Jerome Gambit: Assessment

When preparing to play a particular line of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) or assess a particular position, I usually consult (as is apparent to any regular Reader of this blog) a few sources.

First, I look at The Database, which is my 85,000+ game collection of Jerome and Jerome-ish examples.

Although it contains results of my historical research, the backbone of The Database is drawn from the online playing site FICS, from its beginning through March 2023. This makes it pretty representative of club play.

Of late, I have been adding games drawn from the online site lichess.org, which provides additional information. For example, their database currently has 581,944 games (!!) starting 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+, of which 48% are wins for White, 49% are wins for Black, and 3% are draws.

Then I can look at my own games (657 with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+, scoring 82%) and see how successful - or lucky - I have been in the relevant lines.

I also will consult a chess engine - currently Stockfish 15.1 - for its assessment. Of course, I cannot rely upon computer evaluation completely, as it would try mightily to dissuade me from playing the Jerome at all, evaluating the opening as about 3 3/4 pawns better for Black.