Et Tu, GriffySr?

I've reported elsewhere on the phenomenal success that GriffyJr and GriffySr at FICS have had with and against the Jerome family of openings – and as clones of the chess-playing computer program Crafty, that is not a surprise.

Still, it is a bit unsettling to see one of them recently manhandle a Jerome Gambiteer in a critical theoretical line.

NIZAM - GriffySr
standard, FICS, 2010

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6

Computers are far less afraid of this line than humans.

7.f4 d6

The frustrating line that computers love. There's no use playing the Jerome Gambit against a computer unless (among other things) you have a plan on how to attack this.

8.Qf5+

NIZAM launches his Queen against the defense. "Book" is 8.fxe5.

8...Ke7 9.Qg5+ Ke8 10.Qxg7

A human blitz player, seeing two pieces attacked and the enemy Queen so close to his King, might quail; but not a feeling-less computer. 

10...Qh4+ 11.g3

There was no joy in the "better" 11.Qg3 Qxg3+ 12.hxg3.

11...Nf3+ 12.Ke2 Nd4+ 13.Kd1

Allowing the finish.

13...Bg4+ 14.Ke1 Nxc2+ 15.Kf1 Qh3 checkmate

"I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him..."