The Jerome Gambit: Jerome Gambit: Deadly Breakthrough

The following game from the "Piano Piano" tournament at Chess.com is an example of giving "Jerome Gambit odds" to a lower rated player. My commitment was to play the Jerome in every game that I was able to - 9 times in the first round - and that meant all challengers, strong and not as strong.

perrypawnpusher - frogonatwig

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

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

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

7.Qd5+ Ke7

"Infrequently played but not bad" as I noted in the game Philidor1792 - jenskun, Russia Central Federal District vs Phil, Chess.com, 2015 (1-0, 27). The most recent example is CasualGames4ever - lankesh1941, 10 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020 (1-0, 51).

8.Qxc5+ d6 9.Qe3 Be6

After the routine alternative 9...Nf6, Stockfish 11 has recommended the novelty 10.h4!?, which I have previously expressed a distaste for.

10.O-O

The placement of Black's King makes a small difference. Stockfish 11's move choice is the novelty (not so if the King is on e8) 10.f4 after which 10...Kd7 11.O-O transposes to perrypawnpusher - magza, blitz, FICS, 2011 (0-1, 40).

10...Nf6 11.f4 Kf7

This looks like a mouse slip for 11...Bf7, but the time control for the game was not blitz, it was 3 days per move. On the other hand, at least once I have gone Click! Click! Enter! Ooops! and sent off the wrong move, so, who knows?

In any event, White goes up a pawn, with the much safer King.

12.f5 Bc4

Perhaps Black figured that he had time to move the Bishop with a threat, then the Knight and save them both, but my capture comes with check.

13.fxg6+ hxg6 14.d3 Bb5

15.c4 Bc6 16.Nc3

I think I have only played this setup - pawns at c4, d3 and e4, Knight at c3 - once before in the Jerome - perrypawnpusher - avgur, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 43) - but I know that the computer has recommended it several times in past annotations. Here I just wanted to prevent ...d6-d5 and provide an outpost for my Knight.

16...Re8 17.Qf3

Target f6.

17...Qd7 18.Bg5 Qe6 19.Nd5

19...Bxd5 20.cxd5

Years ago, in his "Chess to Enjoy" column in Chess Life, Grandmaster Andy Soltis humorously wrote about the art of annotation. One suggestion was that if there were a position where one player could choose one Rook or the other Rook to move to a square, whichever move he makes should bear the comment "Wrong Rook".

That was my feeling about my choice, capture with the c-pawn or capture with the e-pawn? Komodo 11 doesn't see much of a difference, but I chose to capture with the c-pawn so that I retained the option of d3-d4 and e4-e5, developing a passed pawn, if it became plausible.

20...Qe5 21.h4 Qxb2