The Mingrelia Defence: The Jerome Gambit Contravened

I was sorting games to add to The Database when I ran across a surprising number - anything more than 1 or 2 would have surprised me - of games that started 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Qf6.

Wow, I thought to myself, Even if this idea is rather primative, what a very effective way to avoid the Jerome Gambit!*

How odd to discover that there are 316,288 games at lichess.org which start this way. (For the record, there are only 207,306 Jerome Gambits there with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+.) 

Researching a bit, I found the game 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Qf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.O-O Qg6 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 d6 8.Nd5 Kd8 9.f3 Bh3 10.Nxc6+ bxc6 11.Nf4 Qf6 12.Nxh3 Black resigned. Not surprisingly, it was from George Koltanowski's blindfold exhibition (10 games) given in Edinburgh in 1937. An amateur tries to fool the blindfold player.

With a little more work I found on CHESS MARGINALIA, from Wilhelm Steinitz’ chess column in New York Daily Tribune, June 18, 1893: A. de Smitten – The Prince of Mingrelia, Russia 1893 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Qf6 4.Nc3 Nge7 5.d3 h6 6.Nb5 Kd8 7.Be3 a6 8.Nc3 g5 9.Qd2 Bg7 10.0-0-0 g4 11.Ng1 Nd4 12.Re1 b5 13.Bb3 Rf8 14.Nce2 Qb6 15.Bxd4 exd4 16.f4 a5 17.a4 bxa4 18.Bxa4 Rb8 19.b3 c5 20.Ng3 Ba6 21.Qf2 Qb4 22.e5 Nd5 23.Nh5 Nc3 24.Qh4+ Kc7 25.Nxg7 Nxa4 26.Ne2 Qa3+27.Kd2 Rxb3 28.Nc1 Rxd3+ 29.Nxd3 Qc3+ 30.Ke2 Qxc2+ 31.Kf1 Bxd3+ 32.Kg1 Be4 33.Qg3 Nc3 White Resigned

The Prince of Mingrelia? Fortunately, Sarah's Chess Journal had him covered.

I suspected that this was not the earliest game available, and soon ran across, from The Westminster Papers, June 1871: Joseph H. Blackburne - J.A. Manning, City of London Chess Club, Blindfold Exhibition, London, May 2, 1871, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Qf6 4.0—0 d6 5.Nc3 Be6 6.Nd5 Bxd5 7.exd5 Na5 8.d3 h6 9.Bd2 Nxc4 10.dxc4 Qd8 11.Re1 Be7 12.Bc3 Nf6 13.h3 0—0 14.Nh2 Qd7 15.Ng4 Qf5 16.Nxf6+ Bxf6 17.Qd3 Qg6 18.Qxg6 fxg6 19.Re2 g5 20.b4 Rad8 21.a4 e4 White wins.

Since 1871 pre-dated the "birth" of the Jerome Gambit  - Alonzo Wheeler Jerome published his analysis in the Dubuque Chess Journal of April, 1874 - I decided to stop my research..

Had I ever faced the Mingrelia Defence myself? I had to check...

Oh, dear, I had. It hadn't made the posts of this blog because it wasn't a Jerome Gambit.

perrypawnpusher - hgamez 

2 12 blitz, FICS, 2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Qf6

4.O-O Bc5

Now that Bxf7+ has been defended against, Black can continue with this move.

5.Nc3 Nge7 6.Nd5 Nxd5 7.exd5 Na5 

8.Nxe5

A cheap shot. Stockfish 15 recommends 8.d4!? maintaining White's advantage.

8...Qxe5

It was blitz. What can I say?

9.Re1 Bxf2+

To shake things up.

10.Kxf2 Nxc4 11.Rxe5+ Nxe5 12.Qe2 d6 13.d4 

13...Bg4 14.Qe4 f5 15.Qe1 O-O-O 16.dxe5 Rde8 17.e6 

17...c6 18.c4 c5 19.Bf4 Kc7  20.Qa5+ b6 21.Qxa7+ Kd8 22.Qd7 checkmate

Okay, so maybe Black should let go of 3...Qf6 and allow the Jerome Gambit, after all. 

Still, it was interesting to see that Grandmaster Timur Gareyev (2605) played and won with 3...Qf6 at the 10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster tournament in 2018... 

*- It hurts my head to report that lichess.org has 712 games with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Qf6 and then 4.Bxf7+ anyway.