Jerome Gambit and The Perfesser (Part III)

The Perfesser continues his experiment with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), setting his computer opponent to "think" to the depth of 3 half-moves... The annotations are by the Learned One.



The Perfesser - Talking LCD Chess (3 ply)
casual 2003

The third game, at level 3, was equally interesting.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6



7.f4 d6 8.fxe5 g6 9.Qf3


Angling for possible checks at f7 later on.

9.Qe2!? comes into consideration as well, intending to meet 9...dxe5? with 10.Qc4+ Kd6 11.Qd5+ Ke7 12.Qxe5+ Kf7 13.Qxc5 Qh4+ 14.Qf2+ Qxf2+ 15.Kxf2 and White's two extra pawns should win easily. For more on this idea, see the next game.

9...dxe5 10.b4!?



10...Bb6

10...Bxb4? 11.Qb3+ regains the piece with a favorable position due to Black's wretched centralized King; At first I thought that 10...Bd4 would be winning, but on closer examination I found that Black can actually get into trouble, e.g. 11.Rf1 c6 ( 11...Bxa1 12.Qf7+ Kd6 13.Qd5+ is a cute perpetual) 12.Na3 Nf6 ( 12...Bxa1?? 13.Qf7+ Kd6 14.Nc4#) 13.c3 Bb6 14.d4! exd4 15.Bg5 Rf8 16.Qh3+ and White picks up the rest of Black's kingside pawns with a winning advantage.

11.Rf1 Qh4+?



11...c6 is a more logical move, but amazingly I'm not sure Black is better any more: 12.Qf7+ a)12.Qg4+ Kd6 ( a)12...Ke7 13.Qg5+ Kd6 14.Qg3 comes to the same thing) 13.Qg3 Nf6 14.Bb2 Re8 15.Na3 Nxe4 16.Nc4+ Kd7 17.Nxb6+ axb6 18.Qg4+ Kd6 19.Qxe4 is quite unclear; b)12.Na3!? Nf6 ( b)12...Kd7 13.Nc4 is worth exploring: 13...Bc7 14.Bb2 Qh4+ 15.g3 Qe7 16.Qc3!? is unclear) 13.d4 Rf8 14.dxe5 Kxe5 15.Bb2+ Ke6 16.Rd1 Qe7 17.Qh3+ Kf7 18.Qxh7+ Ke6 19.Qh3+ Kf7 20.Rxf6+! Ke8 ( b)20...Qxf6? 21.Qh7++-) 21.Rxf8+ Qxf8 22.Qh8 with some advantage to White, who can probably keep at least one of the extra pawns; 12...Kd6 13.c4 Qh4+ 14.Kd1 Bg4+ 15.Kc2 Ne7! should hold everything.

12.g3 Qg5

12...Qxh2 13.c4! and the threat of Qf7+ is quite strong.

13.Qf7+ Kd6 14.Na3!



Now the threat of 15.Nc4+ Kc6 16.Qd5# forces Black to give up material hand over fist.

14...Be6 15.Nb5+ Kc6 16.Qxe6+ Kxb5 17.a4+ Kxb4 18.Qb3+ Kc5 19.Qd5+ Kb4 20.Qb5# 1-0




graphic by Jeff Bucchino, "The Wizard of Draws"