Borrowed As Good As Own

If you stay up-to-date with ideas in the Jerome Gambit (by reading this blog, for starters) there will always be some new ideas to pick up and use in your game.

Wall,B - Guest539122
PlayChess.com, 2015

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 Bd6 

Sharing HauntedKnight - galpone, blitz, FICS, 2014 (1-0, 18) in "Familiar Territory" earlier this year I wrote

When I was playing over this game, I saw Black's move and chuckled. HauntedKnight practially owns this line.

That doesn't mean, of course, that Bill Wall can't "borrow" it.

7.dxe5 Bxe5 8.Qd5+ 

In "Shortcut" I expressed a preference for this move over the also-strong 8,Qh5+.

8...Kf8 9.Qxe5 Qe7 

Black's Queen comes to the rescue, but White has already recovered his sacrificed piece and is a pawn up, with a safer King.

10.Qf4+ Nf6 11.Nc3 d6 12.0-0 Qe5 13.Qxe5 dxe5

Exchanging Queens often means the end of danger to the King - but not today.

14.f4 exf4 15.Bxf4 Ne8 16.Bd6+ Kg8 17.Rf8 checkmate

Please note the White Bishop at d6!

Reddit

While wandering the internet the other day, I ran into some interesting comments on the Busch-Gass Gambit ( See "Worth A Second Look" Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3; as well as "Busch-Gass Gambit") at Reddit: 
www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/2gcbgj/buschgass_gambit/


(Unrelated, but also interesting, was "Delightful Duel 'Banter Blitz' with Miss Tactics (IM Sopiko Guramishvili) and Miss Strategy (IM Anna Rudolf)".

Toward Disaster

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I have joined a Chess.com 12-player "Giuoco Piano" tournament (3 groups of 4 players each).

I immediately got to start a couple of Jerome Gambits, so we'll see how they turn out.The first game is racing along the lines of a refutation that has many blog posts here, all saying that White is lost, White is lost...

Well, sad to say, White did lose - but part of the reason was my refusal to play a thematic "Jerome pawn" advance which would have helped keep the play dynamic. The second big mistake was to not be as familiar with Jerome Gambit history as I should be. Ouch.

perrypawnpusher - auswebby
Giuoco Piano Tournament, Chess.com, 2015

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8 7.Qxe5 Qe7 8.Qf4+ Ke8

Instead, 8...Nf6 was seen in a couple of correspondence games between Daniel Jaeger (White) and Alonzo Wheeler Jerome  in 1880.

More reently, Bill Wall faced 8...Qf6 in a handful of games: Wall,B - GoldCoinCollector, Chess.com, 2010 (1-0, 17);  Wall,B - GuestZCLK, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 15); Wall,B - Guest340293, PlayChess.com 2012 (1-0, 41); Wall,B - Josti, PlayChess.com, 2013 (1-0, 26); and Wall,B - Guest4644930, PlayChess.com, 2014, (1-0, 26).

9.Nc3 Nf6 10.0-0 d6 

Or 10...Bd6 as in perrypawnpusher - Chesssafety, Chess.com 2012, (1-0, 25).

11.d3

White got away with the Knight jump 11.Nd5 in xcvbnm -SAHFAN, FICS, 2013 (1-0, 28), but I should have been more familiar with the game (in The Database) as Black was better most of the game; and White's win came only when his opponent blundered into a mate-in-2.

11...Be6 12.Be3 Bxe3 13.Qxe3 Kd7 14.f4 Rhf8 15.f5 Bg8 16.d4 Rae8 17.Rae1 Kc8 18.Qg3 

Instead, it was time for 18.e5. The text allows Black to take a step toward preventing that move, and my response (see the note to White's 11th move) sealed my doom.

18...Nd7 19.Nd5 Bxd5 20.exd5 Qf6 

I thought I had a few tricks against Black's King on the back rank, but, really, there was nothing.

21.Rxe8+ Rxe8 22.c3 Nb6 23.Re1 Qf7 24.f6 Rxe1+ 25.Qxe1 Qxf6 26.Qe8+ Qd8 27.Qf7 Qh8 28.b3 Nd7 29.c4 Kd8 30.Kf2 Qf8 31.Qxf8+ Nxf8 32.Kf3 Ke7 33.Ke4 Kf6 34.c5 Ng6 35.g3 b6 36.b4 Ne7 37.a3 b5 White resigned.