Persistence

I met JoseSoza in the first round of our Chess.com tournament. I played the Jerome Gambit. He beat me.

I recently met JoseSoza in the second round of our Chess.com tournament. I played the Jerome Gambit again. He beat me again.

I am waiting to see if I will make it to the third round of our Chess.com tournament. I already know that JoseSoza will advance. If I meet him again, I will play the Jerome Gambit again.

perrypawnpusher - JoseSoza
"Italian Game" Thematic, Chess.com, 2012

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8 

The same answer LeeBradbury offered in my other Jerome Gambit game in this round.

7.Qxe5 Qe7 8.Qf4+ Qf6 9.Qg3 d6 

I decided not to play the Queen exchange this time.

After 9...Bd6 I was able to outplay my opponent in  perrypawnpusher - molerat, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 23).

10.Nc3 

Instead, Bill Wall was successful with 10.c3, in Wall,B - Guest340293, Playchess.com, 2012 (1-0, 41). 

10...Ne7 11.d3 Be6 12.0-0 Qg6 13.Be3 Bxe3 14.Qxe3 a6 

JoseSoza has beaten my Jerome Gambit before, so he is not terribly concerned in this game. Still, he has allowed me to exchange off his dark-squared Bishop, keep my Queen, and prepare for f2-f4. Black's piece-for-two-pawns gives him an advantage, but the game is not unfamiliar to a Jerome Gambit player with white. 

15.f4 Bf7 16.Rae1 Qe6 17.f5 Qd7 18.e5 

The game is effectively over at this point.

That may surprise you.

What happened is that I spent hours and hours with my pocket chess set, looking at 18.f6!? I then studied the position further, and decided that I could play the text move first, as long as I followed it up properly.

So I played the text.

Then I realized that I had not written any of my analysis down, and I could not remember any of it at all! I played the rest of the game like a zombie.

For the record, after the game Rybka suggested that after 18.Rf2 Kg8 19.Ref1 Rf8 20.Qg3 Qe8 21.b3 h6 22.f6 Ng6 23.d4 Rh7 24.Qe3 White would have a tiny edge.

18...dxe5 19.Qxe5 Nc6 20.Qc5+ Qd6 21.Qxd6+ cxd6 

Exchanging Queens was not a good idea. Black now has a slight advantage, and he outplayed me the rest of the game.

22.f6 Re8 23.fxg7+ Kxg7 24.Ne4 Rd8 25.a3 Rhe8 26.Ng5 Rxe1 27.Rxe1 Rd7 28.Nxf7 Kxf7 

29.c3 Re7 30.Kf2 Rxe1 31.Kxe1 Ke6 32.Ke2 Ke5 33.Ke3 d5 34.d4+ Kf5 35.a4 Na5 36.b4 Nc4+ 37.Kf3 b6 White resigned