Jerome Gambit: Festina Lente

 Festina Lente. Make haste, slowly.

In the following game, first Black, then White, seems to turn placid in choice of moves. In gambit play, this can frustrate an attack, or work against a defense.

In the following game, it leads to a forced series of exchanges and the explosiveness of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is defused.

selim_han - Sharonluver

10 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.Nc3 a6 

At first glance it seems odd that Black would "waste" a move like this in the middle of defending against an attack, but the move does prevent Nb5+, and even provides a place of safety for his King, if need be, at a7.

Of the 23 games in The Database with this position, Black has won 15.

9.O-O  

Apparently White is not in a hurry, either. He might have tried the more challnging 9.f4 instead.

 9...Nh6 10.Qf4 

The first player leaves himself open to a series of exchanges that dissolve his attack and provide the defender with a strong endgame.

10...Rf8

At this point White left the game, which is tandamount to resigning.

There are many possible explanations - including intrusion by the outside-the-game "real world" - but perhaps he looked at this likely line of  play, and decided he could better spend his energies elsewhere: 11.Qg3 Rxf2 12.Rxf2 Nhg4 13.Nd1 Qf6 14.b3 (or 14.d3) Nxf2 15.Nxf2 Qxf2+ 16.Qxf2 Nxf2 17.Kxf2 Ke6 and Black's extra piece outweighs White's extra pawn.