Tournament Update

I have started my first 4 games in the Italian Opening tournament at Chess.com, mentioned earlier. Since 3 games were with the Black pieces, there was no chance for a Jerome Gambit (at least by me, although I played 3...Bc5 each time, offering my opponents the opportunity) there. In the one game with the White pieces, I tried for an Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit, but my opponent opted to use the "fork trick" (lucky for me I have Yury Bukayev's analysis to help me find my way, there). 


This reminds me of a story from the San Antonio tournament 40 years ago, as reported in Bent Larsen and David Levy's San Antonio, 1972 : Church's Fried Chicken, Inc. First International Chess Tournament. American master Ken Smith played his Smith–Morra Gambit (1.e4. c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3) against Grandmasters Larry Evans, Donald Byrne and Henrique Mecking, and lost each time. When Mario Campos Lopez faced Smith, though, he played the French Defence instead of the Sicilian, causing Larsen to comment in the tournament book "stronger is 1...c5 which wins a pawn."


I am going to have to start annotating 3...Nf6 in my games with "stronger is 3...Bc5, which wins two pieces"!


So far, I have won one game in the tournament, and in the rematch with my opponent I will have the White pieces, so I am hoping... (Oh, no, he just played 3...Nf6).