Jerome Gambit: Too Clever

Here is the latest Jerome Gambit game from the intrepid Cliff Hardy. He plays them online and over-the-board, sighted and blindfold, slow and fast. I have added some diagrams, and one note, but the rest are his.

Hi Rick,

You seem to be getting quite a lot of bullet Jerome Games, but here is another short Jerome Gambit game I played:

Cliff Hardy (2260) - NN (2187)

1 0, Lichess, 2019

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Nd3+??

I guess it's a bit hard to find the right move in bullet chess! 😉 Not that I have that much idea what the best move was here for Black - I'll leave that up to Rick and the Jerome database to decide! 😉

[I checked The Database, and was surprised to find a dozen games with ...Nd3+ in similar, but not exactly the same, positions. Black returns one of the sacrificed pieces, buries White's dark square Bishop, and plans an attack on the dark squares. Still, the Knight move is a bit too clever - although it appears that no one has yet played the best alternative, the walk-away 8...Kc6!? - Rick]

9. cxd3

White now has a clear advantage, according to the Lichess Stockfish analysis feature.

9...Qh4+??

This doesn't help, as now Black will have his queen under attack as well - the computer suggests giving the piece back with 9...Nf6 10. e5+ Kc6.

10.g3 Qh6 11.Qd5+ Ke7 12.Qxc5+ Kd8?? 

The superior 12...Qd6 is assessed as, surprisingly, +3.4 points for White, according to the Lichess Stockfish analysis feature - it seems to regard White's Jerome pawns here quite highly!

13.Qf8 checkmate