Friday, February 14, 2014

A Delayed Jerome Gambit

How does that horror movie voice-over go? "Just when you thought it was safe to play ...Bc5...

In the following 3-minute game Philidor 1792 is so interested in playing the Jerome Gambit that he is willing to drop a tempo (4.Bb3) in order to allow Black another chance to play ...Bc5. The defender, apparently suspicious of the "free" pawn on e4, ignores the capture and moves right along with White's plans.

Philidor 1792 - guest3
3 0 blitz, www.bereg.ru, 2013

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Bb3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ 



5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 

It should be noted that long-time Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member jfhumphrey has been arriving at this position with the tempo-eating 4.d3 and 7.d4; while equally-dedicated HauntedKnight has encountered 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5 Nxe5 6.d4 Nf6!? (leaving White a tempo up on the text game) on a number of occasions. Both Jerome Gambiteers play on the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) and their games can be found in The Database.

Philidor 1792 has been here as well, in Philidor 1792 - guest1063, blitz 3 0, www.bereg.ru, 2013 (1-0, 37)

7...Nxe4 8.Qh5+ Ng6 9.Qd5+ Ke8 10.dxc5 Qe7 



11.0-0 c6 12.Qd4 d5 13.cxd6 Nxd6 14.Bd2 Qe5


Black, perhaps under-estimating the "strength" of White's Bishop's one-step, perhaps overly-focused on White's Queen (it happens in blitz), misses the "bigger picture".

15.Re1 Nf7 16.Nc3 Bf5 17.Rxe5+ Nfxe5 18.Re1

Encore!

18...Rd8

Collapsing.

19.Rxe5+ Nxe5 20.Qxe5+ Kf7 21.Qxf5+ Ke7 22.Bg5+ Black resigned


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