Wednesday, May 27, 2009

...said the spider to the fly



If you play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) against an opponent twice (like my games against BronxBoyII, JoeJox and tejeshwar), you may ruin the advantage of surprise – and your opponent may have his own surprise waiting for you...



perrypawnpusher - marbleschess
blitz 10 0, FICS, 2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6

Improving on 6...g6 7.Qxe5 Nf6 from our first game.

7.Qd5+ Kf8 8.Qxc5+ Qe7
This looks like a TN, and a good one at that. Now the pawn-grab 9.Qxc7 for White is a good way to commit suicide: 9...Qxe4+, etc.

9.Qe3 Nf6 10.d3 d5 11.f3
Falling back and digging in. See my game against Mooncat for a similar idea.

11...dxe4 12.fxe4 Ng4 13.0-0+
Well, that's one worry (King safety) taken care of, and a second piece developed, but Black is still clearly better.

13...Ke8 14.Qg3 Qc5+ 15.Kh1 Be6
A good developing move, although 15...Rf8 might have been stronger.

16.Nc3 Kd7

Preparing to both swing the Queen Rook into play and castle-by-hand. Marbleschess, it is clear, was no longer in awe of the Jerome Gambit.
Perhaps that is what saved me.

17.h3
Better might have been 17.Bf4, but I had a pretty good guess how my opponent was going to respond to my move, and I had an unsettling surprise.

17...N4e5 18.d4
Perhaps what Ossip Bernstein was thinking about when he mentioned "the equalizing injustice of chess."
Now White would have a slightly better game after Black plays 18...Qc4 19.Rd1 Raf8 20.dxe5+ Kc8, but instead his opponent goes to pieces.

18...Qxd4 19.Rd1 Qxd1+ 20.Nxd1 Rad8 21.Bf4 Kc8 22.Bxe5 Nxe5 23.Qxe5


23...Bd7 24.Nc3 Rhe8 25.Qg3 g6 26.Nd5 Black resigns

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