Jerome Gambit: A Game of Desperation and Opportunities

 

The following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) blitz game had quite an impact upon me. Devin Brown introduced it with this preamble

 today I have a game of desperation and opportunities.

Sounded like a typical Jerome Gambit to me. Not so. Upon playing over the moves, I could only write back to Mr. Brown

If I incur any medical bills after rolling on the floor laughing my derrière off after playing over your game, I will send them your way. 

Truly, you have created the Rasputin of Jerome Gambits. I can just imagine your opponent screaming “Die! Die, blast you! Why won’t you just die?!”

Seriously. It would have been perfect after the game ended if you had messaged “Just playing rope-a-dope with you, pal, I hope you don’t mind?”

I will happily share the game, but I will also limit comments from Stockfish 13 because - well, you will see soon enough.

TheRealTrueD - yourcelium

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7 8.Qxh8

 Yikes! Everybody knows that you don't take the Rook when facing Whistler's defense.

In fact, here I was reminded of "Everybody Knows" by Concrete Blonde, including the lyrics

Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows that the good guys lost

But I was wrong, oh, so wrong...

8...Qxe4+ 9.Kd1 Qxg2 10.Qxh7+ Kf8 11.Re1 Bxf2 

Status Report: White's Queen has escaped the corner (h8); Black goes for immediate attack, overlooking the stronger 11...d5.

12.c3 

Amazingly enough, 12.d3 Bxe1 held out chances for survival. But, as IM Gary Lane said about the Jerome Gambit, in a different context (see "Jerome Gambit: Chess Is An Easy Game, After All")

I think anyone with good manners playing Black would now go to another room to carry on laughing.

12...Qf3+ 13.Re2 d5 14.d4 Bg4

As you can see, White has equalized.

Really.

The easy part is 15.Bh6+ Nxh6 16.Qxh6+ Kg8 17.Qxg6+ Kh8 18.Qh6+ Kg8 heading for a draw by repetition.

If Black's King, instead, now tries to run away and escape the checks, there is 19.Qg6+ Kf8 20.Qh6+ Kf7 21.Qh7+ Kf6 22.Qh6+ Kf5 23.Qe6+ Kg5 24.Nd2 Qf5 25.Qe7+ Kh6 26.Kc1 Bxe2 27.Qxe2 and the storm is mostly over with a clearly balanced position.

15.Kc2 

This move is part of a deep strategy that will unfold over the next 18 moves. (p.s. It allows checkmate in 5, but that's not the strategy.)

15...Qxe2+ 16.Kb3 Qc4+ 17.Ka3 Rd8 

Everybody knows that the boat is sinking 

Everybody knows that the captain lied 

Everybody's got this broken feeling 

Like their Momma or their dog just died 

18.Bh6+ Nxh6 19.Qxh6+ Kf7 20.Qh7+ Kf6 

21.b3  

White fights on! I am reminded of the Monty Python scene from "The Holy Grail" which I parodied in my post, years ago, "The Black Knight".

21...Qa6+ 22.Kb2 c5 23.dxc5 d4 24.c4 Qe6 25.Ka3 d3 26.Nd2 Qe2

27.h3 Qxd2 28.hxg4 Qa5+ 29.Kb2 d2 30.Rf1 d1=Q

Here, we have contrasting refrains. Black, no doubt, is focused upon

Die! Die, blast you! Why won’t you just die?!

Much to his enjoyment, White has two reasons to sing out 

Everybody knows that its now or never
Everybody knows that its me or you

Because, you see, White now has a checkmate in 9.

31.Rxf2+ Kg5 32.Qe7+ Kxg4 33.Qe4+ 

Luckily for Black, his flag now fell, and White won on time.

It would be a real bother to be checkmated when you have the extra Queen.

Bravo!