Nobody expects the Jerome Gambit!

Apparently Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841-1924) did.

According to Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess (1899) the British master demolished the Jerome Gambit (he referred to it as "the Kentucky opening") in this well-known miniature:

Amateur - Blackburne

London, "about 1880"

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.0-0 Nf6 10.c3 Ng4 11.h3 Bxf2+ 12.Kh1 Bf5 13.Qxa8 Qxh3+ 14.gxh3 Bxe4 mate

It is interesting to note that Blackburne, writing at another time on another topic, in The Strand Magazine in December 1906 ("The Best Games Ever Played at Chess"), argued

Brilliancy in chess is a rarity. It is like the sparkling of a multi-faceted diamond, which can illume darkness and shine best under provocation. Electricians would say it is the bright spark that signalizes the overcoming of resistance. It is not a very common or ordinary experience. It would cease to be a wonder if it were. It would fail to command the great admiration usually bestowed on things of rarity... Brilliancy in actual play very often prevails in spite of a flaw – the dazzling effect, as it were, rendering the flaw invisible...

To Infinity... And Beyond! (Part II)

International Master Stefan Bücker's quarterly magazine, Kaissiber, is arguably the second best chess magazine in the world today. (I'll nod in the general direction of New In Chess for top status, but will go no further than that.)

For a combination of games, analysis, art, history, photographs, discovery, creativity and whimsey, Kaissiber is hard to beat. Chess players who can appreciate the now in chess, as well as the then, the why? and the why not? all should become familiar with the 31 issues of this gem of a publication.

Kaissiber's German language and Italian language editions (with English on the horizon) are read the world over

Some time this year, perhaps in the fall issue, Kaissiber will publish an article outlining the history of the Jerome Gambit, based on my researches.

To Infinity... And Beyond! (Part I)

As a chess opening, the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7?!) has a great future behind it.

Born in the post-Morphy, pre-Steinitz era, it achieved neither the deserved celebrity heaped upon the Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4!?) nor the undeniable fanatical following awarded the Blackmar (later, Blackmar Diemer) Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.f3; 3.Nc3 & 4.f3).

American chess players were looking for something that they could call their own – ideally, a slashing, crashing attack where White offered material and Black, proper for the times, accepted it, with dire consequences. Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's creation was offered as one possibility.

The Jerome was discussed in magazines and analyzed in opening tomes around the world, and for a short time became relatively well-known – as a not so very good idea.

Truly the duck-billed platypus of chess openings, at least at the level of "serious" chess, the Jerome Gambit today is more of an archeological and anthropological artifact than a rusty weapon awaiting discovery, polishing and honing.

And yet... And yet... And yet...

The story of Jerome's Double Gambit is an interesting one worth telling – and soon it will be told.

(Many thanks to Dan DeHaan, who gave permission to use this fine platypus graphic – he created it for his wife Jenn's fantasy football team, the Paw Paw Platypusses!)

In The Beginning...

This is the first published account of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's chessic creation. I have changed the notation from descriptive to algebraic. The formatting is courtesy of ChessBase 8.0 

Dubuque Chess Journal April 1874, Vol. VI, No. 50, p. 358-9 "New Chess Opening" 

We have received from A.W. Jerome of Paxton, Ford county, Illinois, some analyses of a new move in the Giuoco Piano, first played by him, which we offer our readers as: Jerome's Double Opening. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ This is the first move, if now Black reply 4...Kxf7 he continues 5.Nxe5+ and we have the moves that constitute Jerome's Double Opening. Suppose in the first place 5...Nxe5 [If 5...Kf8 6.Nxc6 dxc6 (if 6...bxc6 White plays 7.d4 putting Black's KB out of play) 7.0–0 Nf6 8.Qf3 Qd4 9.d3 Bg4 10.Qe3 Qxe3 11.Bxe3 Bxe3 12.fxe3 Ke7 and White should draw by the judicious use of his pawns] 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qf6 9.fxe5+ Qxe5 10.Qf3 Nf6 11.d3 compelling either K or Q to move as White threatens Bf4; or Black can play ...g5 If 11...Ke7 12.Nc3 g5 13.Rf1 c6 14.g3 we have space only for a few of Black's best moves, leaving our readers to test the opening over the board.

Welcome!

Welcome to my Jerome Gambit adventure, dedicated to the duck-billed platypus of chess openings, the atavistic, and unsound: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+?!

You may have arrived here by accident, or even on purpose, but I hope you'll find something of interest during your visit.

There's not much content right now, but day-by-day I plan to add more history, games and analysis.

So -- stop back soon!