This changes everything...

I've unpacked and filtered the FICS games from 1999 through 2004 so far, and I have been amazed how many people have played the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and its relatives so many times!

The New Year's Day Jerome PGN file, for example, already has over fifty-one hundred games in it, and may reach ten thousand before I am done.

This also means that I will be updating my information here (over a year-and-a-half of daily posts, so far) as many moves that I had thought were new have turned out to have been played earlier. Apparent "TNs" (and "TLs") have precedents.

Many more unsung members of the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde have turned up, as well.

There are exciting battles to share – and enough strangeness to amaze and amuse.

For example, there is a short game played over and over by a host of different characters across the years: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nge7 4.Ng5 f6 5.Bf7 checkmate.

It's not Jerome-ish, but it might be worth remembering in a quick game against 3...Nge7.

Also, the proper move after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 is 4.Bxf7+, not 4.Nxe5

Of course, after 4...Nxe5 5.Bxf7+ Black has 5...Nxf7, remaining a safe two pieces ahead.

Yet, I've run into a number of games where Black has played the very cooperative 5...Kxf7 – transposing back to regular Jerome Gambit lines.

Strange.

Again:

GOH  - netwell
blitz FICS, 2002

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6 6.c3 Kxe5 7.cxd4+ Kxd4 8.b3 Nf6 9.Bb2+ Kxe4 10.Qf3 checkmate

Ouch!