The Jerome Gambit: Jerome Gambit: Win - Lose

angelcamina, a longtime Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) player who specializes in 1-minute bullet games sent me the following game with the notation "Win - Lose - Win".

A player's fortune can vary widely across those 60 seconds of chess battle, although I think you will agree when you play over the following game that White had things under control, wherever it went.

The checkmate at the end was serious Win.

angelcamina - Maverikk

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2023

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Bxf2+

Maverikk tries to surprise his opponent. Unfortunately for him, angelcamina has faced the line before.

From a post earlier this year, "Jerome Gambit: It's the Check that Counts"

I recently (in "Jerome Gambit: Gift Horses") mentioned the "Counter-Jerome Defense" or the "Counter-Jerome Gambit" as a strategy that defenders might use...

The idea is to follow up 8.Kxf2 with 8...Qf6+ and exchange of Queens. In effect Black returns a sacrificed piece to stifle White's brutal attack and force him to play an (allegedly) painful pawn-up game.

8.Kxf2 Qf6+ 9.Qxf6+ Kxf6

According to The Database this variation is less common than 9...Nxf6.

From a practical point of view, in 28 games 9...Kxf6 scores 66% for White, which is somewhat more favorable than White scoring 75% in the 235 games with 9...Nxf6.

However, Stockfish 15.1 scoffs at this preference, evaluating the Knight capture as being about 2 pawns better than the King capture. Apparently the more active placement of His Majesty in the endgame / Queenless middlegame is outweighed by the danger he faces.

Two of angelcamina's games: 9...Nxf6 10.d3 (10.Nc3 Kg7 11.Rf1 d6 12.Kg1 Be6 13.d4 Bc4 14.Bh6+ Kxh6 15.Rxf6 Rhe8 16.b3 White won on time, angelcamina - jonas99, 1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2021) 10...d6 11.Rf1 Kg7 12.b3 Bg4 13.Bb2 Rhf8 14.Kg3 Bd7 15.Nd2 Kg8 16.Rxf6 Rxf6 17.Bxf6 Rf8 18.Bd4 c5 19.Bc3 b5 20.Rf1 Re8 21.Ba5 b4 22.Bc7 Re6 23.Nc4 Bb5 24.Nxd6 a6 25.Nxb5 axb5 26.e5 c4 27.dxc4 bxc4 28.bxc4 Rc6 29.Bd6 Rxc4 30.Rf2 Rc3+ 31.Kf4 Rc4+ 32.Ke3 White won on time, angelcamina - ShadowKnight314, 1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2020)

10.Rf1 Kg7

Loss of time for safety sake.

11.b3 d6 12.Bb2+ Nf6

White is clearly better. His next move - bypassing the safer castling-by-hand - shows his comfort with the position.

13.Ke3 Rf8 14.Nc3 Be6 15.d4 c6 16.Rae1 Rf7 17.e5

The other center pawn was also ready to advance.

17...dxe5 18.dxe5 Nd5+

Missing the off ramp. Instead, 18...Ng4+ would have served him better - 19.Ke2 Rxf1 20.Rxf1 Nxh2 21.Rh1 Ng4 22.Ne4 and the game would have evened out.

19.Nxd5 Bxd5