Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Jerome Gambit: What Do You Do Now?

 


The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is a good opening for creating messy positions. For example, what to make of the following position, with Black to move?

MSMDOIPE - SHadiRf55, 10 5 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

Black is ahead in material, two pieces for two pawns. His King is awkwardly placed, and he has to guard against Qg5+ which would win his Queen.

The Database has 25 previous games with this position, with White scoring 74%.

However, Komodo 12 suggests that 7...Nc6, saving the piece and protecting the Queen, would leave Black about a pawn better.

How many of those games saw the computer recommendation?

None.

In fact, the game we are looking at finished 7...Be7 8.Qf5 checkmate.

Still, it is useful to also point out that Petasluk - givemeabreak, 5 0 blitz, FICS, 2017 and CoachTortise - kiwikiwi4, Chess.com, 2019 finished 7...Qe7 8.Qf5 checkmate; although BahatiTheGrandmaster - Mammaen-din, 10 5 blitz, lichess.org, 2021 continued 7...Qe7 8.Rf1 Ng6 9.e5+ (9.Qf5#) Kf7 10.f5 Nf6 11.fxg6+ Kg8 12.Kd1 Nxh5 White resigned.

It's a Jerome Gambit thing.

No comments: