"Brilliant but not sound"

"The past isn't dead," they like to say in my field.
"It isn't even past."

Wright - Hunn
Pine Bluff, Arkansas, 1874
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4

According to the November 1874 Dubuque Chess Journal: "Brilliant but not sound."

One hundred and thirty years later, a book by Jude Acers and George S. Laven, The Italian Gambit and A Guiding Repertoire for White - 1.e4, showed that the move, properly followed up, was quite playable.

I couldn't resist asking one of the authors about the Jerome. Replied Laven,

The Jerome Gambit was looked into only briefly during The Italian Gambit study. This was done by me and the editor Robert Snow who is a strong expert (elo 2172 - at that time) and was rejected. We felt Black was better in every reasonable line. Jude, totally rejected it and it is nowhere to be found in the book.

Oh, well.

4...exd4

DCJ: "The German Handbuch gives as best variation 4...Bxd4 5.c3 Bb6 6.Ng5 Nh6 7.Qh5 0–0 8.f4 exf4 9.Bxf4 d6 10.Rf1 Qe7 and Black should win."

The Italian Gambit focuses instead on the Miami Variation 4...Bxd4 5.Nxd4 Nxd4 6.Be3 and the Koltanowski gambit 6.0-0 Nf6.

FIDE Master and ICCF International Master Allan Savage remarked in his review that 4...exd4 "opens Pandora's box via transpositions to the Max Lange, Rossolimo System, Moller Attack, Steinitz-Sveshnikov (!) or Scotch-Goring Gambit!"

5.Bxf7+
DCJ: "An unsound variation of Jerome's double opening. Note that it is the P at Q5 that gives the second player such a wonderfully harassing position later in the game."

5...Kxf7

I have about 40 games with this line in my database, out of the opening move order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d4 exd4. I have not played the line, but I have beaten it the two times I have faced it.

This notion of a "Delayed Jerome Gambit" will be explored in later posts.

6.Ng5+

DCJ: "SK5 à la Jerome is better than SS5." [The Dubuque Chess Journal here uses descriptive notation with "S" for "Springer" instead of "N" or "Kt" for "Knight."]

6...Kf8 7.Qf3+ Qf6 8.0–0 Ne5

DCJ: "Why not Q takes Q, making his relative strength still greater?"

9.Qh5

DCJ: "Well meant, since SxRP would win a Pawn and the Exchange, if not attended to."

9...Qg6 10.Qe2 Nf6
DCJ: "The beginning of a splendid combination, that might, however, have been frustrated by SKB3."

Of course, Black would still have a winning game.

11.Kh1 h6 12.f4 Neg4

DCJ: "The coolness exhibited by Mr. H and his indifference to his opponent's attacks, are accounted for when his farsightedness is appreciated, the evident reply PB5 does not disturb him in the least."

13.f5 hxg5

14.Qxg4

DCJ: "Evidently the Queen cannot be taken with safety. PKR3 is better than taking the Springer."

Objectively, taking the Queen is White's "best" of many losing options: 14.fxg6 Rxh2+ 15.Kg1 d3+ etc.

"Safest" might be "Resigns".

14...Rxh2+ 15.Kxh2 Nxg4+ 16.Kg3 Qh5 17.Nd2 Qh4+ 18.Kf3 Nh2+ 0–1