Sunday, November 1, 2009

Teach / Learn

Welton Vaz ("Ghandybh" at Chess.com) shares a Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game (for an earlier one, see "Xadrez, Ficção Cientifíca e Paz" or visit his "Chess, Science Fiction and Peace" blog).
Looking at the end of the game – a nice mate-in-7 – you can understand why people play the Jerome.

Ghandybh  - ishahir
Chess.com, 2009

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


4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6


7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Nc6


Alarms should be going off inside the head of every Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member. If Black varies from one of the main line this early, there has to be a nasty surprise waiting for him. (For one such example, see "Lost".)

9.e5+

Welton is thinking "King!" A more routine (if safer) response would be picking up a piece with 9.Qd5+ Ke7 10.Qxc5+.

9...Ke7

Black has the option of giving a piece back willingly: 9...Nxe5 10.Qxe5+ Kc6 11.d4 Qe7 12.d5+ Kb6 13.Nc3 Qxe5+ 14.fxe5 d6 15.Na4+ Kb5 16.b3 Bd4 17.c4+ Ka5 18.Bd2+ Ka6 19.b4 b6 20.Rb1 Bxe5 21.c5 dxc5 22.bxc5 Bf5 23.Rc1 Bd4 24.cxb6 axb6 25.Rf1 Re8+ 26.Kd1 Bg4+ 27.Kc2 Nf6 28.h3 Bh5 29.g4 Bg6+ 30.Kb3 Nxd5 31.Bc3 Nxc3 32.Nxc3 Bxc3 33.Rxc3 c5 34.Kb2 Rhf8 35.Ra3+ Kb7 36.Rd1 Rd8 37.Re1 Rf2+ 38.Kc1 Rd7 39.Rae3 Rff7 40.h4 h6 41.g5 hxg5 42.hxg5 Kc7 43.a4 Rd3 44.Re7+ Rxe7 45.Rxe7+ Kb8 46.Rxg7 Be4 47.g6 Rd6 48.Rg8+ Kc7 49.g7 Rg6 50.Re8 Rxg7 51.Rxe4 Rg1+ 52.Kd2 Rg2+ 53.Kc3 Ra2 54.Kc4 Kc6 55.Re6+ Kb7 56.Kb5 Rb2+ 57.Kc4 Rb4+ 58.Kc3 Rxa4 59.Re7+ Ka6 60.Re8 Black forfeited on time. Superpippo - MattMeister, FICS, 2002. This is one of the games whose end position was given in "Superpippo and the Third Player".

10.Qg5+ Ke6

It is fun to speculate – did Black play this move because he thought it was best (it's not; 10...Kf8 is better) or was he thinking of letting White off the hook by allowing him a draw through repetition, i.e. 11.Qg4+ Ke7 12.Qg5+ Ke6, etc.?

11.Qxg7

Of course, Welton is not thinking "Draw?!"

11...Nge7

There's a lesson to be learned here: don't be greedy. Giving back a piece – Black has two extra – with 11...Nf6 maintained the second player's advantage.

The game is over now.

12.Qf6+ Kd5 13.Nc3+ Kc4 14.Qf7+ d5 15.exd6+ Kd4 16.Nb5+ Ke4 17.d3 checkmate



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