Jerome Gambit: Drag the King

 

An Instagram video on the Jerome Gambit - or, at least the first dozen moves of a line - posted by "the_reject_club", has commentary that parallels the theme of this blog, and those who play the gambit

This is the Jerome Gambit — a 150 year old Italian Game trap that literally nobody at your rating knows how to handle. The king gets dragged out into the open and it's just pure chaos from there.

I can't stop playing this in blitz. It's too fun. The opponents always think they're winning until they're suddenly not.

 

Jerome Gambit: Declined

The other day, I was looking at the Jerome Gambit Declined, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kf8, with the help of the Stockfish 17.1 analysis engine. 

I noticed that the top four moves that the program recommended were three Bishop retreats (to d5, to c4, or to b3) and one Bishop exchange (5.Bxg8).

I also noticed that it's fifth choice (48 ply) - rated not much differently than the top four - was 5.b4.

Really? 

Searching through earlier blog posts, I found that in "Jerome Gambit: Two Hybrid Gambits (Part 1)" I had referred to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.b4 as the Jerome Evans Gambit; so I guess that would make the relevant line in this post the Jerome Evans Gambit Declined.

Deeper digging turned up only two more relevant posts.

"Jerome Gambit: A Long Look At A Short Game" covered the Jerome Gambit declined, but did not mention 5.b4.

"Jerome Gambit for Dummies 2.0 (Part 3)" had one sentence that mentioned 5.b4 in the Jerome Gambit declined. It did refer Readers back to the first blog use of  the name, reversed: "The Evans Jerome Gambit".

On top of that, I could find no games in my over 129,000 game collection, The Database. 

The Lichess.org site has 30 games, with White scoring 63%. 

I guess I will start there.

Jerome Gambit: Heard To Be Believed

                                                             

My latest Google Alert sent me to the short video "Win In 9 Moves: Jerome Gambit!" by @ChessHomieOfficial.

It has to be seen to be believed.

Or, more accurately, heard.

The commentator yells, excitedly, the supposed moves of the Jerome Gambit, as they appear (allegedly) on a very strange chessboard (both ranks and files are lettered, neither numbered), with pieces set up, er, creatively - Is that Black with 9 pawns? Does he have 2 Kings? Is Black attacking in the Jerome? Does White have tripled pawns on the a-file (indicating at least 3 captures, but Black isn't missing that many)?

Checking out other videos by the same creator, I have to consider them more performance art than actual chess presentations.

Still, they bring a smile.

Jerome Gambit: And Yet... (Part 2)

                                             

Of course, it is possible to "improve" the Jerome "Face Palm Variation", mentioned in "Jerome Gambit: And Yet...(Part 1)".

To quote from "Jerome Gambit: Comfortable in the Calmer Game"

From "Jerome Gambit: The Improved Face Palm Variation?!"

Having taken a look at what I called the "Face Palm Variation" of the Jerome Gambit, I wondered if there was an "improved" variation, where White played an early d2-d4, so that his Knight could safely move to g5 with the support of his dark square Bishop.

I quickly recalled the game Wright -  Hunn, Arkansas,1874, played about a half year after Alonzo Wheeler Jerome published his first analysis of his gambit in the Dubuque Chess Journal. The game began 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.Bxf7+.

The line was referred to as The Macbeth Attack on the Italian language website Sacchi64. It has a relationship to the Italian Gambit, (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4) as explored by Jude Acers and George S. Laven in their book The Italian Gambit and A Guiding Repertoire for White - 1.e4, (although they were not interested in Bxf7+)  as well as to the Lewis Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.d4) and the Von der Lasa Gambit, (1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Bc4 Bc5).

 But, I am not sure that I want to play the line - at least not yet. 

The Dubuque Chess Journal, November, 1874, referred to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ as"an unsound variation of Jerome's double opening".

That's good enough for me.

For now, at least.

     

Jerome Gambit: Uh, Maybe Next Time

                                                       

Today, I finally made it, again, to the very informal chess club that meets at a local library every-other-week.

I played three over-the-board games and won them all - none of them a Jerome Gambit, alas, as I had achieved earlier; in part because I had the Black pieces in two of the games.

Still, I was feeling rather Jerome-ish. All of the games ended with a checkmate.

My opponent in each game played some innocuous moves that gave me tempos that I then used in preparing and executing my attacks - something that was reinforced from playing the Jerome. This is likely a theme in some of your own Jerome Gambit games, as well.

I was guided by he maxim Three pieces and an attack; yet was happy to exchange Queens to eliminate a defender or to avoid slowing down my initiative.

True, I may get my (chess) clock cleaned* next time, but for now I feel just fine.

(*The idiom "getting your clock cleaned" means to be thoroughly defeated or beaten, often in a competitive context)

Jerome Gambit: And, Yet... (Part 1)

I thought that this blog had finished off this game's opening variation with posts like this, from "Jerome Gambit: I Tried", summarizing 

"Death of a Variation" was not the first time, but it was a not-so-subtle hint. That was followed by "Public Service Announcement" and "A Mention is Not an Endorsement". You might think that "Re-Inventing the Flat Tire" might do it. 

Even coming up with a specific name for the variation - "Jerome Gambit: The Face Palm Variation" didn't stamp it out.

Why all the fuss? Check out the following game.

deusmach - ggg_540

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Ng5+ 

Getting ahead of himself...

Remarkably, The Database has 851 games with this opening. Not so surprisingly, White scores 27%.

Admittedly, the average difference in rating betwen White and Black in this case is 90 points - in Black's favor - but the expectancy for the first player would still be about 40%.

The conclusion is obvious: avoid 5.Ng5+

5...Kf8 

Wait, wait, wait... What about 5...Qxg5?

6.O-O Qxg5 

Well, then...

7.Nc3 a6 8.d4

This is the idea behind 5.Ng5+: attack both the Bishop and the Queen. Had Black captured the Knight on move 5 (see above), he could have responded to 6.d4 with 6...Qxg2, but that Queen move, now, would be quite an error. 

8...exd4 9.Bxg5 Black resigned

Blitz games can be so cruel.

Jerome Gambit: Tactics To The Rescue

1-minute bullet games require an attention to tactics. 

I suppose that if you took only a second of thinking time per move, you could establish a long game where you slowly ground down your opponent - but even then, tactics would likely show up.

In the following Jerome Gambit game, angelcamina makes his moves - and then, when given the opportunity, finishes the game with a tactical shot.  

angel_camina - saqo198627

1 1 bullet, Chess.com, 2026

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

The Open Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

(Curious note: The Database shows that the line scores 40%, versus 53% for 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+.)

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Bd6 8.dxe5 Bxe5 9.f4 Bxc3+ 10.bxc3

Well, that was quick.

White has only a pawn for his sacrificed piece, but in a bullet game, just about anything can happen.

It helps that angel_camina has already had this position in 16 of his earlier games: familiar territory.

10...d6 11.O-O c6 

Avoiding 11...Nxe4? 12.Qd5+ snaring the Knight.

12.Qe2 Re8 13.e5 Nd5 14.c4 

The "Jerome pawns" at work.

14...Qb6+ 

An intermezzo move. Black's Knight will advance, but it should simply retreat, instead.

15.Kh1 Nc3 

16.Qh5+ Kg8 

A slip.

After 16...Kf8 17.Qxh7, Black's Knight and Queen seem misplaced, while White has his Rook on the f-file, facing the enemy King; as well as the threat to challenge the a3-f8 diagonal with his Bishop.

17.Qxe8 checkmate