Junk Openings

Thinking chess players everywhere (even those of us in the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde) should stop by (although perhaps many have, being thinking chess players, after all) National and FIDE Master Dennis Monokroussos' thoughtful website, The Chess Mind.

Dennis produces the instructive and entertaining ChessBase shows and ChessVideos shows, which I can highly recommend.

Dennis' thoughts on the Jerome Gambit are rather dismissive -- although he has been more than polite in his exchanges with me at his site.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+??... leaves White a piece down for no compensation whatsoever. Is there even a single trap for Black to fall into in the Jerome Gambit?

Interested readers might want to take a look at some of my earlier posts: this one on junk openings, and see here and here on the Jerome Gambit with the follow-up 5.Nxe5+, as in a well-known Blackburne game.

Of course, I certainly wasn't going to argue with a philosopher at the University of Notre Dame (where, by the way, "Kennedy Kid" Jon attends, although he and Dennis have neither crossed paths nor pawns).

Ah, yes, Dennis, you are of course completely correct: on a good day the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+??) aspires to be known as a "junk opening," but likely still over-reaches!

It's value, such as it is, can be found in the enjoyment (mixed with horror) that some players have experienced while employing the Jerome in blitz, or using it as a way of giving odds to a weaker player.

It is in the latter case that the "justification" of the opening is found: no traps, just the acute discomfort the second player feels (until he reaches a certain level of skill, of course; then he is brimming with confidence and a desire to pocket the gifted full point) with a King out of place and that Big, Bad Queen on the prowl...

The position after 4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ is no more "objectively" lost than the starting position in a game where White gives Knight, Rook or Queen odds.

My interest in the JG over the last few years has been of a historical nature — where did such a thing come from and in what manner did it survive?