Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Jerome Gambit: Positional Cues


Sometimes, while playing the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), we can take a cue from our opponent as to which move to make or which plan to follow. See the following game.

SuperChinese - Zakir292
5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020

1. e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 



4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6



7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6 10.O-O Be6


Cue #1: With a Knight on g6, this Bishop move should prompt a standard response from White.

11.f4 Bc4 12.d3 Qe7 

Black's idea reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes book, Scientific Progress Goes "Boink" - Black follows the "scientific" idea of returning sacrificed material in order to break White's attack. However, he overlooks cue #2: his King and Queen will soon be on an opened file.

13.dxc4 Nxe4 

He could have tried 13...Kf7, to limit the damage.

14.Re1 Nc5

This might have been the move that Black had been counting on. In a 5-minute game, sometimes analysis does not go deep enough.

15.Qf2 Ne4 16.Qf3 

16...Ne5 17.Qxe4 Rf8 18.fxe5 Qf7 19.exd6+ 



White is a couple of pieces and a couple of pawns ahead. All he has to do is make sure he doesn't get checkmated, and he has the win.

19...Kd8 20.Qe7+ 

The simplest. Now 20...Qxe7 21.dxe7+ Kd7 22.exf8/Q+ Rxf8 would be quite enough. Instead, Black allows checkmate directly.

20...Kc8 21.d7+ Kb8 22.Qxf8+ Qxf8 23.Re8+ Black resigned 



Black takes his cue. The finish would be 23...Qxe8 24.dxe8 checkmate. Ouch!

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