Jerome Gambit: Updating Early Secrets (Part 1)

A few years ago, in the post "Jerome Gambit: Shhhh! It's A Secret", I wrote

About 3 years ago [2018] I started a series of occasional posts presenting "Jerome Gambit Secrets" - moves or lines of play that were good [for Black or for White], but were overlooked or rarely played.

To date, I have presented 15 of them. [Currently 17]

Dan Middlemiss - who continues to gift me with Jerome Gambit games - recently was amused that one of the secrets remains secret, even to this day.

I did a quick check of some of the earlier secrets.

"Jerome Gambit Secrets #1" remains unplayed.

"Jerome Gambit Secrets #2" remains unplayed

"Jerome Gambit Secrets #3" remains unplayed. (This is the one that has eluded both me and Dan.)

It is time to update those "Secrets", each of which has now been played.

Secret #1 was a caution to the player of the White pieces in a variation of the Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qxe5 Bf8

White should not take the Rook at h8.

You might remember that the iconic game Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884 (0-1, 14) resulted in a sacrificial attack leading to a crushing win for Black. You might also remember that further analysis indicated that White could have escaped with at least a draw.

This position is different.

Capture at your own risk: 9.Qxh8 Bg7 10.Qh7 Nf6 and the Queen is lost.

The one game in The Database with 9.Qxh8 was better for Black, up until he fell victim of tactics late in the game.

Secret #2 was a similar caution to the player of the White pieces,also in a variation of the Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.0–0 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Qxe5 Bf8 

White should not take the Rook at h8, for similar reasons to Secret #1: the Queen can be trapped and won, i.e. 9.Qxh8 Bg7 10.Qh7 Nf6.

It is true that there are 8 games in The Database, with White scoring 4 - 4, but that is misleading.

Secret #3 focused on more creativity by the player with the Black pieces: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 6.Nxc6 Qh4

This is a wild position that favors White, although the complications are reflected in the 8 games in The Database (White scores 4 - 4), and the 12 games in lichess.org, (White scores 5 - 5).