Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A while back (see "Ed Yetman's Gambit Challenge Quads") I wrote about an adventurous chess player in Tuscon, Arizona, USA, who had offered to play the White side of the Smith-Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3), the Paris Gambit (1.Nh3 d5 2.g3 e5 3.f4 Bxh3 4.Bxh3 exf4 5.0-0 fxg3 6.hxg3) or the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) in his games in a quad.  

He even published a link to an early analysis of the Jerome Gambit to give potential opponents an opportunity to study beforehand. (From the analysis: "[W]e give the Jerome Gambit as a representative form of this kind of attack on its merits, showing its strength and weakness apart from accidental circumstances, which in actual play may materially affect the result.")

I recently checked with Ed Yetman and he reported, surprisingly, that not a single player was brave enough to take up his challenge!

I can understand someone not wanting to face the Smith-Morra Gambit: many who play it are booked to the eyeballs and dangerous as a rattlesnake.

Maybe the Paris Gambit was a bit to odd or foreign for people's tastes.

But, the Jerome Gambit ??

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