Jerome Gambit: Updating Early Secrets (Part 6)

 

As befitting a blog on an unusual opening such as the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), it looks like I unwittingly produced two different earlier posts containing different "Jerome Gambit Secret #16".

The first looks at a position that could have arisen from one of my games.

A position search in The Database turns up 16 games.

However, in 9 of them, it is White to move, while in 7 of them it is Black to move.

Even more baffling, in those 9 with White on the move, none of the first players found Qg5+, winning the Black Queen.

But, all is not lost. In 4 of the games, Black played a move that allowed White to still play Qg5+ and win the Queen. In 3 of those games, White did so, but the fourth ended with the note "0 - 1, cheat detected".

You can't make this stuff up.

The second "Jerome Gambit Secret #16" focused upon the following position, where White was hunting the Black King, but the defender was still, technically, better

Black played 10...Bxf2+ and after 11.Kxf2 Ng4+ White resigned.

Finally, "Jerome Gambit Secret #17": 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8 7.Qxe5 d5

The Database has only 5 games with this position, but White has scored only 20%.