Jerome Gambit: Named...What?

 

The Jerome Gambit had experienced a series of names - some more serious than others.

When Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's analysis of his opening first appeared in the April 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal, the "New Chess Opening" was given an introduction

We have received from A.W. Jerome of Paxton, Ford county, Illinois, some analyses of a new move in the Giuoco Piano, first played by him, which we offer our readers as: Jerome's Double Opening

The editor of the Dubuque Chess Journal was impressed by the two sacrifices, 4.Bxf7+ and 5.Nxe5+, hence the "double" in the name.

Apparently, he was also interested in highlighting the Queen moves that the opening contained, such as 6.Qh5+, as the Dubuque Chess Journal of January, 1875 presented more of Jerome's analysis with the curious title "Queen's Gambit in Jerome's Double Opening". I have never seen that name again; but, see the Kentucky Opening, below.

The American Chess Journal of June 15, 1876 referred to the opening as "Jerome's Double Gambit". A few months later, November 1876, publishing a letter from Jerome, the ACJ referred to Jerome's "Double Opening". In a February 1877 article it simplified the name to "Jerome's Gambit".

A very powerful event reinforced that last name. Lieutenant Soren Anton Sorensen, writing in the May 1877 issue of the Danish chess magazine Nordisk Skaktidende - an article that subsequently was translated to English, French, Spanish and Italian (probably other languages as well) and was reprinted widely - gave his analysis of the opening, noting

The Americans call the game "Jerome's double opening," an allusion, probably, to the fresh sacrifice of a piece which follows at the next move, but we shall prefer to use the short and sufficiently clear designation, Jerome Gambit.

"Jerome Gambit", it was, after that, for the most part.

One subsquent attempt at renaming came in a review of  G. H. D. Gossip's book, Theory of the Chess Openings (1879), in the Huddersfield College Magazine of July 1879, where Thomas Long mused

We do not well know why this opening (a branch of the "Giuoco") is styled a gambit, as it consists in White sacrificing a piece on the fourth move, and Staunton in his Handbook defines a gambit as a sacrifice of a Pawn.

The Americans recognize the force of this by styling the opening "Jerome's double opening," although we don't quite see the meaning of this. How "double"? We think that the simple and natural definition of Jerome's Attack - as Cochrane's attack in the "Petroff" where a piece is also given up by White on his fourth move - would suffice.

"Jerome's Attack" does not seem to have been widely adopted, either.

One bit of renaming came with the publication of Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess by P. Anderson Graham in 1899. Blackburne's notes to his famous game Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884 included the mention, after 6.Qh5+

Note - I used to call this the Kentucky opening.

As I explored in "The Kentucky Opening (Part 1, 2, 3 and 4)", Blackburne was linking the aggressive Queen move - and, hence the opening - to 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5, which was analyzed in the May 1875 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal, and titled the "Kentucky Opening."

However, the name has stuck, and you will occasionally see 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ referred to as the Kentucky Opening.

Of course, such an outrageous chess opening will have been called many light-hearted names over the years.

The July 13, 1917 issue of Western Mail of Perth, Australia, had a story referring to the opening as "The Verdun Gambit".

American chess legend George Koltanowski, as recorded in the September 1958 issue of the Precita Valley Chess Herald, referred to the "Ashcan Opening", riffing off the name of John E. Ishkan, who had played the opening in a tournament that Kolty had observed.

Editor Gary K. Gifford, in his Unorthodox Openings Newsletter #17, asked, fairly, "Jerome Gambit, or Jerome Gamble?"

Most recently, I have seen a YouTube video referring to the "Headless Chicken" opening.