Recovering A Measure of, er, Self-Respect

After three straight poundings of my Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) – see "Nemesis" – my opponent may have gotten a bit bored with me, as he allowed me to grab back a win, and with it, a small measure of self-respect...


perrypawnpusher  - MRBarupal
blitz, FICS, 2010

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6

7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6

All four of my games vs MRBArupal reached the position after 9.Qe3, and three of them followed with 9...Nf6 (the fourth saw 9...Qe7 and then 10...Nf6) – this made sense for my opponent: why change a winning plan?

10.f4 b6

The fianchetto of Black's Queen Bishop against the Jerome Gambit has been seen before, but not at this point, in this position. Given the dangers that White faces along the e-file, this tempo played "elsewhere" gives the first player a chance to recover.

11.f5 Ne5 12.d4 Neg4

It is interesting, but it you replace MRBarupal's ...b6 with ...Kf7 you have the game perrypawnpusher - SkypeFro, blitz, FICS, 2010 – where White is more vulnerable in the center.

13.Qg3 Qe7

This positioning of Knights and Queen was successful for my opponent in an earlier game (see "Nemesis").

 14.Nc3

A blunder – the game is still about the center.

After 14.0-0 first, White has chances for equality after 14...Kf7 (not 14...Qxe4? which is answered by the thematic 15.Re1) and then 15.Nc3 Re8.

14...Bxf5

Taking advantage of the pin of White's e-pawn to win the f-pawn. Instead, 14...Nxe4 15.Qxg4 Nxc3+ finishes the game. 

15.0-0

This move is like medicine for the position and especially White's King: the game is even.

15...Bg6 16.Bg5 Kd7 17.e5

17...Nh5

An oversight.

18.Qxg4+ Black resigned