Sunday, August 22, 2021

Jerome Gambit: Be Careful, Look Both Ways



Be careful. Look both ways before crossing the street. Look left, look right, look left. Or, depending upon the direction of traffic, look right, look left, look right.

Innes1203, playing at lichess.org, kindly sends the following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game as a reminder to keep your eyes open - even if you are playing a familiar, non-dangerous line.


yahaia - Innes1203

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 


4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 


7.Qxe5 Bxf2+ 

This line (172 examples in The Database) is becoming known as the Counter-Jerome Gambit. Black returns material, displaces White's King, and exchanges Queens, settling for a calm, pawn-down game.

Usually...

8.Kxf2 Qh4+ 

This move is rare - including this game, there are a couple dozen examples in The Database. Usually Black plays 8...Qf6+, expecting the Queen exchange. He can even retreat the Queen to f6 on the next move.

9.Kg1 Qe1 checkmate

Oh.

This is the first time that I have seen this checkmate.

Previously, primarily 9.g3 - and once, 9.Kf1 and once 9.Ke3 - had a combined record of 21 - 1 - 1 in this line.

Be careful.


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