New Resource!

I recently received an exciting email from Philidor1792

Hello, Rick!I don't know whether you know this or not, but today lichess.org opened a new service of opening explorer with thousands of Jerome gambit games! Great news for any chess fun!Philidor1792

I went to the lichess.org site and started exploring. One of the first games that caught my eye was a 10-minute one, which I will present. Note: the game is annotated by the lichess.org computer, for extra interest! (My additional comments are in red - Rick.)

ninadrsane - anakmedan2555
10 0, lichess.org, 2015

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+? 

C51 Italian Game: Jerome Gambit (0.28 ? -1.59) Mistake. Best move was c3. (4. c3 Nf6 5. d4)

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6?! 

(-1.60 ? -0.81) Inaccuracy. Best move was Kf8. (6...Kf8 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qg3 Nf6 9.Nc3 Kf7 10.d3 Be6 11.Be3 Bxe3 12.fxe3 Rf8 13.O-O Kg8 14.Rf3 Kh8 15.Raf1 Qd7 16.h3)

Interesting. The computer prefers the solid King retreat of the Jerome Defense to the Jerome Gambit, instead of the more risky (more danger, more possible gain) King advance. 

7.f4 Qf6 8.Rf1 d6

An odd novelty, and not a good one, although the reasoning behind it is clear. More frequently seen is 8...g6.

9.fxe5 Qg6 10.Qe2 Ne7?

(-1.05 ? 0.35) Mistake. Best move was Kd7. (10...Kd7 11.Nc3
Ne7 12.exd6 cxd6 13.d4 Bb4 14.Bf4 Kd8 15.h3 Bd7 16.O-O-O Rc8 17.Rd3 Bxc3 18.Rg3 Qf7 19.bxc3 Rf8 20.Kb1) Messy.

11.d4 Bb4+?

(0.25 ? 1.92) Mistake. Best move was Bb6. (11...Bb6 12.d5+ Kd7 13.e6+ Kd8 14.Nc3 a5 15.e5 Bd4 16.exd6 Bxc3+ 17.bxc3 cxd6 18.c4 b5 19.Be3 Rb8 20.Ba7) Very messy.

12.c3 Ba5 13.Rf3 dxe5 14.Rg3 Qf7 15.Qc4+ Kf6?!

(16.59 ? Mate in 7) Checkmate is now unavoidable. Best move was Kd6.  (15...Kd6 16.Qxf7 Bg4 17.Bg5 Rae8 18.Bxe7+ Kd7 19.Bb4+ Kc8 20.Bxa5 Bd7 21.Rxg7) 

16.dxe5+ Black resigned

A game that Alonzo Wheeler Jerome surely would have smiled at!