A Head Scratcher

The following game caused a bit of head-scratching here at jeromegambit.blogspot.com...

Doctoroldhead - chesstux
standard, FICS, 2012

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nd4 

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit.

4.Bxf7+ 

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 6.c3 Qg5 

Now, White forfeited by disconnection.

It is hard to know if White simply lost his connection to FICS at this point. If he did, maybe he was not able to log back in and continue the game. Or, maybe his opponent had set his "noescape" variable so that any disconnection would be treated as a forfeit.

It is also possible that White saw Black's last move - thematic to the Blackburne Shilling Gambit (and its relations) - and figured his Jerome Gambit strategy had failed. So, why play on?

I checked The Database for games with the final position. There were 80 of them, including efforts (with White) by well-known Jerome Gambit Gemeinde members GOH, GmCooper, Darrenshome, DragonTail, drumme, sTpny and jfhumphrey. White scored 54%.

In those 80 games, White's average rating was about 47 points higher than Black's average rating, consistent with White's edge in scoring. Also, Houdini 2, at 20 ply depth, rated White's position to be about 2/3 of a pawn better - again, consistent with the scoring of the games in The Database.

Conclusion: no need for White to despair.

Of course, he needs to find the right idea, which is to capture the Black Knight with 7.cxd4, and after 7...Qxg2, find 8.Qf3. Black then has nothing better (and a lot, worse) than exchanging Queens with 8...Qxf3 9.Nxf3.

analysis diagram

White has an edge, thanks to his extra pawn. That is certainly nothing to give up on, unless things beyond the chessboard were more pressing.