Evolution of "The Database"

It is fun to look back and see that in the early days of this Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) blog, I bragged of having a database of whopping 950 Jerome Gambit Games.  Of course, today, the modern version of that database (aka "The Database") has over 1,000 games played by DragonTail alone.

In the beginning, in order to expand the number of Jerome Gambit games that I had access to, I offered a PGN file of 210 of the games mentioned on this blog, (not all Jeromes) in exchange for any games sent to me. The offer quickly expanded to almost 500 games, and on June 10, 2009, the first "birthday" of this blog (celebrating a year of posting every day) I offered a "present" of over 1,100 games.

I continued digging for gold, sometimes with great success. 

Instead of "games posted on this blog" I switched to developing a PGN database of Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+), and Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.0-0/4.Nc3/4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+) games.

By the time I offered the "New Year's Database" it contained over 17,000 games.This year's version, renamed "The Database" and offered on January 1, 2011, contained over 22,500 games, and included the above-mentioned variations, plus the nameless 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 4.Bxf7+.

Today, The Database contains about 25,000 games. (It is still available to interested Readers at no cost).