Jerome Gambit: Getting More Right This Time (Part 2)

[continued from the previous post]

perrypawnpusher - andrewLLL

Italian Game Battlefield tournament, Chess.com, 2020

Material is even. White has pressure against the enemy King.

17.Rf1 Rf8 

This move is a mistake, larger than I realized at the time. Instead of the text, he needed to do something about the pin on his d-pawn, say 17...Qe6. This could be met by 18.Nd5, when 18...Nexd5 19.exd5 Qg4 20.Bxf6 gxf6 21.Qc3 would have won material.

18.Bxf6

A curious optical illusion. I wanted to play e4-e5, attacking the pinned d-pawn (and the Knight on f6) so first I eliminated the Knight that defended the Queen. But - that Knight was already pinned to the King! Best was the move I wanted to play, 18.e5.

18...gxf6 19.e5 Kg8 

20.exf6 Nc6 21.Ne4 Qg4 22.Qd5+ 

The start of a questionable plan. After the game, Stockfish 11 suggested 22.h3 Qg6 23.Rf4 Kh8 24.Rg4 Qf5 25.Qe3 Nd8 26.Rg5 Qd7 27.Rg7 Rf7 28.Rxf7 Nxf7 29.Ng5 Ne5 30.Qxa7, with checkmate threats that would allow for the win of more material. Wow. So, that's why the program is rated 3600...

22...Kh8 23.Qg5 Qxg5 24.Nxg5 

Here, I liked my passed pawn and Kingside pawn majority. I could imagine advancing my g- and h-pawns, exchanging off Black's h-pawn. There was still a lot of work to do.

24...Nd8 25.Ne4 Kg8 26.g4 h6 

27.Kg2 

I guess 27.h4 was playable directly, but I worried that after 27...Kf7 Black's Rook would come to g8, so the pawn would need additional protection.

27...d5 

Kicking my Knight, which was in position to support an eventual g4-g5 - and part of the reason I took my Knight to e4 was to goad Black into making such a kick. Simply 27...Kf7 was more to the point.

28.Nc5 b6 

Helping the Knight along its way.

29.Nd7 Re8 

Now White can win the exchange for his beloved pawn - I could not see a way for it to promote, anyhow.

30.f7+ Nxf7 31.Nf6+ Kf8 32.Nxe8 Kxe8 

At this point, the main idea is for White's Rook and King to infiltrate Black's position and win material.

33.Rf5 c6 34.Rf6 c5 35.Kg3 Ke7 36.Rg6 d4 37.Kf4

Keeping an eye on the pawns, so they do not advance.

37...Kd7 38.h4 Ke7 39.Rg8 Black resigned

With a King placed for both defense and attack, a Kingside pawn majority ready to advance at the proper time, and a hungry Rook, White has too much to deal with.