Jerome Gambit: GM vs GM!?

I received a tip the other day about a Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game played online. The time control was 3 minutes, with no increment. White won.

Oh, and White was U.S. chess champion Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Black was Grandmaster Dmitrij Kollars of Germany.

Sure, GM Nakamura was making a speed run, and his focus was on "garbage openings" - there was also a clip of him looking at a Jerome Gambit line, and he seemed amazed / amused that there wasn't SOMETHING to the Jerome. From a grandmaster point of view: nah.

The Jerome has winning chances if it is a surprise, if the time limit is blitz, and if the defender becomes inattentive due to over-confidence.

Take a look.

SanitationEngineer - GM_dmitrij

3 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

Sure, why not, up 2 pieces.

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ 9.g3 Qf6 

GM Kollars backs up.

I would love to send GM Nakamura the following continuation, from abhailey - peonconorejas, net-chess.com, 2008: 9...Nf3+ 10.Kd1 Ne7 11.e5+ Kc6 12.Qe4+ d5 13.exd6+ Nd5 14.gxh4 Bg4 15.Qa4+ b5 16.Qa6+ Nb6 17.c4 Nd4+ 18.Ke1 Rhe8+ 19.Kf2 Nf5+ 20.Kf1 Bh3 checkmate

10.fxe5+ Qxe5 11.Qxe5+ Kxe5 12.b4 

The Database has only 2 earlier games with this move. White was an anonymous online player in 2004; I played the move in 2008.

That would all be coincidence. It is most likely that GM Nakamura bumped into the Jerome Gambit due to Canadian GM Aman Hambleton's amusing video on the opening.

12...Bd4 

Interesting. For 12...Bxb4? of course, see "Jerome Gambit: An Article" for the relevant Jerome-Mills variations analyzed by Yury V. Bukayev.

13.c3 Bb6 14.d4+ Ke6 15.Bb2 a5 16.d5+ Kf7 17.Rf1+ Kg6 

18.Nd2 Nf6 19.Nf3 Re8 20.e5 h6 21.O-O-O 

21...Ng4 22.Rde1 axb4 23.cxb4 Ne3 24.Nh4+ Kh7 25.Rf7 Kg8 

Black has been defending well, despite his extra piece remaining undeveloped at c8, but he is playing one of the top blitz grandmasters in the world. This slip is enough.

26.e6 dxe6 27.Rxg7+ Kf8 28.Ng6 checkmate

Wow.

Thank you, GM Nakamura.

Thank you, too, GM Kollars, for playing along.