A Nice Jerome-Type Game

The following game was sent by a Reader who wishes to remain anonymous. I am tempted to create a pseudonym, like I did with "Cliff Hardy", but for now I will pass - I would love to call him the "Nameless Detective", but Bill Pronzini has already written a great series with that character.

Anyhow, instead of risking an aggressive attack after 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nc3 with 3...Nxe4 4.Qh5!? or 4.Nc3!?, Black essays a sort of reversed Ruy Lopez against White's Vienna Game (which becomes a Three Knights) - only to be, of course, Jeromed...

The comments are by Mr. A, the diagrams are by me.

 

Anonymous - Anonymous

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4

4.Nf3 Bxc3 5.Bxf7+ 

5...Kxf7 6.Ng5+ Ke8 

A very safe move, although Stockfish 11 finds even a better one: 7...Kg8 (and 7...Kf8, which is only slightly better then 7...Ke8 [on depth 32], but this is a "less human" move). 

In case of a "more adventurous" 6...Kg6, I found that I don't have to rush with taking the bishop: 7.h4 is very strong and Black is forced to play h5 (almost) immediately, because trying to save the bishop loses the game: 7...Bd4 8.h5+ Nxh5 9.Qxh5+ Kf6 10.Qf7+ Kxg5 11.Qf5# or 7...Bd4 8.h5+ Kxg5 9.d3+ Be3 10.Bxe3#, and 7.h4 Bb4/Ba5 is a mate in 15 moves (of course during the game I didn't see that it's even close to mate, but 8.Qf3 is very strong for obvious reasons). 

I said "almost", because there is a nice in-between move 7...Bxd2+ 8.Bxd2 (Black gives the bishop for the pawn, instead of giving it for free with dxc3).

7.dxc3 h6 8.Nf3 Rg8 

Black could have defended the pawn with 8...d6 (Stockfish's second favourite move, first one is 8...Nc6), but my opponent had a different idea: give up e5 pawn for capturing on e4. 

9.Nxe5 d6 10.Ng6 Nxe4 11.O-O c6 

12.Re1 Bf5 13.Qh5 Qf6 14.Nh4+ g6 15.Qxh6 Rh8

Here I could go 16.Qg5 or 16.Qg4, but 16.Nxf5 leads to a nice sac: a queen for a bishop, knight and a rook. Also, for Black's remaining rook and knight being out of the game for a long time. Definitely a worthy sacrifice. And it turned out that Stockfish agrees with me, 16.Nxf5 is the best possible move in this position.

16.Nxf5 Rxh6 17.Rxe4+ Kd7 18.Nxh6 b5 

According to Stockfish, this is a very weak move, but my reply also wasn't one of the strongest moves.

However, it was more relevant that I had a simple plan: just to activate all pieces, while for my opponent doing the same was probably even not possible.

19.a4 bxa4 20.Raxa4 Qh8 21.Bg5 Kc7 22.Bf4 

Stockfish sees 5 moves better then my 22.Bf4, but even this one is evaluated about +7, White is clearly winning!

22...Qf8 23.Re6 Nd7 

My opponent finally managed to move the knight, 8 moves after the sac. But it is too late (moreover the knight is poorly placed). And the rook is still out of the game.

24.Rd4 Qc8 

Because of the threat of Bxd6+ winning the queen. 

25.Rdxd6 Kb6 26.Rxg6 Qb7 27.Rg7 Rd8 

A total despair: the rook enters the game only to get attacked...

28.Bg5 Qa6 

The last Black's hope is 29...Qa1+ with a terrible mate in 3, but one

simple move vaporizes the threat.

29.h4 Black resigned 

Stockfish at depth 42 evaluates this position as +60.15.