The Cure Being Worse Than the Disease

Hmmm... As I was mumbling just last month (see "Declining the Jerome Gambit - Légally") –

Given that my favorite opening, the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) has so many refutations, I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who go out of their way to decline the fool thing.

Having faced my opponent's (I did not name him/her) creative declined line, I was able to make my way through and finish in 10 moves, using Légall's mate. (Again, David Surratt's article on Légall's Mate at Chessville is well worth reading.)

So – when I was matched with the same opponent again, I wondered what would happen...

perrypawnpusher  - NN
blitz FICS, 2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 f6

Okay, no Jerome Gambit today, either.

4.0-0

Our earlier game had continued, instead, 4.d4 d6 5.0-0 Bg4 6.dxe5 fxe5 7.Nc3 Nd4 8.Nxe5 Bxd1 9.Bf7+ Ke7 10.Nd5 checkmate, perrypawnpusher - NN, blitz FICS, 2010

4...g5

Apparently the problem with the first declined game, in my opponent's consideration, was that it wasn't aggressive enough.

By the way, I gave this game to Rybka for some "blunderchecking" overnight (5 minutes a move) and it had some creative things to show me about Black's choice at move 4.  Rybka's recommended line was 4...Nge7 5.d4 Nxd4 6.Nxd4 exd4 7.Qxd4 Nc6 8.Qd1 Ne5 9.Bb3 c6 10.Be3 h5 11.Nc3 g5 12.Qd4, which it rated as slightly better for White.

analysis diagram






I was amazed. It couldn't be.

So I set Rybka on "infinite analysis" on this position and let it analyze about 18 ply deep. It turns out that I was right. Rybka didn't see this position as slightly better for White any more. It saw it as just about even.

Couldn't White do better? I backed up a move and tried 12.f4 instead of 12.Qd4, and after 12...gxf4 13.Bxf4 Qe7 White was slightly better, again.

I backed up another move, and tried 11.h3 instead of 11.Nc3. Again, Rybka said that after 11...g5 12.Nd2 Qe7 White was slightly better.

Finally, I tried 10.f4 instead of 10.Be3, and after 10...Nf7 11.Be3 Be7 Rybka gave me a +/-.

Clearly, Black still had resources at move 4. Unfortunately, the move chosen was not one of them.

5.Nxg5 fxg5 6.Qh5+ Ke7

7.Qf7+

My silicon buddy suggested later that 7.d4 would have been even stronger.

7...Kd6 8.b3

Going for the quick checkmate, but, again, 8.d4 was objectively better.

8...a6  9.Ba3+ Nb4

10.Bxb4+

The mind is a funny thing. I thought that the Bishop on a3 was there to capture the Knight on b4. It wasn't. It actually was there to pin the Knight, so White could play 10.Qd5+ Ke7 11.Qxe5 mate. 

10...c5 11.Qd5+ Kc7 12.Ba5+ b6 13.Qxa8

13...Bb7 14.Bxb6+ Kxb6 15.Qxd8+ Ka7 Black resigned