Tournament Update: A Pleasant Surprise

As I noted yesterday, I have started my first 5 games in the Italian Opening tournament at Chess.com. Since 3 games have been with the Black pieces, there was no chance for a Jerome Gambit (at least by me, although I played 3...Bc5 each time, offering my opponents the opportunity) in those. In one game with the White pieces, my opponent opted for 3...Nf6 and against my try to transpose to the Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit with 4.Nc3 he elected to use the "fork trick" 4...Nxe4; while in the other I was met with the interesting 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bd6!?.


Still, this is a 25-player tournament, broken into 5 5-player groups, so that is a lot of Italian Opening play. I checked out the other games that have started, and was delighted to find one transpose into a Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit: perfectly reasonable, as the player of the White pieces has a rating 500+ points higher than his opponent. The gambiteer is up a Rook and three pawns now, and I will be pleased to present the game upon its conclusion.