Jerome Gambit: Messing

Messing. Messing with. Messing up.

The following Jerome Gambit game shows White making moves designed to elicit certain responses. Perhaps you should not mess with Stockfish 15 that way - but a human, why not?

Black_Clover13 - goniec-64

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Ke7 

The Jerome Gambit Declined. Sometimes a defender will play this move to avoid the oncoming sacrificial onslaught. Sometimes he will try to out-psych the attacker with a You want me to take the piece? Then I won't challenge.

Declining the gambit takes some of the fun out of the game, at the cost of yielding White the advantage.

5.Nxe5 

Retreating the Bishop is safe and solid. Instead, White wants to keep things complicated.

The move offers Black an apparent way out.

5...Nxe5 6.Bxg8 Rxg8 

There you go. Black has a piece for two pawns, he leads in development, and he is prepared to play ...g5 with a pawn storm on White's King.

Only one problem: White is winning. (Stockfish 15 says he is better by a Rook.)

7.d4 

Oh. The threat of Bg5+ wins a piece.

7...Kf8 8. dxc5 d5 9. exd5 Qf6 

Black fights on. In a 3-minute blitz game, this attitude can sometimes prevail, despite "objective" circumstances.

Not this time.

10.O-O Bg4 11.f3 Bh5 12.Nc3 Re8 

13.Ne4 Qf5 14.b3 

Calmly developing. With his Rook on the same file as Black's Queen and King, he can afford to be calm in the face of the coming attack.

14...g5 15.Bb2 g4 

Trying to be scary. In 3-minute games, this often is enough.

16.fxg4 Bxg4 17.Rxf5+ Bxf5 18.Qf1 Black resigned