Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Jerome Gambit: Strangeness Awaits

The following Jerome Gambit game is not an exemplar, but it has an appearance of strangeness that makes it fun to play over. 

Wall, Bill - Faave, Al
PlayChess.com, 2017

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 



4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Nf6


This is not the way to return the sacrificed material - Black gets little for it.

Just as the game was not "over" after White's 4th move, it it not yet over after Black's 7th. (Although White is up a couple of pawns.)

8.Qxe5+ Kf7 9.Qxc5 d6 10.Qa5 b6 11.Qg5 h6 12.Qb5 a6 13.Qb3+ Be6 14.Qe3


White exaggerates the errors of his opening - more than half of his moves are with his Queen! She has bounced around, encouraging Black to loosen the positions of his pawns.

14...Ng4 

Harassing the enemy Queen further. 

15.Qg3 Nf6 16.Nc3 Rf8 17.f5 Bd7 18.d3 Bc6 19.Qg6+ Ke7 


It is understandable tht Black did not want to castle-by-hand with 19...Kg8, as White can respond with 20.Bxh6, but the King will not be safe in the center of the board.

20.Qxg7+ Rf7 21.Qxh6 Qg8 22.g3 Qg4 


Black has an advantage in development, and wants to put it to use by pressuring White's King and Queen. (I am not ready to refer to this line of play as "the four pawns defense".)

23.Bg5 Rg8 24.Bh4 Rgg7 


I was surprised to see that Stockfish 8 assesses this position to be vastly favorable for White - "+13", which is equivalent to the 4 extra pawns White has, plus and extra Queen. Clearly White is about to win back some material, but still...

25.h3 Qf3 26.Rf1 Qg2 


27. Bxf6+ Kd7 28. Bxg7 Qxg3+ 29. Ke2 Rxg7 


Eventually White's extra Rook - and pawns - will mean something, but for now his King still has to be careful.


30.f6 Rf7 31.Qh5 Rf8 32.Qh7+ Kc8 33.Qg7 Black resigned


No comments:

Post a Comment