The Jerome Gambit: Jerome Gambit: Not In On The Joke

GM Hikaru Nakamura is known to indulge in unusual and entertaining openings, especially when he is playing blitz, and when he has an attentive audience. We have seen a number of his Jerome Gambits (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) as White.

The following game is the grandmaster's reaction when his opponent goes a little bit too far in his creativity. Was it an attempt at a joke? If so, it is clear that White bombed.

30second-guy - GMHikaruOnTwitch

3 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2021

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Ke2

Oh, my.

This looks like a Bongcloud variation of the Jerome Gambit, something mentioned in a Chess.com forum (although the focus was on 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Ke2) and referred to here in this blog in the post "The Jerome Gambit but 100% more dubious".

The Bongcloud Opening is the name usually applied to 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2, after Andrew Fabbro's satirical booklet, Winning With the Bongcloud.

A more serious name would be the "Vidmar joke opening" - see Yury V. Bukayev's post on this blog, "GM#1 vs you: Wing gambit bombs, BC & history: 1".

The opening received broad attention (not all of it positive) after the online game Carlsen - Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen Invitational, 2021: 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2 Ke7 3.Ke1 Ke8 4.Ke2 Ke7 4.Ke1 Ke8 5.Ke2 Ke7 draw. Clearly, both grandmasters were in the mood for a draw, and the World Champion chose a line that his opponent had used in online blitz games; Nakamura had a good laugh, and then quickly helped split the point.

It is not clear in the current game if 30second-guy was offering a draw to GM Nakamura, or if he was just trying to be funny, but the response he received was quite serious.

6...Qh4