Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Jerome Gambit: Everything is Fine for Black, Until...

One of the attractions for White in the Jerome Gambit is that things can suddenly fall apart for his opponent. One moment, Black is doing fine; the next moment, he is turning his King over.

The following game is a fine example.

Wall, Bill - Guest866139
PlayChess.com, 2017

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 



4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 



Bill prefers 6.d4 to 6.Qh5+. He has had a lot of success letting Black figure out how to defend, instead of going into a forcing line.

6...Bb4+ 7.c3 Ba5

For the record,  the energetic 7...Qh4!? is best, and The Database supports this by pointing out that Black is 10-0 in the games it contains.

8.dxe5 Bb6 

Not 8...d6 because 9.Qd5+ Black resigned, Wall,B - NN, lichess.org, 2016

9.a4 a6 10.a5 Ba7 11.Qf3+ Ke8 12.O-O Ne7 



 White has two pawns for his sacrificed piece. Black has to be watchful that his King, stuck in the center, remains safe.

13.Bg5 d6 14.Na3 Be6 15.Rad1 Qd7 16.exd6 cxd6 17.Qg3 Rd8


Stockfish 8 and 9 each give Black an edge in this position, which begs the question: Which position would you prefer to play?

Black's position is cramped, and it doesn't take much to push it into the danger zone.

18.e5 d5 19.Nc4 Bb8 

Here we go. The silicon solution, of course, is now for White to force a draw...

20.Nb6 Qb5 

I suspect neither player was interested in 20...Qc7 21.Na8 Qd7 22.Nb6 Qc7, etc, repeating the position and splitting the point. 

However, Black's move in the game leads to immediate disaster. The salient point is that his Queen needs to stay on the 7th rank to provide eventual protection for the g-pawn - or White will invade there.

21.Bxe7 Kxe7 

The sad reality is that Black cannot afford to capture the Bishop, as he has to guard g7 with 21...Kf7. That leaves White with the straightforward followup 22.Bxd8, coming out the exchange and a couple of pawns ahead; or White can play 22.c4!? and after 22...Qxb2 everything blows up after 23.cxd5!?.

What a difference a couple of moves make.

22.Qxg7+ Bf7 23.Qf6+ Black resigned



Black is going to lose a Rook, and it will cost more material to delay the inevitable checkmate.

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