Move Along... Two Challenges

My opponent laid down two challenges in the following game, one in the opening and one in the endgame. I was very glad to take each of them up. 

perrypawnpusher  - zadox
blitz, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit

4.Bxf7+

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.

4...Ke7

I have classified declining the Bishop in this way, followed by returning the Black King to e8 (with the hopes of luring White into complacently playing Nxe5), as some sort of "Jedi mind trick".

My opponent may simply have been unwilling to go along with my plan, playing a psychological gambit ("if you want me to take the bishop, I won't take the bishop").

In any event, The Database has 11 games with zadox playing this move; showing a single win for Black (a time forfeit when White was a bit better). Perhaps it is time to move along to another line of play?

5.Bxg8

Also possible was 5.Bb3, as in perrypawnpusher - Roetman, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 12) and 5.Bc4, as in perrypawnpusher - vlas, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 84), perrypawnpusher - zadox, blitz, FICS 2010 (1-0, 14) and perrypawnpusher - PlatinumKnight, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 9).

5...Nxf3+

This was a switch from 5...Ke8 in  perrypawnpusher - zadox, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 29) and 5...Rxg8 in perrypawnpusher - TheProducer, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 16).

6.Qxf3 Rxg8

Here is the first challenge: we are playing neither a "normal" Jerome Gambit nor a "normal" Blackburne Shilling Gambit, can I make something of the extra pawn.

I think so.

7.Nc3 d6 8.Nd5+ Kd7 9.Qh3+ Kc6 10.Qxh7 Be6

Okay, it is nothing spectacular, but I am now up two pawns.

11.d3 Be7 12.Nxe7+ Qxe7 13.Qh5 b6 14.Bg5 Qf7 15.Qxf7 Bxf7

The outline of the second challenge is forming: do I think that I can take the game into a Bishops-of-opposite-colors ending and find more than half a point?

I think so.

We both raced through the next series of moves.

16.0-0-0 a5 17.b3 b5 18.Kb2 a4 19.Be3 axb3 20.axb3 Ra6 21.Ra1 Rga8 22.Rxa6+ Rxa6 23.Ra1 Rxa1 24.Kxa1

It is well-known that this kind of ending is very drawish, and an extra one, two, or even three pawns may not be enough for White to win.

In this particular ending, however, I was confident that I could convert. Readers are asked to point out a defense for Black that holds.

24...Bh5 25.f4 exf4 26.Bxf4 Bd1 27.Kb2 Be2 28.Kc3 Bd1 29.d4 d5

This is part of a strategy to get all of Black's pawns on the light squares, the same color as that of his Bishop, so that the drawish nature of the endgame can be enhanced; but the result, here, is a White pawn at e5 that is both passed and protected.

Might it have been better to hold the Black d-pawn back and wait for White to play e4-e5, exchanging at e5 and leaving the resulting passer without pawn protection? 

30.e5 Kd7 31.Kd2 Bh5 32.h3 Ke6 33.g4 Bf7 34.h4 g6

Black's King very effectively blockades the e5 pawn.

To win, White needs another passer.

35.Bg5 c6 36.b4 Be8 37.Ke3 Bf7 38.Kf4 Be8 39.Bd8 Bf7 40.Kg5 Be8 41.h5 gxh5 42.gxh5

42...Kd7 43.Bf6

This move wins, as planned, but I was amused later to see that I could have simply played 43.h6 and continued to advance the pawn to the end line. Better for Black would have been 42...Kf7, but White would still succeed.

43...Bf7 44.h6 Bg8 45.Kg6 Ke8 46.h7 Bxh7+ 47.Kxh7

Mission accomplished.

47...Kf7 48.Kh8 Ke6 49.Kg7 Black resigned