Further Explorations (Part 1)

Not quite a  year ago, Rev. Tim Sawyer began his chess blog, initally focusing on the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.e4!?), but quickly expanding to many other openings. With the title "Playing Chess Openings" he offered his readers

Read stories based on 40 years of chess play. I was a rated expert, a correspondence master, a blitz player rated over 2200 for over 10 years, and an author of four chess openings books. See how the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (BDG) changed my career! 

Readers are encouraged to visit Tim's blog, and visit it often!

A recent post kindly mentions the Jerome Gambit and this blog. 

Rick Kennedy lists five Jerome Gambit options and writes about them passionately:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Jerome Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.0-0 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.0-0 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bc5 6.Bxf7+ Semi-Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+ Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit

Tim adds a sixth option, which he calls "Open Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit". Before examining that, I want to review the first five lines.

The first, of course, is the Jerome Gambit proper, based on the analysis and play of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, first published in the April 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal.

The name of the second line reflects the fact that adding the Bishop sacrifice to the Italian Four Knights Game has transformed play into one of the "modern" variations (i.e. not containing 5.Nxe5) of the Jerome Gambit, that is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nc3 Nf6.

Likewise, the name of the third line reflects the fact that adding the Bishop sacrifice to the Semi-Italian Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6) produces another transposition to the Jerome Gambit, that is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.0-0 h6.

The fourth line, the Semi-Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit is the conglomeration of the second and third lines. Q.E.D.

I admit that the fifth line, the so-called Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit, is named with tongue-in-cheek. There is no evidence that Alonzo Wheeler Jerome ever played the line, but there is also no evidence that Henry Joseph Blackburne played 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4!? either, despite it being named after him. Play, though, and the attitude behind it, resembles the Jerome Gambit, so I have welcomed the line aboard.

Now 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Bxf7+, the Open Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit (borrowing from the "Open" Ruy Lopez idea with ...Nxe4), knocks and bids to enter...


(The graphic at the top is from a t-shirt at the Cafe Press website. I chose it over their "Cheszilla" graphic. Check them out.)