Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Jerome Gambit: Another Cliff Hardy Blindfold Game

Strong players usually play strong chess, even when playing at fast time controls - or without sight of the board. Especially, too, when they play unusual openings, such as the Jerome Gambit.

Here is a game from Australia's Cliff Hardy, with his own, very educational, notes.

Enjoy!

A couple of recent Jerome Gambits I thought were interesting though they were a bit one-sided and unfortunately, I wasn't playing sensible normal games again - one game I play blindfolded and the other is a lightning game.

Cliff Hardy (blindfolded) - NN
10 0, lichess.org, 2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 


4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6


A strong but risky defence.

7.Qf5+

My preferred move but don't know how you feel about this or 7.f4.

7...Kd6 8.f4 Ne7??

Now White has a winning advantage but 8...Qf6 is one way of keeping a very strong position for Black.

9.Qxe5+ Kc6 10.Nc3??

Doesn't look like a blunder but Stockfish claims this gives Black a winning advantage. It likes 10.Qc3!, intending 11.b4 or 11.d4, with a strong attack. 10.d4? is also surprisingly a blunder, after 10...d6, with a winning position for Black.

10...Rf8??

Now White has a winning advantage again. After 10...d6 11.Qh5 b6!, Black has a winning advantage, as his king can escape by b7 if necessary.

11.d4 d6 12.Qh5 Bxd4??


Unfortunately without having created an escape square with ...b6, this move now loses rather abruptly. However, against 12...g6 White has 13.Qe2! (threatening the checkmate that happened in the game), with a winning advantage anyway.

13.Qb5 mate

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