Jerome Gambit Tournament: Chapter II

When the ChessWorld Jerome Gambit thematic tournament started, I was faced with 18 games to be played at the same time.

I'll present them in the order they finished -- some ended much earlier than others.

Realize, too, that playing over these games may cause serious injury to your funny bone. You may laugh until your sides ache, or snicker until your family and friends begin to worry about you.

That's ok -- we did, too. Remember: these are amateurs vs. amateurs. This is Edward Lasker's Chess for Fun (with the occasional Chess for Blood thrown in). 

perrypawnpusher - drewbear JG3 thematic www.chessworld.net, 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ 

An interesting line that I refer to as "Nib's Defense," which made its first appearance in the American Chess Magazine of June 1899 in a comical article lampooning a new pastime, chess by phone. 

In a constructed game the author, "R.F.," overcame continued line noises and interruptions to use the Jerome Gambit to defeat "Nibs" in a dozen moves -- erroneously claiming checkmate, by the way. 

It was not until the internet game abhailey - peonconorejas, net-chess.com, 2008, that it was realized that Black had a Queen sacrifice that won brutally: 9.g3 Nf3+ 10.Kd1 Ne7 11.e5+ Kc6 12.Qe4+ d5 13.exd6+ Nd5 14.gxh4 Bg4 15.Qa4+ b5 16.Qa6+ Nb6 17.c4 Nd4+ 18.Ke1 Rhe8+ 19.Kf2 Nf5+ 20.Kf1 Bh3 mate

9.Kd1

I had prepared this "Theoretical Novelty" based on my study of the game Jerome - D.P. Norton, correspondence, 1876, a line of analysis of which our game would transpose to after 9...Nf3+ 10.gf Qf2. The annotator of that game suggested that now "black has the better position" – but I knew different.

9...Qg4+

Yeow! That was no TN – that was a "TL", a "Theoretical Lemon"!

10.Ke1 Qxf5

And White will be now down two pieces for two pawns, with Queens off of the board and no counterplay.

11.Resigns

What a start to the tournament!
Congratulations to drewbear for driving a large truck through the hole in my analysis.
By the way, I must publicly apologize to blackburne, who copied my TL in the same tournament – against drewbear, as well – and went down in flames. True to his fighting spirit, though, he stayed at the board longer than I did: 10.Qxg4 Nxg4 11.e5+ Ke6 12.Rf1 Nxh2 13.f5+ Kxe5 14.d4+ Bxd4 15.Bf4+ Kxf5 16.Bxh2+ Ke6 17.Bxc7 Bxb2 18.Re1+ Kf7 19.Be5 Bxa1 20.Bxa1 Nf6 21.Rf1 Re8 22.Nc3 Kg8 23.Nb5 Rb8 24.Nd6 Re6 25.Nf5 d5 26.g4 Re4 27.g5 Bxf5 28.gxf6 Bg4+ 29.Kd2 g6 30.f7+ Kf8 31.Rh1 h5 32.Rf1 Be6 33.Bc3 Bxf7 34.Kd3 Rbe8 35.Kd2 d4 36.Bb4+ Kg8 37.a3 Bc4 38.Rg1 Kh7 39.Rg3 Rg4 40.Rf3 Re2+ 41.Kc1 Rgg2 42.Rf7+ Bxf7 0–1
Two other players followed up against me (and against nobody else, except blackburne, above) with His Nib's Defense, perhaps hoping to repeat drewbear's success. Those games will be covered in later chapters.