Jerome Gambit: Take the Half-Point (Part 2)

[continued from previous post]

perrypawnpusher- Abhishek29

"Italian Battleground" Chess.com, 2019

It's time to get the "Jerome pawns" moving - carefully.

19.f5 Bd7 20.Rf4

To protect the e-pawn, so I can play d2-d4.

20...Rf7 21.d4 Nb3 22.f6 

Or 22.e5. The text gains in strength after Blacks reply.

22...g6

A double-edged move. It blunts White's Queen's pressure along the g-file. On the other hand, it allows White's pawn to become passed, and weakens the dark squares around the King. The pawn on g6 calls out for White to advance his h-pawn, although that is not something I considered during the game.

23.e5 dxe5 24.Rxe5 

Normally, I would recapture with the pawn, giving myself advanced, connected passed pawns, but they looked like they could be easily blockaded (e.g. ...Nc5, ...Nd6) and my opponent already had shown that he was a knowledgeable chess player - that tool was likely in his toolbox. Instead, I worked to "advance" my f-pawn to e7, even though it would probably never move further. (Keeping the pawn at d4 also meant that Black's Knight would have to take a longer path back to the Kingside.)

24...Qf8 25.Re7 Re8 26.Rfe4 Rexe7 27.Rxe7 

I was pretty sure that exchanging Rooks in this position, especially given the Bishops of opposite colors and the slightly exposed Kings, would cause one of us to seek a draw by repetition of position. I would have been happy with a draw.

However, I suspected that my opponent would not be happy to split the point against a refuted opening (one that he had already lost to in the tournament). He would want to avoid the draw. A subtle psychological point, but, still...

27...c5 28.Qd6 

There are now too many things "loose" in Black's position.

28...Bc6

Can Black survive after 28...Rxe7 29.fxe7 Qe8 30.Qd5+ Kg7 31.Qxb3 - ? That is what he needed to find out.

29.Qe6 cxd4 30.Bh6 

I originally planned to snatch the Knight with 30.Qxb3, but got distracted when I saw the text move. Of course, I could have captured first, then offered the piece, as that would have been even stronger. 

30...Nc5

Well, that was annoying, why did I let that piece survive? I ran my Queen away as far she could go on the diagonal.

31.Qa2 Qxe7

Unfortunate. Capturing the Bishop allows 32..Qxf7+ with mate coming quickly.

32.fxe7 dxc3 33.Qd5 

The more you look at this move, the less powerful it appears. Black's pieces are just unfortunately placed.

33...Bxd5 34.e8=Q+ Rf8 35.Qxf8 checkmate

Like I say, in the Jerome Gambit, Black wins by force, White wins by farce. My opponent deserved better in this game.