Saturday, February 18, 2012

Time Machine


The following blitz game is another miniature from The Database that seems to have been pulled out of the early 19th Century. White offers material, regardless of how sound the attack is (or is not) while Black gathers it all in, until his game explodes.


tractrix - pivolasko
blitz, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4


The Blackburne Shilling Gambit.

4.Bxf7+

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6


6.Qg4+ Kxe5 7.f4+ Kxe4 8.Nc3 checkmate


Wow!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Hard to Believe



We are living in the new millenium, the time of super grandmasters and silicon wonders, and it can be hard to believe that danger, especially in the form of an obscure gambit, can strike quickly in a chess game... Here is another selection from the new version of The Database.



SpiderSI - septox
blitz, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Na5


4.Bxf7+

The Jerome treatment.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6 6.d4 d5


7.Qg4+

Strongest is 7.Qh5, but the text will do.

7...Kf6 8.Bg5 checkmate

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Crime and Punishment



I have been having a lot of fun looking through games in the new version of The Database. The short games seem to be examples of chessic "crime and punishment."

DEDave - petergajendra
standard, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Na5


Here we have that nameless variation that seems to hope for 4.Bb3 Nxb3, and could always be met with 4.Nxe5, but which calls out to be Jerome-ized.

4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kf6


Not quite believing that White has enough for his piece. Otherwise, he would have kept the game about even with 5...Ke7.

6.d4 d6

A little too much of "business as usual".

7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Qf7 checkmate

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Public Service Announcement




Every once in a while I have to post some games, to caution those who experiment with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) that a certain line just is not playable.*



Kaarvek  - LuigiBot
standard, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ White resigned


burraburra - chintoo
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.d4 Qxg2 White resigned


darumsdad - MRKumar
standard, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.d3 Qxg2 White resigned


FURST - cubs
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.Qf3+ Qf6 7.Qxf6+ Nxf6 White resigned


roadcyclist - roomys
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.Qf3+ Nf6 7.0-0 Nd4 8.Qc3 Ne2+ White resigned


Why do players continue to try an early Nf3-g5+ ? Perhaps because of games like the following

drumme - jherman
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d4 exd4 6.Ng5+ Ke8 7.Qf3 h6 8.Qf7 checkmate











(*-The Database has 379 games with the 5.Ng5+ line, including 81 wins and 10 draws for White, scoring 23%, so I guess that it is not completely unplayable.)


















Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The First Thing

It sounds a bit obvious, but the first thing to do on the way to winning a chess game is to try very hard not to lose. The following game illustrates this point – play along, it is not a "gamelet", but the end is well worth waiting for.

Wall,B - BarAbbas
Playchess.com, 2012


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+


The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

5...Kxf7 6.d3

Sang froid. White is down a piece for a pawn, but he will simply develop his game and see what happens.

6...Rf8 7.Bg5 Kg8 8.Nd5 Be7 9.Nxe7+ Qxe7 10.0-0 d6


11.c3 Bg4 12.h3 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 Qe8 14.Qd1 Nh5 15.Qb3+ Kh8 16.Qxb7 Qd7

In ten moves White has created no new weaknesses and has grabbed a second pawn as compensation for his sacrificed piece.

17.Qa6 Nf4 18.Rae1 Ne7 19.d4 Neg6 20.d5 h6 21.Bxf4 Nxf4 22.Re3 Nh5 23.Qe2 Qf7


Black is attacking, White is defending. The first player has not made things any more difficult for himself. He can play on a bit more.

24.Qg4 Nf6 25.Qh4 Qh5 26.Qxh5 Nxh5

All according to Black's plan: exchange pieces and play a favorable endgame.

27.b4 a5 28.a3 axb4 29.cxb4 Ra4


Black hastens to deal with the enemy passed pawn. Why not? It allows him to exchange more.

30.Rc1 Rfa8 31.Rxc7 Rxa3 32.Rxa3 Rxa3 33.b5 Rb3


Objectively, Black is still better, but he has to have begun wondering (this was a 10 minute game) if White's two pawns were beginning to measure up to his piece.

34.Rb7 Nf4 35.Rb6 Kh7 36.Kh2 Rb2 37.Kg3 g5 38.Rxd6 Rxb5

Each time White gives up a passer, he quickly gains another.

39.Rd7+ Kg6 40.Rd6+ Kh5


Black declines the draw that might have been available after 40...Kh7.

41.Kh2 Ng6


In club level blitz play, it was difficult to find what computers suggest later: 41...g4 42.hxg4+ Kg5. The win, if there were one, would still be a very long ways off, however.

Now, Black has stumbled into a forced checkmate.

42.g4+ Kh4 43.Rxg6 h5

This reminds me of the animated Roadrunner's eternal enemy, Wile E. Coyote, when he suddenly discovers that the boulder he has launched is going to land –  on himself.

44.Rh6 Rxd5 45.Rxh5 checkmate


Like I suggested: if you can avoid losing long enough, you just might win...

Monday, February 13, 2012

For Blackburne

Statistics can be tricky things.

As soon as I had updated The Database, I began to wonder, how successful is the [long-time refuted]Jerome Gambit?

It didn't seem right to just ask ChessBase 8 to search for the starting position of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) in The Database and see how well White did – after all, in my research I was collecting published games (and including games sent to me) and those tend to favor wins by White.

(Still, I checked: White scored 44% overall in the main line in The Database.)

So, I decided instead to just look at the FICS (Free Internet Chess Service) games, as I have been collecting them, en masse, and have almost all of the Jerome Gambit games played there since 1999.


Of 6,764 FICS games, White won 2,700 and drew 186, for a score of 41%.


The numbers for the Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+, (there is some overlap with the main line Jerome) are 1,528 FICS games, with White winning 554 and drawing 34, for a score  of 37%.


As anyone who has played the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Ne4 4.Bxf7+) might suspect, the line is more robust for White; of 3,378 FICS games, White has 1,822 wins and 80 draws, scoring 55%.

Of course, as they say, "your mileage may vary". Keep practicing. (My scores are 80%, 78% and 90%. Bill Wall's are at least 96%, 90% and 100%.)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

At Long Last

At long last, I am offering interested Readers the 2012 version of The Database, a free PGN database of over 26,000 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; as well as games following the so-far-unnamed order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 4.Bxf7+.

I should mention that a good number of the games in The Database are either Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambits (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+) or Semi-Italian Four Knight Jerome Gambits (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.0-0/4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nc3 / 5.0-0 Bc5 6.Bxf7+).

If you are interested, email me at richardfkennedy@hotmail.com.