Theory From the Thematic Tourney (4)

Louis Morin ("mrjoker") is well known to readers of this blog as a long-time member of the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde. He has his doubts about the opening, as any reasonable player would, especially about the defense from yesterday's blog (see "Theory From the Thematic Tourney (3)") as he expressed in an email to me...

In one of your posts you ask if the Jerome is playable. My current answer is "no" against proper play by Black. At any rate I did not find anything of value against 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6! 7.f4 d6! 8.fxe5 dxe5

 9.Qh3+ Ke7 10.Qg3 Kf7

even though White gets a second pawn for the piece.

Now against both 11.Qxe5 Qh4+! (forcing a decisive weakening of the light squares) 12.g3 Qe7 13. Qxe7+ Nxe7 14.c3 Bh3 15.d4 Bb6 15.Nd2 (the threat was ...Bg2) 15...c5!

(attacking the center before White can complete his development), and 11.Rf1+ Nf6 12.Qxe5 Bb4!

(pinning the d pawn to hamper White's development) 13.Qh5+ g6 I could not find any defence for White after several hours of analysis. At best White has to give back one pawn to remain alive, and quite often he cannot even do that.

There is also this crazy gambit line when White manages to castle king-side: 11.c3 Nf6 12.d4 exd4 13.0-0.

Now surprisingly 13...dxc3+?! 14.Kh1 seems promising for White, but simply 13...d3+! is good enough for Black.
































Of course 7.Qf5+ is a major alternative, but 7...Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ is devastating, and even after 8...Qf6 I could not find a decent continuation for White. I cannot enjoy playing with a piece down for only one pawn, unless of course a clear compensation could be found.





























Too bad, because I think that White can hold his own against all other variations, including Schiller's Defence (6...Ke6 7.f4 Qf6), with chances for both sides. If you have any ideas for White in some of the lines I gave you, let me know.