Jerome Gambit: Facing Up to 4.Bxf7+ in the Two Knights (Part 1)

 

I started this blog over 13 years ago with a focus on the Jerome Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+. The backbone of The Database is a collection of all of the Jerome games that I could gather from the online site FICS, since its beginning in 2009.

As I collected additional games and analysis to add to my posts, I began to include information on lines which included the development of all 4 Knights, or which saw an early ...h6 - or which saw a combination of both.

I added 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+, because at least one authority labeled it the Jerome Gambit.

It seemed natural to add 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 4.Bxf7+ and 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+, because of Jerome-ish themes, too.

As readers began to send me games, there were many with Bxf7+ played as reasonably (or unreasonably) as possible, e.g. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.Bxf7+.

Although I have not gone back to the early days of FICS to search for these additional lines, I have added as many games as I can to The Database, which now contains over 69,000 games.

The other day, I noticed that I had over 500 examples of the Two Knights variation, 1.e4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Bxf7+.

Although I had early experience facing this line - leobrazer - perrypawnpusher, blitz 3 0, FICS, 2009 (0-1, 48) and yorgos - perrypawnpusher, blitz 3 0 FICS, 2009 (1-0, 48) - in my blog analysis I mostly avoided it - see "Jerome Gambit vs Two Knights Defense (Part 1, 2, 3 and 4)". 

My preference in facing the Two Knights Defense was to play 4.Nc3 and hope for a transition to the Jerome Gambit Four Knights with 4...Bc5 5.Bxf7+. When faced with 4...Nxe4 in this line, I sometimes tried 5.Bxf7+ or 5.0-0 (with hopes for transition).

But I continued to be sent, and to find, Two Knights games with 4.Bxf7+. Witness the recent "Jerome Gambit: Chess Adventures of GM Hambleton (Part 1)"

The earliest game that I have found with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Bxf7+ comes from a correspondence tournament played in 1891-92. We will look at that game tomorrow.

[to be continued]