Jerome Gambit - Lost and Found

Last year, when John Watson and Eric Schiller's Taming Wild Chess Openings came out (New In Chess, 2015), I expressed disappointment on this blog that the Jerome Gambit did not appear to the authors to fit their sorting of A) Good B) Bad and C) Ugly chess openings and defenses. (Especially the "Bad" and the "Ugly".)

I am a bit behind in reading Dennis Monokroussos' "The Chess Mind" blog, and I just discovered - in Dennis' past review of Taming Wild Chess Openings, that the Jerome Gambit actually does appear.

My mistake. I had looked in the book's "Contents" without success. I had checked out the "Index of Moves and Variation Names" without discovering either the Italian Game, the Giuoco Piano - or the Jerome Gambit. Ditto the "Opening Index".

Ah, but Dennis pointed out - the Jerome is covered in the "Evans Gambit: Lasker Defense (C52)" chapter!

4.Bxf7+? Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ is the Jerome Gambit, which, however, is refuted by 5...Nxe5 6.Qh5+ (6.d4 Qh4! 7.0-0 Nf6 8.dxc5 Qxe4) 6...Kf8, or here 6...g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7, winning.

Regular readers are no doubt familiar with the "pie-in-the-face" (6...Qh4), Jerome (6...Kf8) and Whistler (7...Qe7) defenses.

My apologies to John and Eric, and my thanks to Dennis.