Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Jerome Gambit: Fertile Soil for Tactics



The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is fertile soil for tactics, as the following game shows.

LetsJeromeGambit - che_danny2

10 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+


4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kf8 


First seen in Jerome - Brownson, Iowa, 1875 (1/2 - 1/2, 29), this is one of the many ways to respond to the Gambit.

For a recent look at this line, and some history, see "Jerome Gambit: You Checkmate Your Way, I'll Checkmate Mine".

6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.d4 Bb6 8.c4 


White build his pawn center. This has been helped by Black's choice of pawn recapture on move 6: "capture toward the center" is often good advice, but, here, 6...dxc6 would have prevented White's 7.d4.

Also recently seen was 8.O-O d6 9.c4 a5 10.Nc3 Qf6 11.Be3 Ba6 12.b3 c5 13.dxc5 Qxc3 14.Bd4 Black resigned, FalconPower - zerozok01, Chess.com, 2020. 

8...a6 9.c5 Ba5+ 

The Bishop does not want to be buried - 9...Ba7 - and takes advantage of the opportunity to keep White from castling. Yet, the piece remains a problem.

10.Kf1 d6 


This is "business as usual". He misses the opportunity to start some messy counter-play with 10...Qe8. For example, if now 11.Qa4 then 11...Qxe4 12.Qxa5 Qd3+ 13.Ke1 Qe4+ 14.Be3 Qxg2 15.Rf1 d5, with the threat of 16...Bh3.

White should answer 10...Qe8 with 11.e5, which helps lock in the other Black Bishop, but 11...Qe6 is a good response, for example, 12.Qa4 Rb8 13.Qxa5 Qc4+ and it is White's King who is in grave danger. 

Komodo 10 suggests another way to go after the offside Bishop, which leads to a head-spinning tactical mess: 10...Qe8 11.e5 Qe6 12.a3 d6 13.b4 dxc5 14.bxa5 Qc4+ 15.Kg1 Qxd4 16. Qf3+ Nf6 17. Nc3 Bg4 18. Qg3 Ne4 19. Qf4+ Kg8 20. Qxe4 Qxc3 21. h3 Qxa1 22. Qc4+ Be6 23. Qxe6+ Kf8 24. Kh2 Re8 25. Qf5+ Kg8 26. Re1 when White has compensation for the exchange.

11.Qa4 dxc5 12.Qxa5 Qxd4 13.Nc3 Nf6 14.Be3 Qd3+ 


Black is happy with his chances, and it looks like his opponent's King is more at risk. This proves to be overly optimistic.

15.Kg1 Nxe4 

The pawn is poisoned. However, quiet play would allow his opponent to work against his tripled, isolated pawns.

16.Rd1 Qc4 17.Rd8+ Kf7 18.Rxh8 Black resigned


Down a Rook, with his King threatened by Qxc7+, it was time to let the game go.


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