Through To Two

With another endgame win with Black, I have managed to gain the top score in Group #1 (5-1-0) in one of my Chess.com Italian Game thematic tournaments, moving on to the second round along with JoseSoza (4-1-1). I am pleased with my two wins and one loss with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+).


In my second Italian Game thematic tournament, I am still at a gloomy 1-4-0, although I am up three connected passed pawns in an ending with the Black pieces that sometime or other has to become a win. So far I have reached only one Jerome Gambit, ongoing, but, with three pawns for a piece there is still a lot of play left!

Puzzling

The following game re-visited a puzzling line considered earlier. White chose a more complicated line and was rewarded quickly.


NosBos - IamFischer
blitz, FICS, 2012


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 

A line with no name. Its purpose, I suppose, would be revealed by 4.Bb3 Nxb3 5.axb3. It attracts the "Jerome treatment" however.


4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Nxg6 Nf6 8.Qe5+ 

Better than 8.Qxa5 Black Resigned, which was puzzled over in  Zoogin - Rampenplan, blitz, FICS, 2011 (A look at The Database shows that Black scored 26% in over 50 games, despite the position being largely equal for the second player.)


8...Be7 9.Nxh8 d6 10.Qxa5 Black resigned

New Discussion

There is a new discussion of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) developing at Chess.com, with people chiming in from around the world... It is always interesting to me to see how these things go!

Do Not Panic

Strakh - Dporth, lightning, FICS, 2012

In the position above, White, to move, is down a piece, but his lead in development, and his opponent's unfortunately placed King and Queen make the game about even. If White could be assured of reaching this position regularly, the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) would be seen much more often!


13.e5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.Rae1 

15...Qxe1 


Panic. (After all, this is a lightning game.) Instead, Black can give the extra piece back with 15...Ne4 16.Bh4 Kf8 17.Qc2 d6 and keep the even game.


Mate now follows, and Black can only avoid it by resigning.


16.Rxe1+ Kf8 17.Bxf6 d6 18.Be7+ Ke8 19.Bxd6+ Black resigned

Point Made

One day this past winter, MyGameUMove took on an opponent at FICS who was rated a couple hundred points higher than he was. They contested three Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4!? 4.Bxf7+!?) games. MyGameUMove, with the White pieces, won all three, with the longest game ending up with the final position.

MyGameUMove - NN, FICS, 2012

Point made.


(Three of them, actually.)

While enjoying my first cup of morning coffee..

How nice to read the following (check out "Tom's BDG Pages", one of my links) and see that, in my own small day, I can help someone get off to a good start each day...


Over at his entertaining blog on the Jerome Gambit, which I often read while enjoying my first cup of morning coffee, Rick Kennedy discusses an interesting observation from Max Euwe on an early h7-h6. (JeromeGambit: A Jerome Look At The Semi-Italian Opening (Part 1)):

Happy Birthday!

Four years ago I shared my first post on this Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) blog. Since then, I have kept to my goal of posting at least once a day. (If Blogger is correct, this is post #1465.)


A quick look at the statistics show that for this month of June the top ten countries that readers have come from are Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Vietnam, Germany, Canada, India and Italy. Welcome!


Readers are encouraged to visit often, and are invited to share games, analysis and comments.


I no longer expect to be able to post daily, but I hope to keep as close to that goal as possible. There is still much to uncover about "Jerome's Double Opening"!