Nf7 18.f4 h6 19.f5 hxg5 20.fxe6 gxh4 21.Rxf7+ Rxf7 22.exf7 Kxf7 23.Rf1+ Kg7 24.e5 d5 25.Ne2 b5 26.Nd4 Bd7 27.Rf6 Rc8 28.Rd6 Be8 29.Kf2 Kf7 30.Kf3 c5 31.Ne2 d4 32.Kg4 Rc6 33.Kxh4 Rxd6 34.exd6 Kf6 35.Ng3 Bc6 36.Ne4+ Bxe4 37.dxe4 a5 38.e5+ Ke6 39.Kg3 1-0

7.Qxe5 d6

Despite the accolades awarded to this game, Black has a stronger counter-attack here, starting with 7...Qe7! as Jerome discovered to his dismay in the games of his correspondence match with Lt. G. N. Whistler, secretary of the Lexington, Kentucky Chess Club, in 1876.

8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.0-0


"He should have attempted to free his piece by d4 before castling," was the opinion of the Brooklyn Chess Chronicle, with White then having an edge.

9....Nf6 10.c3


"The only hope he had was 10.Qd8, thus preventing the deadly move of ...Ng4" -- Brooklyn Chess Chronicle.

Masterly analysis by Geoff Chandler and Todor Dimitrov showed that in the resulting play, the game would be drawn.

10.... Ng4 11.h3 Bxf2+ 12.Kh1 Bf5 13.Qxa8 Qxh3+ 14.gxh3 Bxe4 mate






Monday, June 16, 2008

Flaws (Part I)

A more serious look at the Amateur - Blackburne game would reveal a few "flaws," to return to the master's comments on "brilliancy."

Amateur - Blackburne
London, 1885


Yes, 1885. The August 15, 1885 issue of the Brooklyn Chess Chronicle (J.B. and E.M. Munoz, editors) presented the game as having been "played some months ago."

J. H. Blackburne played tens of thousands of tournament, match and exhibition games. It is understandable that in recalling this one for Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess (1899), he believed that it had been played "at Simpson's Divan about 1880."

It is only speculation, but perhaps Blackburne conflated two memories, as on October 20, 1880, at Simpson's Divan, he sharply finished off a game against a "Mr. L.," having given the odds of two Knights



1…Be7 2 Bxe5+ Qxe5 3 Nxe5 Rxg2+ 4 Kxg2 Rg6+ 5 Kh3 Bg2 mate

This finish was given in the September 1882 issue of Chess Monthly, according to Edward Winter in his "Unsolved Chess Mysteries (26)".

Interestingly enough, Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess has a position similarly identified ("Played at Simpson's Chess Divan in 1880, White giving the odds of two Knights" vs "Mr. L") with colors reversed.

Blackburne, playing White, finishes off the game in the same manner.

1.Be2 Bxe4+ 2.Qxe4 Nxe4 3.Rxg7+ Kxg7 4.Rg3+ Kh6 5.Bg7 mate

At an age where I can smile knowingly at all of this "misremembering," it is also reassuring to recall the words of José Capablanca, from "How I Learned to Play Chess" in the October 1916 issue of Munsey’s Magazine.

It is not correct to assume, however, that my chess ability depends upon an overdeveloped memory. In chess, memory may be an aid, but it is not indispensable. At the present time my memory is far from what it was in my early youth, yet my play is undoubtedly much stronger than it was then. Mastery of chess and brilliance of play do not depend so much upon the memory as upon the peculiar functioning of the powers of the brain.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Mars Attacks!


Several years ago, the Scottish chess player Geoff Chandler (left) -- whose tales are regularly told at his extremely entertaining web site, Chandler Cornered, -- decided to "annotate" the Amateur - Blackburne, London 1880 Jerome Gambit game.


Instead of using typical master or grandmaster comments, though, he inserted copies of the infamous 1962 bubble-gum card set, from Bubbles, Inc. -- "Mars Attacks!"

Here, then, is the game "Mars v Earth"



1. e4 .... 1. .... e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bc4 Bc5

4. Bxf7+ Kxf7

5. Nxe5+ Nxe5

6. Qh5+ g6

7. Qxe5 ....

7. .... d6

8. Qxh8 Qh4

9. O-O Nf6

10. c3 Bf5

11. Qxa8 ....
11. .... Ng4

12. h3 Bxf2+

13. Kh1 Qxh3+

14. gxh3 ....

14. .... Bxe5 mate



(Earthlings take note: Mars Attacks! was created by Len Brown and Woody Gelman, pencilled by Wally Wood and Bob Powell, and painted was by Norm Saunders. Illustrations above came from Zelda's MARS ATTACKS!
)