Saturday, June 4, 2022

The Jerome-Botez Gambit



Let me be clear from the start: twitch streamer Women's FIDE Master Alexandra Botez could defeat me in a chess game while skateboarding around the board, juggling flaming torches, and singing songs by Gordon Lightfoot.

She has been a decent sport about the creation of "the Botez Gambit". According to a "Chess Terms" post on Chess.com

The Botez Gambit is a chess meme evoked when someone playing chess accidentally blunders their queen. Despite being called a "gambit," the loss of the queen comes with no compensation and is not intentional...

The term "Botez Gambit" was created by viewers of the BotezLive channel. They came up with the meme after WFM Alexandra Botez, the channel's founder, repeatedly blundered her queen across multiple streams...

With the sisters' colossal success and viewership, the meme spilled over to other Twitch channels. Prominently featured in all major amateur online tournaments like PogChamps, the meme has taken off and become part of chess streamers' vernacular...

Even grandmasters are not immune to an occasional Botez Gambit. Below you can see a video of a time-troubled GM Alexander Zubov blundering his queen during a Titled Tuesday event. 

Grandmaster Simon Williams recently offered a Botez Gambit to Alexandra, herself. Check out this video

It should come as no surprise that someone (in the AnarchyChess subReddit, of course) has identified the "Jerome-Botez Gambit": 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qf3+.

Ouch.

And, yes, The Database has an example of the Jerome-Botez. A win by White.

I have not played the Jerome-Botez Gambit, but it is pretty easy to find a few examples of a few Botez Gambits within my Jeromes - say 1, 2, & 3. SMH.



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