Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit Report Card (Part 3)

 

It is tempting to explain the loss in the following game simply to the fact that when you flip a coin, sometimes it comes down "heads", sometimes it comes down "tails".

One-minute bullet games can sometimes feel that way.

Paviles (2317) - efaresco (2346)

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6 6.c3 Nc6 

Well, this looks like a blog fail. After a number of suggestions over the years that "6.c3 is best", there are a couple of unannotated games - TrippL - boggus, FICS, 2008 (0-1, 34) and pigsfeet - steveod, FICS, 2012 (1-0, 27) - and a few short bits of analysis in "Those who cannot remember the past..." and "Clearly Unclear" with not a lot of guidance. 

7.Nc4 

If you looked hard into past blog posts, you could find a few bits of relative comment 

White can withdraw his Knight, 7.Nf3, with an even game; but the recommended move is 7.d4 with a poisoned pawn in the follow-up: 7...Nxe5 8.dxe5 Kxe5? 9.Qd5+ Kf6 10.Bg5+ Black resigned APe-Sali, blitz, FICS, 2009

And also

A calmer follow-up (although the game had its explosive moments) is 7.d4, which SotoG had played a year earlier: 7...Nxe5 8.dxe5 d5 9.Qg4+ Kf7 10.Qh5+ g6 11.Qf3+ Kg7 12.exd5 Bc5 13.Bf4 Ne7 14.c4 Rf8 15.Qg3 Nf5 16.Qd3 Qh4 17.g3 Bxf2+ 18.Kxf2 Nxg3 19.hxg3 Qxh1 20.e6 b6 21.Qf3 Kg8 22.Qxh1 Black resigned, SotoG - Ludek, blitz FICS, 2000...

And 

Rybka (blunder check, 5 minutes per move) suggests: 7.d4 Nxe5 8.dxe5 as well, continuing 8...Kf7 9.e6+ Ke8 10.Qh5+ g6 11.exd7+ Qxd7 12.Qe5+ Kf7 13.Qxh8 Nf6 14.Nd2 Bg7 15.Nf3 Bxh8 16.Ne5+ Ke6 17.Nxd7 Nxd7 18.Be3 b6 19.0-0-0 – absolutely out-of-this-world play for both Black and White... 

There was nothing to find on the text move, despite the fact that there are 8 previous games with it. 

7...Nf6 8.O-O Kf7 9.d4 d6 10.Qe2 Be7 11.Bg5 Re8

 

White has done well, on his own. He has the usual 2-pawns-for-a-piece material balance, slightly favoring Black.

The game continued, and Black's advantage grew, slipped away, and grew again - until he won on time in 30 moves.

Perhaps White would have done better if there had been more information to rely on.