Jerome Gambit: The Game Is Afoot, Again! (Part 2)

                                              

Although I remained skeptical that Paul Morphy ever played the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) - see the previous post - this blog has been around for over 15 years, and I think someone might have mentioned it by now - I decided to do a litte digging.

 My first visit was to the website THE FULL MORPHY, which, among other things

contains all of Morphy's surviving 415 games - 253 regular games, 156 odds games, and 6 game positions 

There were no Jerome Gambit games.

I then looked for Morphy games with Black's King on its home square and White's Bishop on f7, checking, unsupported by White's Queen on b3.

Discarding King's Gambit and Evans Gambit games, I found Morphy defending against The Sarratt or Vitzthum Attack (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Ng5 Nh6 6.Nxf7 Nxf7 7.Bxf7+) in two games: Meek - Morphy, Mobile, 1855 (0-1, 21) and Kennicott - Morphy, New York, 1857 (0-1, 24).

Pushing on, I visited Chessgames.com and checked out the Morphy page. It had 457 games. There was no Jerome Gambit game, however.

I even checked with chess history-wise and Morphy-knowledgeable Sarah Beth Cohen, who was not aware of any Morphy Jerome Gambits, either.

I was beginning to suspect that the report of Morphy playing the Jerome Gambit was simply an oversight. Perhaps the author mis-remembered the Jerome for the Evans - Morphy played or defended against the Evans Gambit in 50 games.

End of excitement.