Mea culpa – again

About a year ago (see "Overrated!") I played in a Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) thematic tournament at ChessWorld, organized, like the one this year, by blackburne.

I had prepared a few "theoretical novelties" for my games, but one of them turned out to ge a "theoretical lemon" instead, leading to a quick loss. Worse than that, I think blackburne tried out the idea before he saw my disastrous results, and, fight as he could, he still wound up losing a point in his game, too.

I'm not sure if blackburne had a "fix" in mind for the line or not, but he recently repeated it in the current Jerome Gambit thematic tournament, and took it on the chin from eddie43.

blackburne - eddie43
JGTourney4 ChessWorld, 2009

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

Here we go.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6


7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+

This sharp move, the "Nibs defense," is best for Black.


9.Kd1

The "improvement" on an earlier Alonzo Wheeler Jerome game, only it allows Black to force the exchange of Queens, holding onto his two-pieces-for-two-pawns advantage – too much for White to overcome.

9...Qg4+ 10.Qxg4


Instead, 10.Ke1 Qxf5 White resigned was perrypawnpusher - drewbear, JG thematic ChessWorld, 2008.

10...Nxg4 11.e5+ Ke7

Blackburne's earlier game continued: 11...Ke6 12.Rf1 Nxh2 13.f5+ Kxe5 14.d4+ Bxd4 15.Bf4+ Kxf5 16.Bxh2+ Ke6 17.Bxc7 Bxb2 18.Re1+ Kf7 19.Be5 Bxa1 20.Bxa1 Nf6 21.Rf1 Re8 22.Nc3 Kg8 23.Nb5 Rb8 24.Nd6 Re6 25.Nf5 d5 26.g4 Re4 27.g5 Bxf5 28.gxf6 Bg4+ 29.Kd2 g6 30.f7+ Kf8 31.Rh1 h5 32.Rf1 Be6 33.Bc3 Bxf7 34.Kd3 Rbe8 35.Kd2 d4 36.Bb4+ Kg8 37.a3 Bc4 38.Rg1 Kh7 39.Rg3 Rg4 40.Rf3 Re2+ 41.Kc1 Rgg2 42.Rf7+ Bxf7 White resigned, blackburne - drewbear, JG thematic, ChessWorld 2008.

12.Ke2 b6 13.c3 Ba6+ 14.Kd1 Nf2+ 15.Kc2 Bd3+ 16.Kb3 Nxh1 17.Na3 Nf2 18.Nc2 b5 19.a4 Bc4 checkmate

Ouch.

I'd like to think that eddie43 might have gotten the idea from this blog, but he probably worked it up himself.