Always Learning

I find that when I play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), there is always something to learn. Some of the lessons are about the opening and some of them are about chess, itself. 

perrypawnpusher - Feestt
blitz, FICS, 2009

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

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

I'm still not yet comfortable with the "modern" Jerome Gambit, with its alternatives to 5.Nxe5.

6...Ng6 7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6

Also playable was the sensible 8...Qe7.

9.Qe3 Nf6 10.0-0 Kf7

Black prepares to swing his Rook into action. I figured that I needed to get my "Jerome pawns" moving as quickly as possible.

11.f4 Ng4

Black acts to take advantage of the "misplaced" Queen who has made over 1/3 of White's moves, but this notion is faulty. He would have done better to stay the course with 11...Re8 with advantage. 

12.Qg3

This is such a natural place for the Queen in this variation that I didn't examine the position deeply. After the game, Rybka suggested 12.Qb3+, with the idea that after 12...Ke8 White can annoy the Knights with 13.h3 Nf6 14.f5 Ne5 15.d4 Nc6 16.Be3 b6 – the point being that 16...Nxe4 could be met by 17.d5 Ng3 18.dxc6 Nxf1 19.Bd4 bxc6 20.Bxg7 and an even game.  

I had dismissed 12.Qb3+ too early, expecting that it would be well-met by 12...Be6, but Rybka showed that this was a shallow fear: White then has the return 13.Qg3, threatening the fork at f5, and after 13...Qh4 14.Qxh4 Nxh4 White has an even game after 15.f5 Bd7 16.Rf4 Nxf5 17.h3 Nf6 18.exf5.

Lesson: It's not good enough to play a bad opening, you have to play a bad opening well.

12...Re8

Back to "business as usual", although here Rybka prefers 12...c5 as a preventative move against a future d2-d4 attack on a Knight at e5. Deep thinking.

13.f5 N6e5 14.d4 Nc6

Giving back a piece, with plans to blow up White's center. Black's King can slip back to g8, castling-by-hand, if things get too hot.

The "know-it-all" Rybka suggests that this is better accomplished by 14...Nf6 15.dxe5 dxe5.

White now has the advantage.

15.Qxg4 Nxd4 16.Na3

Protecting the c-pawn. Good for you if you realized that the move was not necessary: with 16.Bg5 Qd7 17.Nc3  White builds his attack, as the pawn means little (if 17...Nxc2, then 18.Rad1).

If Black does not capture the c-pawn, but tucks his King in with 17...Kg8, then White can return his Queen with 18.Qd1 and still have an advantage, as f5-f6 is a move that is coming.

16...d5

The King needed to duck back to g8, instead.

17.Qh5+ Kg8

 Here I looked at 18.Bg5 Qd7 19.f6, but abandoned it because of the reply 19...g6. Too bad! If I had looked one move further – Where can the Queen go? –  I would have seen that 20.Qd1 threatens both the Black Knight at d4 and the move f6-f7+, forking the King and Rook.  

My response actually gives my opponent the advantage again.

18.exd5 Qxd5

Feestt falls for the one trick in the position. Perhaps he was pleased to finish off my center and figured that he could work out the pawn-down situation later, perhaps in a Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame. 

However, if he had played 18...Bxf5, instead of the capture at d5, he would have been able to take advantage of the looseness in White's position with something like: 19.c4 c6 20.Bg5 Qb6 and Black is even, or maybe even a bit better.

19.Qxe8 checkmate