Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Jerome Gambit: No Hurry



My overall impression of the following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Bc5 3.Bc4 Nc6 4.Bxf7+) game is that White, after recovering his sacrificed material (with interest) was in no hurry, and played on calmly, scoring the win.

The irony is that the game was played at a 1-minute time control, and Black lost on time.


chess_hunter7 - Maick77

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2022


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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.f4 g6 

Always interesting. The move appears in 76 games in The Database, with White scoring 75%. This has to be the time control at work: Who has time to analyse deeply? Just kick the enemy Queen. After all, it is just the Jerome Gambit...

8.Qxe5+ Kf7 9.Qxh8 Qe7 

White is ahead the exhange and two pawns.

10.Qxh7+ Kf6 11.Qh8+ 

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts. With more time, he might have explored 11.e5+ Ke6 12.Qxg6+ etc. 

11...Kf7 12.Qh7+ Kf8 13.Qxe7+ Nxe7 


There is not a lot of danger to either Kings right now.

On the other hand, White can simply "make moves".

14.c3 d6 15.d4 Bb6 16.O-O Bd7 17.Be3 Kg7 18.Nd2 Rh8 19.Nc4 a5 20.Nxb6 cxb6 21.d5 b5 


The game is not very exciting, but from White's point of view, that is fine. (Speaking of "fine", I remember one of my earliest chess books, by Ruben Fine, Chess the Easy Way, and one of the lessons I learned - rightly or wrongly - from it was Win a pawn & Then exchange down to a won endgame.)

22.a4 b4 23.cxb4 axb4 24.b3 Nc8

A slip which would end the game under other circumstances. 

25.Bd4+ White won on time




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