Jerome Gambit: A Cat May Look At A King

At bullet speed, the Jerome Gambit can cause many problems for defenders. It is not enough for them to know that the Jerome is "refuted" - they have to have some ideas about how to put that assessment into practice. 

In the following game, CATCHESS11 has some ideas, but not all of them prove fruitful.

angelcamina - CATCHESS11

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ 

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Bb4

Being new to the Jerome Gambit (apparently), Black quickly (it is a 1-minute game) establishes a line of play that looks reasonable.

To his misfortune, The Database indicates that angelcamina has had this position 27 times, and has scored 72%.

Best, keeping a slight edge for Black, would have been 7...Bxd4 8.Qxd4 Nc6.

8.dxe5 Nxe4 

This is the idea: the White Knight on c3 that is "protecting" the e4 pawn is now pinned.

Because of White's response, however, it will become clear that the retreat, 8...Ne8 is necessary. 

9.Qd5+ Kf8 10.Qxe4 Qe7 

White has an extra pawn, and the advantage.

11.O-O Bxc3 12.bxc3 d6 13.f4 Bd7 14.Ba3 Bc6 15.Qe3 Re8 

16.Rad1 

"Wrong Rook" carps Stockfish 16.1, which prefers 16.Rae1. Nonetheless, after the text, White is still better.

16...g6 17.Qg3 Kg7 18.c4 Rhf8 19.Bb2 Kg8 20.f5 

Here Black either resigned or lost on time - my guess is the latter.

The "Jerome pawns" are impressive, leading the attack.