Abrahams Jerome Gambit Games

I recently visited the Russian language web page of Khafiz Shakhmamedov which had several of his chess games with the Abrahams Jerome Gambit, otherwise known as the Polerio Gambit, or what Yury V. Bukayev has suggest might be called the Polerio Knightless Jerome Gambit. 

Whatever you call it, the games are enjoyable to play over.

Shakhmamedov, Khafiz - NN

Mail.ru, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5

Or 2... h6 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ Ke6 5.Qf5+ Kd6 6.d4 Qf6? 7.dxe5+ Qxe5 8.Bf4 Black resigned, Shakhmamedov - NN, Mail.ru, 2021. 

3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ Ke6 

Or 4...g6 5.Qxe5 d6? 6.Qxh8 Qh4 7.d4 Qxe4+ 8.Ne2 Qxg2 9.Qxh7+ Kf8 10.Rg1 Black resigned, Shakhmamedov - NN, Mail.ru, 2022. 

Instead, Stockfish 15 recommends 4...Kf8 5.Qxe5 d6 6.Qg3 Nf6 7.d3 Nc6 and Black is better.

5.Qf5+ Kd6 6.Nf3 

Or 6.Nc3 a6 7.d3 Nh6 8.Bxh6 gxh6 9.O-O-O Nc6 10.Nf3 Ke7 11.Nxe5 d6 12.Nd5+ Ke8 13.Qf7 checkmate, Shakhmamedov - NN, Mail.ru 2021.

 6...Qf6 

The position is about equal.

7.Qh3 

White does not want to exchange Queens, but he would have done better to allow it with 7.d4. 

7...Qe6 8.Qg3 g6 

Black protects his g-pawn, but overlooks the pin on his e-pawn - which would have suggested he could keep things balanced with 8...Nc6.

9.d4 

Grabbing the advantage.

9...Bb4+ 10.c3 Ba5 11.b4 Bb6 12.d5 Qe8 

13.Nbd2 

Black's game is seriously constricted, and 13.Bg5 would have tied him up further.

13...Nf6 14.Ba3 

Setting up a discovered check. Stockfish suggests the squeeze 14.a4.

14...Nh5 

Missing his chance to have his King bail out with 14...Ke7.

15.b5+ c5 16.bxc6+ Kc7 17.d6+ Kxc6 18.Nxe5+ Kb5 

Black needed to give his Queen up in order to avoid the upcoming checkmate. How much longer he would survive after that, however, is debatable.

19.Qd3+ Ka5 20.Nb3+ Ka4 21.Qc4+ Kxa3 22.Qb4+ Kb2 23.Nc4+ Kc2 24.Na3+ Kb2 25.Rb1+ Kxa2 26.Nc1 checkmate