Jerome Gambit: You Lose Some, You Win One (Part 3)

 

[continued from the previous post]

perrypawpusher - xyz7

"Giuoco Piano Game" tournament, Chess.com, 2023

27.Re1 

Taking the e-file. My opponent decided not to contest this immediately (27... Bd7 28.Nd1 Bxf5 29.c4 Re8) but did so a few moves later.

27...Rd8 28.h3 Bd7 29.g4 Re8 30.Rxe8 Bxe8 

I was comfortable with the position, although it seemed likely that the advanced d-pawn would fall. Surely, the remaining "Jerome pawns" would deliver at least a draw.

31.Kf2 Kd6 32.Ke3 Nxd5+ 33.Nxd5 Kxd5 34.b3 b5 35.c3 a4 

36.Kd3 b4 37.c4+ Kd6 38.Ke4 

It is educational to see that Stockfish 15.1 evaluates this as a big mistake. It takes a few steps to see why.

First, Black can move his a-pawn closer to the Queening square with 38...a3. The pawn's threat to advance changes how the play goes. 

Then, after 39.Kd3 Ba4 of course the Bishop can not be taken, but 40.Kc2 Bc6 shows another theme, that of the Bishop infiltrating White's position.

There is a stop in 41.d5, but after 41...Be8 42.Kd2 Ke5 43.Kd3 Bd7 44.Kd2 h5 45.Kd3 h4 the other Rook pawn is placed to be freed by a Bishop sacrifice.

Black will play ...Be8 and ...g6 and open a line to take the Bishop behind the White pawns, which will have then changed from walls that stop it to targets that it can conquer. 

At the time, however, I was unaware of any of this, being in a state which my dad used to call "fat, dumb, and happy"...

38...Bf7 39.d5 axb3 

White's King has advanced enough that he will be able to escort a pawn to a promotion. Things are still very complicated - and over my head at the time - but the Bishop-behind-enemy-lines theme no longer works for Black.

40.axb3 Kc5

At this point things looked good for me.

41.Ke5 Bg8 42.f6 

Unaware that I was throwing it all away.

The win was with 42.h4 Bf7 43.g5 h5 44.g6 Be8 45.f6 Bxg6 46.fxg7 Bf7 47.Kf6 Bg8 48. Ke7 Kd4 (What else?) 49.d6 Kc3 50.c5 Bxb3 51.c6 Bg8 52.c7 b3 53.d7 b2 54.c8/Q+ and the check makes all the difference.

42...g6 

After the game I was horrified to see that if the pawn had taken one step further, the game would likely have been drawn: 42...g5 43.f7 Bxf7 44.Kf6 Bxd5 45.cxd5 Kxd5 46.Kg7 Kd4 47.Kxh6 Kc3 48.Kxg5 Kxb3 49.Kh6 Kc3 50.g5 b3 51.g6 b2 52.g7 b1=Q 53.g8=Q and White's extra pawn means nothing. 

43.f7 Bxf7 44.Kf6 Be8 45.Ke7 Ba4 46.d6

One finish might be 46...Bxb3 47.d7 Bxc4 48.d8/Q b3 49.Qd2 and the passer would be stopped.

Black resigned