Jerome Gambit: Blitz And A Matter of Trade-Off

In chess played at blitz time control, your goal is not only to beat your opponent, it is to beat the clock. It does you no good to have the better position as you watch your flag fall. 

There is a balance between moving quickly (beat the clock!) and making good-move-after-good-move (beat the opponent!). Spending time on one can cost you with the other.

pablosko - austinwheeler03

3 0 blitz, lichess,org, 2023

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 d6 

Not the most common way for Black to return one of the sacrificed pieces in the Jerome Gambit. In fact, I neglected to mention it in "Jerome Gambit for Dummies 2.0 (Part 6)".

Still it does the job, and in a 3-minute blitz game it is a move that can be selected quickly.

The Database has 86 games. White scores 55%.

7.dxe5 

It was probably stronger to grab the Bishop with 7.dxc5. 

7...Qh4 8.O-O 

This position could also have been reached via the move order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 Qh4 7.0-0 d6 8.dxe5, as was the case in the game Barnett - Gingras, Vermont, 1899 (0-1, 32) - which was obviously so interesting that I appear to have covered it twice: "Jerome Gambit: More Research" and "Jerome Gambit: Too Hazardous". (Ooops)

8...Bg4 

Taking advantage of the pin on White's f-pawn to add an attack on the Queen.

Instead, the weaker 8...dxe5 would have transposed to Kurtenkov - Carlos100S, 3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020 (1-0, 42) - see "Jerome Gambit: Believe in Me".

9.Qd2 dxe5  

Preparing to bring his Rook to d8 to further distress the Queen - but Her Majesty moves first.

(I can't imagine that I would have found the move for Black that Stockfish 15 suggests - retreating the Bishop to e6.)

10.Qd5+ Kg6 11.Qxc5 Bf3 

Going for broke. Nothing comes of it, however. 

12.gxf3 Nf6 13.Qxe5 Black resigned

Any dynamic move by Black would run into 14.Qg3+ Qxg3 15.hxg3 and the second player would be a piece and two pawns down, without benefit of his Queen.