Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Earlier Sources, Once More



Returning to Peter J. Monte's The Classical Era of Modern Chess (2014), searching for precursors of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) we have already seen that in the 1590s Giulio Cesare Polerio explored 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+

He also looked at White placing his Queen on e2, to be able to follow up on 4.Bxf7+ with a Queen check fork. For example 

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qe2 c6 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Qc4+;




1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qe2 Nf6 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Qc4+ d5 6.Qxc5 Nxe4 7.Qe3 Re8 8.Nf3 Nc6


and 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Qe2 Nf6 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 Qc4+ d5 7.Qxc5 Nxe4



It is disappointing to see that the main Jerome Gambit line - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ - doesn't show up in these very early sources. In part it seems that the Queen check at c4 (after Qe2) was where the analysts focused; I could only find one relevant Bishop's Opening line with Qh5+, and the move was labeled as wrong, with no further attention. 

No comments: