Jerome Gambit: The Return of Cliff Hardy (Part 1)

Regular Readers of this blog are probably familiar with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) adventures of private eye "Cliff Hardy".

If not, do a quick check with the "search this blog" function and enjoy a selection of his games that have graced these posts.

I want to share Cliff's latest Jerome, with his notes - and with a few of my own comments (in blue), as well as diagrams.  

I just finished playing a GM in an online Jerome Gambit game. It was an interesting experience because it was being streamed live on Twitch by the grandmaster and so at least 80 spectators were watching the game live. I am often playing bullet games online but this was a ten minute each game so a lot of time to think about the moves. 

My opponent was German GM Martin Kraemer. Since the handle he was playing under was DrawDenied_Twitch, I could already presume that offering him any draw offers during the game would likely be a waste of time! Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything he said in the stream because he was doing it in German and 'kindergarten' is about the only German word I understand.

The Database contains well over 500 of Cliff's games, so he was quite familiar with the opening and the play that develops - this experience is one of those "trade offs" (the effect of relevant knowledge on time usage during a game) mentioned in the previous post  - Rick. 

Cliff Hardy (2478) - GM Martin Kraemer (2895)

10 0 rapid, Lichess, 2023

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+

The thing that really impressed me this game (about the GM but also about the Jerome Gambit 😉) was the incredible respect that my opponent gave to the opening by spending a lot of time on some of his early moves. He took my bishop on f7 on move 4 almost immediately but started to spend lots of time here.

5...Nxe5

Played after 1 minute and 33 seconds thought.

6.Qh5+ Ke6!?

Played after 2 minutes and 27 seconds thought. Regular Jerome Gambit blog readers may well be aware that this is indeed Stockfish's favoured move in this position but is clearly a brave decision for Black to make to bring his king out into the centre of the board.

7.Qf5+

Clock times remaining: me - 9:46; GM - 5:55

7...Kd6 8.f4 

Instead, 8.d4 was seen in Cliff Hardy - NN, 3 0 blitz, FICS, 2016 (1-0, 37) as reported in "Jerome Gambit: You Gotta Believe". The move is as old as Tonetti - Ruggeri, Rome, 1863 (1-0, 23) and appeared in Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's analysis in the January 1875 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal - Rick

8...Qf6 

Of note:

8...Ne7 appeared in Cliff Hardy (blindfolded) - NN, 10 0, lichess.org, 2018 (1-0, 13) - see "Jerome Gambit: Another Cliff Hardy Blindfold game"; and

8...Nd3+ was seen in Cliff Hardy - NN, 1 0 bullet, Lichess, 2019 (1-0, 13) - see "Jerome Gambit: Too Clever" - Rick

9.fxe5+ Qxe5 10.Qf3 Nf6 11.d3 Ke7 -++

Stockfish slightly prefers 11...Kc6 -++

Cliff had already encountered 11...Kc6 a few years ago, in Cliff Hardy - NN, 1 0 bullet, Lichess, 2019 (1-0, 64), as seen in "Jerome Gambit: Merry Christmas!". His comments - 

This game intrigued me as Black was unusual in being able to find the excellent 11...Kc6! move in this variation. Unfortunately, he was forced soon after that to become really generous this Christmas, as the presents began to be handed out......

12.Nc3 d6 13.Bf4 Qh5 

The GM spent spent 2 minutes and 37 seconds on that move. With the remaining clock times now down to 5:39 (me) and 1:38 (him), I clearly had a big time advantage. But since this GM's Lichess bullet rating at the time of our game was precisely 3000, I realised that the value of my time superiority was quite limited!

[to be continued]