Jerome Gambit: Puzzles and Mysteries (Part 1)

Before I began this blog, much of my investigation into the Jerome Gambit appeared online in the "Puzzles and Mysteries" section of Edward Winter's The Chess History Information and Research Center. Although it highlighted my mis-steps almost as often as my true discoveries, it provided valuable exposure to my quest, and put me in touch with a number of helpful sources, for which I remain expecially thankful to Mr. Winter.

With the help of the online Wayback Machine, I was able to bring much of this information forward. It adds to my earlier series of posts containing my longer Jerome Gambit article.

Last update: 30.04.04

I am researching the atavistic Jerome Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ ?? (Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.) The best known example of it is Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1880: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 4.Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.0-0 Nf6 10.c3 Ng4 11.h3 Bxf2+ 12.Kh1 Bf5 13.Qxa8 Qxh3+ 14.gxh3 Bxe4 mate.

In Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess, 1899, republished as Blackburne's Chess Games, 1979, the winner notes "I used to call this the Kentucky opening. For a while after its introduction it was greatly favored by certain players, but they soon grew tired of it." 

In Unorthodox Chess Openings, Eric Schiller makes a leap and names the above Amateur as Jerome -- unlikely, in light of a 8/30/97 rec.games.chess.misc posting by Ozgur Karabiyik (found in a deja search) which noted "It appeared first in American Chess Journal, 1876 recommended by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome (1834-1902) of Paxton, Illinois." [the source of this statement is apparently The Oxford Companion to Chess by K. Whyld and D. Hooper] 

The Kentucky allusion is puzzling, although it may relate to the fact that there is apparently analysis of the Jerome Gambit in Freeborough and Rankin's Chess Openings Ancient and Modern, one edition of which (1893), the Cleveland Public Library's catalog notes, was published both in London and Kentucky. Was Blackburne aware when he penned his book...?

I have seen a re-bound copy of Chess Openings, by Freeborough, from the Oberlin College Library, which maddeningly does not have a publication date, and whose title page is typed by a typewriter, as if replacing the original. The publisher, J.E. Wheatley and Co., New-Street, Huddersfield, does not match any listed in the Cleveland Library for the apparently later Chess Openings, Ancient and Modern, by Freeborough and Rankin, with various editions (1889, 1893, 1896,1903, 1905, 1910).

Chess Openings give the opening its own section and opines "The Jerome Gambit is an American invention, and a very risky attack. It is described in the American Supplement [1885] to Cook's Synopsis [1882] as unsound but not to be trifled with... Mr. S. A. Charles of Cincinnati, Ohio is named in the American Supplement as the chief analyst of this opening."

Mr. Jerome, Amateur, Mr.Charles; Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio.

All of which is background to the stunning plea, by Michael Kramer, on rec.games.chess.misc, 9/30/97 (again, found with deja)

"Where can I get a copy of  All or Nothing! The Jerome Gambit by Chaim Schmendrik?"

Never mind Keene's brief comments in his Gambits, or those of Batsford Chess Openings, Is there really such a thing as All or Nothing! ???

Rick Kennedy, 24.11.01

The "mystery" of Blackburne's reference to the Jerome Gambit as the "Kentucky Opening" was solved a decade ago - see the blog posts "The Kentucky Opening" Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Likewise, there was never a book on the Jerome Gambit titled All or Nothing, as I pointed out, to my embarassment, years ago.