Nobody expects the Jerome Gambit! (Part 2)

 [This is the continuation of an article from the "Unorthodox Openings Newsletter" (UON-21, May - August 2008), mentioned in an earlier blog post.]

I was shocked to find that in 17 games [a 13-player, double-round robin thematic tournament at www.chessworld.net – starring the Jerome Gambit] Black did not capture the Bishop [after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+], preferring instead 4…Kf8?! or 4…Ke7?. (I have not seen this idea in classical Jerome Gambit games or analysis, only fairly recently.) The only explanation that I can think of is that the second player reasoned that “If he wants me to take the Bishop, then I won’t!” Sometimes this is a good strategy, but not now.

In the case of 4…Kf8, the simplest idea is for White to withdraw the Bishop to a safe place (e.g. 5.Bb3), remaining a pawn up with Black‟s King unable to castle. Instead, 5 times White left the Bishop to be captured later – and this decision accounted for three losses, despite the fact that Black, in taking two moves to capture the piece instead of one, was playing the Jerome Gambit a tempo down. In all, the 4…Kf8 line scored 9-3 for White.

The move 4…Ke7 falls to 5.Bxg8 Rxg8 6.d4 TN, using the threatened x-ray attack (7.Bg5+) on the Black King and Queen to win the Bishop at c5, as shown in drewbear – AAlekhine. White's stratagem was found only in that game, however; over all, after 4…Ke7, White scored 4-1. 

drewbear – AAlekhine 

(not to be confused with the former world champion - editor) 

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Ke7 5.Bxg8 Rxg8 6.d4 h6 7.dxc5 d6 8.cxd6+ cxd6 9.h3 Kd7 10.a3 Kc7 11.b4 Rf8 12.b5 Na5 13.Qd2 Kb8 14.Bb2 Nc4 15.Qc3 Nxb2 16.Qxb2 Qa5+ 17.Nc3 Bd7 18.0–0 a6 19.bxa6 Rxa6 20.Rab1 b6 21.Nd5 Bb5 22.Rfc1 Ka7 23.Nc7 g5 24.Nxb5+ Kb8 25.Nxd6 Qc5 26.Qxe5 Qxe5 27.Nxe5 Rh8 28.Ndc4 b5 29.Rxb5+ Kc7 30.Rd1 h5 31.Rd7+ Kc8 32.Nb6+ Kb8 33.Nc6# 

5.Nxe5+ “[with Ne5] I believe White is taking a big gamble.... and that "The Jerome Gamble" may be a more appropriate name. If there is any soundness to be found in the Jerome, then I believe it involves replacing 5. Nxe5+ with a different move.” - Gary Gifford (UON 17)

In almost 2/3 of the games in the Jerome Gambit Tournament, the players agreed with Gifford‟s opinion, avoiding the capture 5.Nxe5+ 102 times, scoring 31wins, 68 losses and 3 draws. Instead of sacrificing further, White focused upon development and a hope to eventually out-playing his opponent.

The downside of this modern idea for White – the oldest games in my database without 5.Nxe5+ are only 10 years old – is that Black's King was safer than in the classical lines, and it had the opportunity to “castle by hand” with …Kg8 after …Re8 or ...Rf8.

The most popular alternative was 5.d3 (56 games, scoring 34%), followed by 5.0-0 (21 games, scoring 37%), 5.c3 (14 games, scoring 21%), 5.Nc3 (6 games, scoring 17%), 5.d4 (3 games, scoring 33%), 5.Ng5+ ? (1 game, scoring 0%) and 5.h4 (1 game, scoring 100%). It is clear that many of the lines can transpose into each other. It is not clear that they are markedly better than the classical move 5.Nxe5+.

[to be continued]