A Chess Mystery (Part 2)

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, Yury V. Bukayev shared his thoughts

I have my first hypothesis on who has inspired A.W. Jerome to make his invention - the standard system of the Jerome gambit. According to this hypothesis, this person is H.A. Kennedy.

He looked at the likely spurious game Napoleon Bonaparte vs Henri Gatien Bertrand, St. Helena, 1820 (1-0, 18) and included in an email a second note from Chess Games

Calli: <Texas Time Traveler> "... game was never played between Napoleon and Bertrand, but rather between H.A. Kennedy and the Rev. John Owen." Kennedy published this game in a humorous article, "Life of Augustus Fitzsnob, Esq.", Chess Monthly, July 1860. [Also in Waifs and Strays: Chiefly from the Chess-board (1876) - RK] He probably did not expect his bit of fun to be taken so seriously. The Kennedy-Owen game was likely played in the 1857-1859 period. To reveal how game scores become corrupted, the game ended at move 13 where Kennedy wrote "And Napolean mates in five". Evidently, Kennedy was fond of his little game with Owen and having announced a mate in 5. None of the games assigned to Napoleon Bonaparte are authentic. [This is supported by Napoleon Bonaparte and Chess by Edward Winter - RK]

To review: H.A. Kennedy - Rev. John Owen, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 Nxd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.Bc4 Bc5 6.c3 Qe7 7.O-O Qe5 8.f4 dxc3+ 9.Kh1 cxb2 10.Bxf7+ Kd8 11fxe5 bxa1=Q 12.Bxg8 Be7 13.Qb3 a5 14.Rf8+ Bxf8 15.Bg5+ Be7 16.Bxe7+ Kxe7 17.Qf7+ Kd8 18.Qf8# 

As Yury speculated,

if these data are right, then it is important to understand, was Mr. Jerome able to be acquainted with this H.A.Kennedy's game in 1865? It would be very beautiful: " Mr. Jerome's work has inspired Mr. Kennedy (you), Mr. Kennedy's (his) work has inspired Mr. Jerome ". 

The facts suggest that it is possible: Alonzo Wheeler Jerome was born March 8, 1834; with the United States fighting its Civil War, Jerome was drafted into the Union army in September of 1863; he was mustered out of the army in August 1865. Jerome’s public life as a chess player apparently began when a game of his, a King’s Gambit, appeared in the March 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal. The next issue carried the “New Chess Opening” article about the Jerome Gambit.