Jerome Gambit to the Rescue

I recently returned to playing blitz at the online FICS site. 

Longtime readers of this blog will remember that the early Jerome Gambit games of mine that were posted here were almost all blitz games played at FICS.

In the last few years I have moved to playing more correspondence style games at Chess.com, with time controls of two or three days per move (though I usually moved faster).

In any event, my return games were quite bad. There's no other way to describe them. Tactical oversights. Strategic blunders. Losing "won" games.

There was only one thing left to do: trot out the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+)!

A dozen moves later, I felt a whole lot better.

perrypawnpusher - stevebrown

3 5 blitz, FICS, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 

The Semi-Italian Opening.

4.O-O Bc5 5.Bxf7+ 

The Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit upsets whatever sense of safety Black had due to his 3...h6.

According to The Database I have played this line 60 times with White, scoring 88%.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.Qh5+ Ke6 

I have previously faced 7...Kf6, 7...Kf8, 7...Ng6 and 7...g6.

8.Qf5+ Kd6 9.d4 

Confident, but brash, following the suggestion Play'em like you got 'em. This move previously scored 10 - 2 - 2 for me.

9...Bxd4 10.Rd1 Qf6 11.Rxd4+ 

Scary, but it is not clear how White continues with success now after 11...Ke7.

11...Kc5 

A slip playing at blitz time control.

12.Rd5+ Black resigned

Black will lose his Knight at e5, giving White a material edge.

After the game I took a long look at the alternative 12.Qh3!?, which also would have been strong. Black would be checkmated if he took the Rook at d4 - 12...Kxd4 13.Qe3+ Kc4 14.Na3+ Kb4 15.Qc3+ Ka4 16.b3#.

Curiously, Black's strongest move after 12.Qh3!? is 12...Nf3+, but after 13.gxf3 he can still not touch the Rook, as 13...Kxd4 is solidly answered by 14.Qg3 (14.Be3+ is fine, too) which foreshadows Qg2 followed by Qf1, with Her Majesty joining the Kinghunt on the Queenside! 

Stockfish 15 prefers 12.Qh3!? Nf3+13.gxf3 Qg6+, but admits that after 14.Kh1 Kxd4 (one last try) 15.Nc3 d5 16.Qh4 Ke5 17.Nxd5 Nf6 18.Nxc7 White has ample compensation for his sacrificed Rook.

Seriously 19th century chess play!