In a recent "Chess Explorations" by Edward Winter at ChessBase, a game with the opening highlighted in our last post, "A Kind of Jerome Gambit That Wins", progressed 14 moves before a draw was reached, in a rather unusual manner:
From a recent email from Francesco Recchia of Italy:Hi,
Let me first congratulate on your great blog, which I enjoy very much.
Now into the story: I was playing the last round in a 2h tournament, with the white pieces.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 h6
Weird move. Maybe my opponent was afraid of an f7 attack?
4. d4 Nd7 5. dxe5 dxe5
Here I spent 8 minutes thinking about 6. Bxf7+ Kxf7 7. Nxe5+. In the end, I didn't play the line, because I couldn't see an answer after 8. ...Kf6 (I have to defend the knight, and if I move my queen from the d-file my knight becomes attacked twice)
So in the game I played 0-0, and eventually lost the game due to a serious blunder later in the game. But that's another story...
Later I analised the position and the soundness of this "jerome gambit". It amazingly turned out not only to be sound, but to be winning!
After 6. Bxf7+ Kxf7 7. Nxe5+ Black has 7... Ke8 8. Qh5+ g6 (8... Ke7 9. Qf7+ Kd6 10. Nc4+ Kc5 11. Qd5+ Kb4 12. Bd2+Ka4 13. b3#) 9. Qxg6+ Ke7 10. Qf7+ Kd6 11. Nc4+ Kc5 12. Qd5+ Kb4 13. a3+ Ka414. Nc3# or
7... Ke6 8. Qd5+ Ke7 (8... Kf6 9. Qf7+ Kxe5 10. Bf4+ Kxe4 11. Nd2+Kd4 12. Qc4#) 9. Qf7+ Kd6 10. Nc4+ Kc5 11. Qd5+ Kb4 12. c3+ Ka4 13. b3# or
7...Ke7 8. Ng6+ Ke8 9. Nxh8 Ngf6 10. Ng6 Bb4+ 11. Nc3 Kf7 +-
Black's best answer is Kf6, the one I could not find an adeguate response in-game. 7. ...Kf6 8. Nc3 !!
Of course. Jerome style gambit requires two piece sacrifice!
8... Kxe5 9. Qd5+ Kf6 10. Qf5+ Ke7 11. Nd5+ Kd6 (11... Ke812. Qg6#) 12. Bf4+ Kc6 13. Qe6+ Had I seen up to here, I would have played the gambit.
But going on, black has to give up the queen to try to save the game. 13. ... Bd6 14. Nb4+ Kb6 15. Bxd6 Ndf6 (15... cxd6 16. Qxd6+ Ka5 17. Nd5 b6 18. c4 Nc5 19. Qxd8 Nf6 20. b4+ Ka6 21. Qxh8 Nxd5 22. exd5 Nd3+ 23. Kd2 Ne5 24. b5+ Kb7 25. Qxg7+ Bd7 26. Qxe5 Rd8 27. Qe7) 16. Bc5+ Kxc5 17. Nd3+Time to regain material. 17. ...Qxd3 (17... Kd4 18. Qe5+ Kc4 19. Qc5#; 17... Kb5 18. a4+ Ka5 19. b4#) 18. Qe5+ Kb6 19. cxd3 +-
Hope you enjoyed it!
Cheers
Francesco Recchia
I believe the main difference against the classic jerome gambit position is not the h6 pawn, but the open d-file and the pinned knight at d7 – something which should occur pretty often (as a way to avoid queen exchange and castle denial). I forgot to say, after 8. Nc3 !! black can't really refuse the offer. If the knight is not taken the threat is 9. Qd4 and 10. Kxd7++ with dangerous complications.
I admit that these days I stop by FICS mostly to take the White pieces and play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+). 
Transposing from the Giuoco Piano into a "modern" Jerome Gambit variation: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.c3.
There: I've castled-by-hand 
Black: comfortable, and a piece to the good.
Active piece play, no blunders, exchanges... Words to live by!
17.Bc1 Qe8 18.Ng5 Qh5 19.Qa2 Nb6 20.a5 Nbd7 
21.Be3 Ng4 22.Nh3 Nxe3 23.fxe3 Rxf1+ 24.Rxf1 Rf8 
Slow but steady progress. But time is fleeting, and things are about to get uglier.
White resigned
I was doing my standard weekly online search for mention of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) when I noticed a reference in a blog at bighollywood.brietbart.com.Then I saw it. My first move…. and then the second… and then the whole board. I was Big Hollywood’s Bobby Fischer.Maybe, maybe not. Especially since a short time later he admitted
I was setting up the Jerome Gambit, an opening move in chess described as extremely dubious, where White sacrifices two pieces in hopes of exposing Black’s king and obtaining a mating attack.
Note: I have no idea what that means.
In a game between equally-rated players, it would be odd for one to offer the other odds of two pieces, or even of two pawns.
However, in the following game White offers "Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) odds" and when his opponent realizes that his defense is the same as offering two-pawn odds, he turns over his King... 
What's a couple of pieces among friends? It's the Jerome Gambit way. 
No, no, I insist: what's a couple of pawns among friends?
Black had many options, just not this one – giving back both of the pieces (see "Jerome Gambit and The Perfesser (Part I)" ) 10.Qxc5 Qe7 11.Qxe7+ Black resigns
White will simply be up two pawns in a Queenless middle game. Likely my opponent had better things to do than play that out.
The following battle, my most recent, is one of those losses – my opponent out-played me with ease and grace; and my game, which never really got started, came to a swift and unhappy end.
Hats off to my opponent, Raankh, for the stern lesson.
perrypawnpusher - Raankh
As old as Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's third episode of analysis from the Dubuque Chess Journal, July 1874; and good enough to last that long. Black is better.
11.Nd5 
Black has castled-by-hand, and White has gotten nothing started to speak of.
