Count one for the Count!

With one game left to be completed, vlad-tepes has won his 7-player double round robin Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) tournament at GameKnot (see "Jerome Gambit and Vlad Tepes", "Jerome Gambit, Vlad Tepes and... Garlic!" and "Jerome Gambit: Return to Transylvania") with an impressive score of 11 points out of 12.

That includes defeating the Jerome Gambit 6 out of 6 tries (ouch!) but also winning with it 5 out of 6 tries. The Jerome Gambit has scored 39% so far.

Here's an interesting game by the tournament winner, foreshortened just when things were getting interesting, by the sunrise, at is were. Pity, as White was getting ready to sink his fangs into his opponent.

vlad-tepes - panga74
www.GameKnot.com 2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 7.Qxc5 d6 8.Qe3 h6 TN 9.d4 N8e7 10.Nc3 Kg8 11.Bd2 a6 12.0-0-0 Kh7 13.f4 Rf8 14.f5 Nh8 15.g4 Nc6 16.h4

Black lost on time

White has an edge, but there is plenty of interesting play ahead.

Next, we see vlad-tepes defending against the Gambit, and making it all look oh-so-easy...


panga74 - vlad-tepes
www.GameKnot.com 2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.a3 d6 6.h3 h6 7.d3 Nf6 8.0-0 Rf8 9.Nc3 Kg8 10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.exd5 Nd4 12.Nxd4 Bxd4 13.c3 Bb6 14.Be3 Bxe3 15.fxe3 Rxf1+ 16.Qxf1 Qe7 17.e4 Bd7 18.Qe2 Rf8 19.Rf1 Rxf1+ 20.Qxf1 Qf6 21.Qe2 Qf4 22.Qc2 Qg3 23.Kh1 Qe3 24.c4 b6 25.b4 g5 26.a4 h5 27.b5 g4 28.hxg4 hxg4 29.Qd1 g3 30.Qf1 Qh6+ 31.Kg1 Qh2 checkmate

Stuff like that makes me wonder if I'll ever play 4.Bxf7+ again.

bobbob78 came in second place in the vlad-tepes mini-tournament, scoring 9.5 out of 12, and giving the leader his only loss.

vlad-tepes - bobbob78
www.GameKnot.com 2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 7.Qxc5 d6 8.Qe3 Nf6 9.Nc3



9...Rf8 10.0-0 Bd7 11.f4 Kg8 12.d4 Ng4 13.Qd3 Qh4



White has his pawns up and moving, but Black has castled by hand and is on the counter-attack. A Black Queen at h4 almost always spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e for White.

14.h3 Nf6 15.Bd2

White might have tried 15.f5 followed by Bc1-e3-f2 instead, to achieve the same end.

15...Rae8 16.e5 Nh5 17.Be1 Qd8 18.f5 Ngf4 19.Qc4+ Kh8 20.e6


White is giving it his best shot, but it's not going to be enough.

20...b5 21.Nxb5 Bxb5 22.Qxb5 Qg5 23.Qc6 Nxh3+ 24.Kh2 N3f4 25.g3 Ne2

26.Qe4

The Queen needed to go to Qg2, but in the long run the result would be the same.

26...Nhxg3 27.Bxg3 Qxg3+ White resigned