Jerome Gambit Secrets #5

Time to look at a couple more "secrets".

Ten years ago I played a Jerome Gambit game that started off

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 

Black then played a relatively weak move that had showed up only once before in The Database.

8...Ne7

When I posted the game on this blog, back then, I recommended, instead, 8...Qh4!?, which had been played a number of times before - as early as a supposed 1899 telephone game - and which continued to be played, year after year. (So: 8...Qh4 isn't much of a "secret".)

9.Qxe5+ Kc6

As a measure of the imbalance of the position, in one of my games, Black resigned at this point.

10.d4

In my blog notes I recommended as better 10.Qc3!?. Curiously, of the 5 subsequent games with that move in The Database, 4 were played by me - and only once did I remember my improvement, but not the proper followup.

The idea, of course, is 10.Qc3 b6 11.b4 and White wins back his piece after either 11...d6 or 11...d5.

So, 10.Qc3 is still enough of a "secret" that private eye "Cliff Hardy" overlooked it in a Jerome Gambit game of his this year - although, since he was playing "blindfold", perhaps "overlook" isn't the right word...

After 10.d4, however, only 2 games in The Database have Black's proper response, 10...d6!? - an almost "secret" move that caught me by surprise, although I was still able to deliver checkmate in 20 moves. The Jerome Gambit is like that, folks.

Stockfish 9 suggests my game should have gone 10.d4 d6 11.Qxg7 Nf5!? 12.exf5 Rg8 13.Qxh7 Bd4 with Black for choice - despite being down material, and despite having his King on c6.

Cliff Hardy noted in assessing his own game that after 10.d4 d6 11.Qxg7 Nf5 12.exf5 Qe8+ 13.Kd1 Bxf5 "...if anything, Black has an edge, despite his two-pawn deficit. Note that 14.dxc5? now would be crushed by ...Qh5+. Instead White should try the sharp 14.d5+!? when Black would be prudent to reply 14...Kb6, with in an unclear position where White's King is in more danger than his counterpart, and Black's 2 Bishops and better Rooks give him the more threatening prospects."

There you go: 10.Qc3!? and 10.d4 d6!?, two secrets for the price of one.