Jerome Gambit: A Knight's Revenge

While looking for some Jerome Gambit "secrets", I ran into a couple of lines that were bad enough that I figured they should remain secret - see "Jerome Gambit: Move That Knight!"

One of the variations went 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng1?

If you were quick and saw my post that day, you noticed that I finished up by suggesting that it was likely that by the end of the year we would see Bill Wall - openings explorer and Jerome Gambit expert - play 5.Ng1, anyhow.

Bill responded with an email pointing out how self-injurious that kind of play would be: 5...Qh4!? 6.Qe2 Nd4 7.Nf3!? Nxe2 8.Nxh4 Nxc1 would be a nightmare for White.

Chastened, I surreptitiously removed the prediction.

Bill just sent me a file of his Jerome Gambit games for July, 2018.

Of course, there was a game with 5.Ng1.

And, of course, he won, in 18 moves.