Opening Report: Take a breath...

So far, the recent Opening Report on the Jerome Gambit (see 1, 2 and 3), based on the 27,000+ games contained in TheDatabase, has had few surprises. I'd like to point out a couple of interesting findings, however, before pursuing a deeper look.

The Opening Report highlights a number of games from an interesting 2008 30-game human vs computers match (starting with "Jerome Gambit: Drilling Down (1)"

This post starts an extended series (which may be interrupted from time-to-time for news, games or analysis) wherein the intrepid "RevvedUp" (a good chess player) and his trusted companions Hiarcs 8, Shredder 8, Yace Paderborn, Crafty 19.19 and Fritz 8 explore the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) by taking turns playing the White and Black pieces. 

The human moves first, and takes notice of the defense the computer plays. In the next game, where he moves second, the human plays that defense against a new computer – and sees how it attacks. In the third game, the human plays the recent attack against his new computer foe. Collectively, the players drill deeper and deeper into the Jerome Gambit.

It also shows that Jerome Gambit players sometimes prefer chaos to clarity, as recommended responses to the Jerome Gambit Declined (again, based on the examples in TheDatabase) - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kf8 or 4...Ke7 - are given as 5.Nc3 and 5.Nxe5, respectively.

The straight-forward Bishop retreat 5.Bb3 (as well as its cousin, 5.Bd5) is stronger.

We will use the ChessBase Opening Report to dig deeper into the Jerome Gambit (through the eyes of TheDatabase), but first there are a few new interesting games from Philidor1792 to look at.