Perhaps not every opening should be Jerome-ized...

One of these day's I'm going to have to swipe a phrase from past military commercials and say something like "The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) – it's not a chess opening, it's an adventure!"

But, maybe not an adventure for everyone, every time...

greatapple - perrypawnpusher
blitz game 2 12 FICS, 2009
1.e4 e5 2.Qh5

There are a lot of names for this opening, perhaps the earliest being the Danvers Opening, named after a hospital (an asylum?) in New England.

Master Bernard Parham, of Indiana, has woven the move into an entirely new way of looking at chess, something he calls "the Matrix System."

Actor Woody Harrelson once played the line against Gary Kasparov. On the other hand, Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has played the opening against at least one GM.

2...Nf6

A fun gambit response. The earliest example I have in my database continued: 3.Qxe5+ Be7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Qf4 0-0 6.Be2 Bd6 7.Qe3 Re8 8.d3 Be5 9.Nf3 Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 d5 11.Nd2 d4 12.cxd4 Nxd4 13.Bd1 Be6 14.f3 Nc6 15.0-0 Qd7 16.Nb3 b6 17.Bb2 Qe7 18.Qg5 h6 19.Bxf6 Qxf6 20.Qxf6 gxf6 21.c3 Rad8 22.d4 Kh8 23.d5 Bxd5 24.exd5 Rxd5 25.Bc2 Rg8 26.Rfe1 Na5 27.Nxa5 Rd2 28.g3 Rxc2 29.Nc6 Rxc3 30.Nxa7 Rxf3 31.Re7 f5 32.Rxc7 f4 33.Rxf7 Ra3 34.Nb5 Ra5 35.Nd6 fxg3 36.h3 g2 37.Ne4 Rg6 38.Nf6 Rxf6 39.Rxf6 Rg5 40.Rf7 Kg8 41.Rc7 Rg3 42.Rd1 Black resigned, McClure - Mathewson, Boston 1905

3.Qxe5+ Be7 4.Bc4 Nc6



Black has adequate compensation for his pawn, in terms of better development and the uneasy White Queen.

5.Bxf7+


Wow!

I mean, seriously: Wow! Was I shocked!

Some people will try to Jerome-ize just about anything! (See "King of Bxf7+" for some radical examples.)

Stil, in the real Jerome Gambit there is usually an enemy piece hanging around on c5 to be captured in many lines – not so in this game. White gets hardly anything at all for his piece.

5...Kxf7 6.Qf5 d5

6...Nd4 is even stronger, and might have ended the game quicker.

7.Qf3 dxe4 8.Qb3+ Qd5


Being content to extinguish even a spark of an attack by White, I offered to go into an endgame where I had a piece-for-a-pawn advantage – plus better development, and a more active (previously: less safe) King.

Tactical maniacs will quickly see that I missed a chance to play 8...Be6, when 9.Qxb7 would have been a bad idea for White after 9...Nd4 10.Kd1 Nxc2 anyway! 11.Kxc2 Qd3+ 12.Kd1 Qf1+ 13.Kc2 Rhb8 with a crushing position.

9.Qxd5+ Nxd5 10.c3

Keeping a Knight off of either d4 or b4, but simple development with 10.Ne2 was better.

10...Nf4 11.Kf1 Nd3 12.Na3 Bc5 13.f3 Nf2 14.fxe4 Nxh1

This should be enough to win, even if the Knight never escapes.

15.b4 Bb6 16.Nf3 Nf2 17.d3 Nxd3 18.Ke2 Nde5 19.Nxe5+ Nxe5 20.Bf4

White even has an advantage in development now – but it's too late to change things. An oversight ends things.

20...Ng6 21.Rf1 Nxf4+ 22.Rxf4+ Ke7 23.Nc4 Be6 24.Ne5 Rhf8 25.Rg4 Bxg4+ 26.Nxg4 White resigns