Jerome Gambit: A Back-Alley Beatdown

Recently I received an interesting Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game from Devin Brown, along with some comments about the play. I thought I would present the game, add some diagrams (and a comment or two, in blue), but let Devin's play - and his words - mostly speak for themselves.

Hello again Rick,

I bring to you the antithesis of the previous game I submitted (A game of desperation and opportunity). 

Dattrollz vs TitoBabel

3 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2021,

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7

5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 7.Qd5+ 

We start off with Aman Hambleton's Jerome Gambit with the 7.Qd5+...

[In his YouTube video on the Jerome Gambit, Grandmaster Aman Hambleton re-discovered this "nudge", first played by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome against O.A. Brownson, in their 1875 game in Iowa (1-0, 28)]

7...Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Be6 10.O-O Qe7 

11.f4 Bc4 12.d3 Ba6 13.f5 Ne5 14.Nc3 Nc6 

leading into 

15.Nd5

where I have smothered the bishop into the a-column and have tempo on the queen. After Black's

15...Qd7

I knew I had a game and sought to seize it with the only tried and true method of the Jerome, attacking with no time for the opponent to even realize what's going on. So I being my seige with 

16.Qg5 

setting up f5-f6, but my opponent left his back to me in the form of

16...Nge7 

so I gobbled up a free g-pawn.

17.Qxg7

Afterwards he moves

17...Re8

to prevent my knight fork, but that was never my plan. I don't intend to trade my best attacking piece for a rook that just got his morning coffee. Thus I gobbled another free pawn 

18.Qxh7 Ne5

and proceeded to play

19.Qh5+ 

At this point I know I have an attack but I need a weakness (and a little time) to figure out what exactly I have going and I see it on blacks 3rd worst blunder, 

19...Kd8 20.Qh6 Rg8

At this point I go for the fork and he attempts to BAMNOOZLE me with the desperate 

21...Nxf5

but alas I remain calm cool and collected and simply take back leaving my knight still lined up for the kill. 

 

22.exf5

After his 

22...Qg7 

I finally realize it's time to let go of my trusty steed and force a queen trade to either lead my pawn to glory or to see all his pieces in the shadow realm (He took the latter). 

23.Nxg8 Qxg8 

24.f6 Nf7 25.Qg7 Qe8 26.Bh6 c6 27.Rae1 Qd7 28.Qf8+ Kc7 29.Qe7 Qxe7 30.Rxe7+ Kb6 31.Rxf7 Rg8 

32.Rg7 Re8 33.f7 Rf8 34.Rg8 Rxf7 35.Rxf7 Bb5 36.Rgg7 Ba6 37.c4 c5 38.Bf4

after his 

38...d5 

I landed the final blow 

39.cxd5

before the sands of time decided that his time had come.

White won on time

Earlier I mentioned that 20...Rg8 was his 3rd worst blunder, the second was the scandalous 21...Nxf5, and his 1st was 3...Bc5.

[Thank you for sharing your game and analysis, Devin]