Jerome Gambit: Win, How? (Part 2)

[continued from previous post]

perrypawnpusher - schnappa
Italian Game Classic, Chess.com, 2019

11.d3

Alonzo Wheeler Jerome played this move, with a transparent threat to pin and win Black's Queen, in games against Shinkman in 1874 (0-1, 21), Brownson in 1875 (1-0, 42), Amateur in 1876 (1-0, 20) and Pane in 1878 (1-0, 41). The Database has 9 games where Black overlooked the threat and lost his Queen - 7 of those wins were mine.

11...Ke7 

The Chess.com analysis rated 11...Ke7 to be an  "inaccuracy" (The Database: 11 games, White scores 64%), seeing 11...Kc6 as best (The Database: 11 games, White scores 27%).

The alternative, 11...Kc6, attributed to B.K. Neufville, “gives Black an opportunity for a counter attack and makes an exciting contest” according to Jerome, in the American Chess Journal, of April 1878.

12.Nc3

An "inaccuracy", according to the analysis, which considered 12.c3 as "best".

I should give the alternative title of "Jerome Gambit Secrets #10" to the current post, as The Database shows only 1 game with 12.c3, and it continued 12...d6 13.Bg5? Qxg5 White resigned, which was a result quite likely to keep the variation "secret".

12...d6 

This move was "inaccurate"; 12...Bd4 was "best".

(If you are getting tired of all of this "inaccurate" stuff, so am I. Considering the whole game, the computer assessed me as being 91.9% "accurate", while my opponent was  89.7% "accurate". I don't know what that means.)

The latter move, 12...Bd4, was played against me in perrypawnpusher - karleinkarl, blitz, FICS, 2012 (0-1, 16), a sad game where, in a bit of an echo, I allowed Black to pin my Queen to my King.

13.Bf4 

So far, we are following Jerome - Brownson, Iowa, 1875, which continued 13.Bf4 Qe6 14.O-O-O Qg4 15.Qf1 g5 16.Bg3 Be3+ 17.Kb1 Bf4 18.Bf2 c5 19.h3 Qh5 20.h4 Be6 21.hxg5 Qxg5 22.Bh4 Qg4 23.Nd5+ Bxd5 24.exd5 Rae8 25.d4 Bg5 26.Bxg5 Qxg5 27.dxc5 dxc5 28.Qb5 b6 29.d6+ Kf7 30.Rhf1 Kg7 31.Qc6 Rhf8 32.a3 Rd8 33.g4 Nxg4 34.Qc7+ Kg8 35.Rxf8+ Rxf8 36.Qxa7 Qd8 37.Qa4 Ne5 38.Qe4 Ng6 39.Qe6+ Rf7 40.d7 Nf8 41.Qe8 Qxd7 42.Rxd7 Rxd7 43.Qb8 Black resigned

13...Qh5

The Chess.com analysis announced "inaccuracy", preferring 13...Qd4 (which does not show up in The Database at all) as "best".

In perrypawnpusher - vz721 -Italian Game thematic, Chess.com, 2013, I now castled Queenside, allowing the exchange of Queens. Looking over that game while I was putting together this post, I was shocked to see that both I and my opponent seem to have overlooked the response 14...Bg4!?


In any event, against schnappa I now played the kind of move that you would more likely see in a 1 0 bullet game, just to mess with my opponent ("threatening" to remove his Knight at f6, which protects his Queen) and give me time to figure out if I wanted to swap Queens, after all.

14.Nd5+ 

And here, much to my surprise, Black resigned.

Of course, 14...Nxd5? would be a mistake, but any reasonable King retreat - 14...Kd8, 14...Kf7 or 14...Kf8 - would be fine. He should avoid 14...Ke6, which would allow the fork 15.Nxc7+, and both 14...Kd7? and 14...Ke8? (resurrecting the primary threat) would fall to 15.Nxf6+.

The Chess.com analysis rated the final position as -2.29, giving Black over a 2 pawn advantage, which makes sense to me.

It recommended the following continuation: 14...Kf7 15.Qxh5+ Nxh5 16.Rf1 Nxf4 17.Rxf4+
 Kg6 18.Nxc7 Rb8 19.Kd2 Bd4 20.Raf1 Be5 21.R4f2 b5 22.Nd5 Be6 23.Ne7+ Kg5 24.Nc6 Rbc8 25.h4+ Kh6 26.Nxe5 dxe5 27.a3 Kg6 28.g3


My best guess is that demands of the outside world temporarily distracted my opponent.