Jerome Gambit: Outplayed, Alas (Part 2)

 

[continued from the previous post]

perrypawnpusher - ZlikoM

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

Here I looked at a couple of Jerome style moves, 16.Bg5 and 16.h3. I eventually rejected both, because of 16...Nxe4 in each case, but that was largely due to poor analysis.

After the game, I had Stockfish 11 do a blunder check. After 16.Bg5 Nxe4 17.Rae1 Black had 17...Qxg5 18.Nxe4 Bxe4 19.Rxe4 h5 20.h3 Rae8 21.Rxe8 Rxe8 22.hxg4 Re4 when White will lose one pawn quickly, and another a few moves later. Black also could have played 17...Ngf6 18.Nxe4 Bxe4 and White will have trouble capturing the beleagured Bishop, e.g. 19.d5 (to prevent the supportive ...d5) Rhg8 (to attack White's Queen after he exchanges his Bishop for the supportive Knight) 20.Qc3 Nxd5 21.Bxe7 Nxc3 22.bxc3 Bxc2 and although White has captured a piece, Black would be better. 

A better choice from the diagram would have been 16.h3, as 16...Nxe4 was not much of a threat, as 17.Nxe4 Bxe4 18.hxg4 Rae8 looks even. Black would do better to answer 16.h3 with 16...Rae8 17.hxg4 Nxe4 18.Nxe4 Qxe4 when his better development and safer King would give him an edge. Also interesting would have been 16...h5 as 17.hxg4 Nxe4 18.Nxe4 Qxe4 would transpose.

16.e5 

This move simply drops a pawn. Inexcusable, given the time limit of 3 days per move.

16...dxe5 17.dxe5 Qxe5 18.Bf4 

Looking for something that is not there, as Black shows with his next move.

18...Qc5+ 19.Kh1 Rae8 

There's not a lot for White to work with here, as even a Rook check to the King would only allow him to retreat to c8.

20.Rae1 Kc8 21.h3 h5 

Very nice. White dare not capture the Knight now.

22.Rxe8+ Nxe8 23.Qe1 Qc6 24.Qe6+ Qxe6 25.fxe6 Ngf6 

The checkmate threat has been dealt with, but the material deficit is still a big problem for me.

26.Rd1 Ne4 27.Nxe4 Bxe4 28.c3 Bf5 29.e7 g6 30.Be5 Rg8 31.Rd8+ 

Hoping to tie the pieces up. My opponent untangles, however.

31...Kb7 32.Kg1 Kc6 33.Kf2 Be6 34.a3 Bf7 35.Ke3 g5 36.g4 hxg4 37.hxg4 Rg6 White resigned

The passer on e7 was doomed, and the endgame, a piece down, did not appeal to me.