Jerome Gambit: Zzzzzz.... Huh? (Part 2)

perrypawnpusher - moush54

3 d / move, Chess.com, 2021

Not wanting to wind up in the tedious lines of Whistler's defense after 7...Qe7 8.Qf4+, I chose an alternate line and wound up with fewer prospects...

Fortunately, this was a chess game against a human player, and there was always the possibility he could be bored out of the full point.

12.f4 d6 13.exd6 cxd6 14. Nc3 

I remember a comment once made about Aaron Nimzovich, hypermodern chess player, that he rejoiced in advantages so small that his opponents could not see them.

Here, I have possible pressure against Black's d-pawn, and I can castle either way - uniting my Rooks might come in handy with the enemy King still in the center.

14...Ba5 

My opponent was not quite sure what to do, but very reasonably puts pressure on my Knight, which holds back the d-pawn.

Actually, he could have played 14...d5, any way, as 15.exd5 Bf5, followed by ...Rd8 would recover the pawn, as well as activate the Bishop.  A more sensible response for White would be 15.Bd2, when 15...dxe4 16.Nxe4 Bf5 17.Nd6+ Kd7 18.Nxf5 Nxf5 19.O-O-O would at least get rid of the pesky prelate. 

15.Bd2 a6 

Stopping White's Knight from attacking the pawn from b5.

16.O-O 

Probably castling Queenside was a bit better.

16...Bd7 

17.Rad1 Nc6 18.Nd5 Bd8 19.Bc3 

It might have been a bit better to reinforce the Knight first with 19.c4.

19...Rf8 

I am reminded of the many games I played against the computer "Chess Challenger 7", years ago. It had a few quirks in its play, including if it could not come up with an acceptable move, it usually played a Rook pawn up 2 squares. It also was happy to leave its King in the middle of the board, if it could surround it with pieces.

20.g3 

Better might have been 20.h3, but I did not want to see 20...h5 

20...Be6 21.Rfe1 Ne7

Going after the Knight.

22.Nf6+ 

I saw that this move could be met by the sacrifice of the exchange 22...Rxf6!? but I did not think that my opponent would find it. After the game, both Stockfish 13 and Komodo 10 liked the move, evaluating the resulting position as equal.

22...Kf7 23.Nxh7 Black resigned

I suspect that my opponent saw both the threat to his Rook on f8 and the threat to fork his King and Bishop, winning a piece.

Either that or he expired from terminal boredom. Not the usual way to be finished off by the Jerome Gambit.

There was more to the position though, very little of which I saw while the game was going on. Afterward Stockfish 13 suggested 23...Bxa2 24.Nxf8 Kxf8 25.Rxd6 Bf7, When White would have a Rook and 3 pawns for a Knight and Bishop.

At the time I had expected 23...Bg4 when I figured that 24.Rxd6 Nc8 25.Nxf8 Nxd6 would have meant that White had grabbed a couple of pawns, giving him 4 pawns for the sacrificed piece. In the post mortem, Stockfish 13 still preferred Black. It's choice, instead, was simply to retreat the White Rook with 25.Rd3, and then when Black's Rook moved, play the tricky 26.h3!? when 26...Bxh3 27.Rxd8!? Rxd8 28.Ng5+ Ke7 29.Nxh3 would have left White with 3 pawns for the exchange.