Jerome Gambit: Keep It Simple

 

Sometimes, when your plan is to play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), if your opponent declines, it is okay to settle for a small advantage.

In the following game White looks for a more complicated game, and quickly becomes disappointed when Black doesn't play along like he should.

Intercrosse - mf_kazemi

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kf8

The Jerome Gambit Declined. If you play the Jerome often enough, you will meet it.

White does best to simply retreat his Bishop to b3 (or c4 or d5) or exchange it for the Knight at g8. He has a pawn advantage, and Black's King can not castle.

White's smash and crash attack will have to wait for another day. 

 5.Nxe5 

White continues, with the hope that the game will somehow transpose into regular Jerome Gambit lines - in which case, he will be a tempo ahead, as Black will have taken two moves to capture the Bishop.

5...Nxe5 6.d4 Nxf7 White resigned

This isn't exactly what White had planned. After 7.dxc5 he will have 2 pawns for his sacrificed piece, as in the regular Jerome Gambit, and play can continue 7...Nf6 8.Nc3 Qe7 9.Qd4 b6 10.cxb6 axb6 11.Bf4 d6 12.0-0-0, but perhaps White was comparing that to the position after 5.Bb3...