Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit Report Card (Part 1)

Recently, I stopped by the lichess.com website to pick up a few Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+) games. I grabbed the four listed in "Top games" and the four in "Recent games".

I was disappointed to see that White had scored 1 - 7 in those matches.

The first thought I had was: has this blog failed those players?

I had to know.

Here's the first game I looked at.

ElSrEdwardHyde (2563) - Zloy_Grisha2006goda (2436)

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

Yes, that's right, white is rated 2500+ - and he is playing the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit!

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4Nd4 4.Bxf7+

It is not surprising that the computer at lichess.com (Stockfish, I think) labelled this move a "Mistake". The recommended moves to counter the BSG include 4.Nxd4, 4.c3, 4.0-0, 4.d3, 4.Nc3 - just not 4.Nxe5, which goes along with Black's plan to play 4...Qg5. 

Some players like to Jerome an opening....

4... Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke7 6.c3 d6 7.cxd4 dxe5 8.dxe5 Qd3 9.Qe2 Qxe2+ 10.Kxe2

I took a look at this interesting - and largely even - position 8 years ago, in "Long Lines: Seeing Unclearly" and "Pwned!".

The game continued largely until what appears to be a time-induced error.

 43.Rg7 Bxg7 White resigned

So: 4.Bxf7+ led to an even game. It took almost 40 moves after that to turn the game into "0-1"