Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Relatively Speaking


No sooner had I posted a game by MrJoker (a player with years of experience with the Jerome Gambit) giving a warning not to follow up 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 with 4.Nxe5, than I received an email from Bill Wall (another very successful Jerome Gambiteer), wondering if the move should be avoided, after all...

It took me a while to understand his point, at which time I cracked up laughing.


There are 33 possible moves that White can play in this Italian Game position. On a blog that has examined and championed the arguably 28th worst* of those choices, I had been skeptical about someone talking a look at the 27th worst move!

A lot of 4th moves for White are "playable" in this position if they are compared against Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's favorite, rather than against the "best" move.

Readers might want to uncover the 5 moves "objectively" worse than 4.Bxf7+.




(*-ratings of moves is by Rybka 3, to the depth of 15 ply)

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