Thursday, December 30, 2021

Was The Immortal Draw (1872) Inspired By The Jerome Gambit Win (1863)??


I have spent a lot of time looking for the earlier games or analysis that inspired Alonzo Wheeler Jerome to invent his gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+.  

I recently received an email from chessfriend Yury V. Bukayev that suggests that I may have been getting things backward.   


Dear Rick, good morning!

I suggest you to create the publication "Was Immortal Draw (1872) Inspired By Jerome Win (1863)?" Thus, you have published on your blog the following: "Jerome Gambit: Startling Discovery"
The "startling discovery" was of the accurate date of the game Tonetti - Ruggieri, Rome, 1863, a "Jerome Gambit" almost a dozen years before Jerome published his analysis. I had originally dated it after Jerome.

I suggest to compare it with the game Hamppe - Meitner (1872) which is known as the Immortal Draw. Thus, the early opening stages of these games have a lot of common ideas:

1863: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4....

1872: 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Bc5 3.Na4 Bxf2+ 4.Kxf2 Qh4+ 5.Ke3 Qf4+ 6.Kd3 d5.....

Moreover, the blow Bxf7+ (Tonetti) and the blow ...Bxf2+ (Meitner) are not strong theoretically, we know today. Probably, Mr. Tonetti and Mr. Meitner also have understood that they make a not strong move, but with a bright psychological effect. The problem is the following: was the game of 1863 known to Mr. Meitner in the moment of this his game of 1872?
Yours sincerely,
Yury 

 I have looked at the Immortal Draw - see "Godfather of the Jerome Gambit" Part 1, 2, 3 and Endpiece as well as "Hamppe - Meitner Revealed" - but always from the perspective as an inspiration for the Jerome.

Yury raises a good question: can Hamppe - Meitner be traced back to the ideas of Jerome gambit?

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