Playing over Jerome Gambit games - and rooting for the attacker - can be a bit like watching a slasher film again and again, hoping that this time your favorite character will escape...
We know from experience that club players can win with their favorite "refuted" opening, but sometimes getting to that "1-0" can be a bit scary.
Until the end, when the danger gets turned back upon the slasher.
Anselmus - givemeabreak
2 12 blitz, FICS, 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 Qh4
In many of the lines that follow 6.Qh5+, White attacks directly, and the biggest risk he runs is that Black might know - or discover - an effective defense.
In this game's particular response to 6.d4, however, Black counter-attacks immediately, and with dire threats.
7.dxc5
According to The Database, White scores 65% after 6...Qh4 which is encouraging, given that Stockfish 13 rates Black as more than 4 1/4 pawns better.
Both resources give 7.0-0 as White's best option here, but as a measure of the practical complications that pile up, The Database has White scoring increasing to 82% with the move.
The Database shows that with 7.dxc5 White scores 33% - but there is nothing to get worried about, yet.
7...Qxe4+ 8.Be3 Nf6
Black is suspicious: If White is okay with me taking the g-pawn, maybe I should not do that.
9.O-O Nc4
This move is not bad, but it is important to point out that in the position the d7 blocks the Bishop, which hems in the Rook - a typical Jerome Gambit defender's error.
10.Nc3 Nxe3 11.fxe3 Qxe3+
Black grabs a pawn, and has another one (at c5) in his sights.
White is not about to give up, however.
12.Kh1 Re8
Here is one reason why.
13.Nd5 Qxc5
Grabbing a pawn and protecting the c7 square against White's threatened Knight fork there. The problem - of all things - is that it puts Black's Queen on the wrong side of White's Knight. Best was 13...Qe5, which would give White time to continue pressure with 14.Qd2 and 15.Rae1.
Yes, sometimes it is this hard to beat the Jerome Gambit.
14.Qh5+ Kg8
The wrong square to retreat to, as White immediately shows. (14...Kf8 would still leave Black worse.)
15.Nxf6+ Black resigned
White threatens checkmate, and to stop that, Black will have to play 15...gxf6 and give up his Queen to 16.Qxc5.
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