Jerome Gambit: My Opponent Knows What He Is Doing (Part 4)

[continued from previous post]

perrypawnpusher - warwar
"Italian Battleground", Chess.com, 2019

At this point in the game, I was still thinking about moving my King to the center to help advance the pawns, although I couldn't figure out exactly how. In the mean time, my Rook on f8 was designed to keep Black's King away from interfering in the center.

Here, my opponent took several days "vacation" from the site, and I worked on my portable chess set like it was a crystal ball (the time control was 3 days per move). For starters - what was the reasoning behind my opponent's last move? (In hindsight, I can see that he missed a decent drawing line - by returning material - but what was he trying to do with his Bishop on c3?)

38...Bd7

It turns out that my Rook pins down its opposite, and forces Black's light square Bishop to stay on the a4-e8 diagonal, for protection. With that paralysis of pieces, it was possible to see that Black's other Bishop was now going to be stuck on the wrong side of the pawn chain. (It had arrived on the a5-e1 diagonal to forestall b3-b4.)

39.Bc5 

The key. Now my Bishop can escort the pawn through b4, on the way to promotion. My King can stay at home and mark his counterpart, after all.

39.Bc5

The Bishop can reach out and help.

39...Bc6 40.b4 h5 41.b5 Bd7 42.b6 Black resigned

Once again, saved by the "Jerome pawns", but only after some difficult play.

Hats off to warwar for a challenging game.