The Jerome Gambit: Jerome Gambit: For the Defense

Friday, March 22, 2024

Jerome Gambit: For the Defense

Playing in a Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) tournament means that I have to face the opening, as well as play it.

The Database shows that I have played 484 Jerome Gambit games.

Happily, in the 446 games where I had White, I scored 82%.

Showing that knowledge of a line means something, in the 38 games where I had Black, I scored 93%.

To introduce the following game I can borrow from the TV show "The Naked City"

There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.

carzair - perrypawnpusher

Jerome Classic #1, Chess.com, 2024

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

4...Kxf7 5.O-O Nf6 6.c3

The position could also be reached by the move order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.0-0.

Of course, White can choose other moves, illustrated in some of my games:

6.d3 in Capt.Mandrake - perrypawnpusher, JG3 thematic, Chessworld.net, 2008 (0-1, 8);

6.Nc3 in leobrazer - perrypawnpusher, blitz, FICS, 2009 (0-1, 48);

6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Nc6 in perrypawnpusher - Freddy1201, Play The Italian Game III, Chess.com 2023 (0-1, 23) and perrypawnpusher - vityas81, Chess.com, 2023 (1-0, 16);

6.Ng5+ in Kavakava - perrypawnpusher, blitz, FICS, 2008 (0-1, 41) and ecimsa - perrypawnpusher, blitz, FICS, 2009 (0-1, 32).

6...Re8

Or 6...Rf8 in Philidor1792 - perrypawnpusher, Chess.com, 2015 (1-0, 36)

7.d4 exd4 8.cxd4 Bb6

The position has taken on a bit of a "hypermodern" aura, with White having a pawn center unopponsed by enemy pawns, but strongly pressured by Black's pieces.

This is well-presented in a post by KeSetoKaiba (his YouTube site,) at Chess.com in 2020

Romantic chess is an approach that chess is an art-form and a medium to be creative. It is better to play a creative attacking line that is slightly unsound if you get an interesting game or elegant position. Naturally, this is almost opposite to computer-like chess play of today's era. Romantic chess usually involves opening gambits/traps, sacrifices (may or may not be perfectly sound moves), and creative deflections and mating nets. Perhaps the most iconic "romantic" opening is the famous King's Gambit, but other openings have also been called romantic in nature: The Tarrasch Defense against 1.d4 (Kasparov played this opening a lot in his youth) and the Blackburn Shilling Gambit are prime examples of the type of play this play-style characterizes...
Many openings play what is coined “hypermodern” theory. This type of opening is characterized by one side (usually Black) allowing the opponent to build a center, so that they may have a target to attack by undermining the central stronghold. Probably the opening I think of most when I hear “hypermodern” is the theory-heavy Grunfeld Defense. The aggressive King’s Indian Defense and Dutch Defense also follows the same motif in many lines because White usually gets the central control and Black thematically goes for the …f5 pawn break to undermine the center. Naturally, these hypermodern openings are always sharp and risky – but it is an interesting way to approach chess in contrast to the “control the center [early in the opening especially]” opening principle that chess beginners are taught to follow.

9.Qb3+

Instead, phillychampion has played 9.e5 here in a number of games on lichess.org.

9...d5 10.exd5 Qxd5 11.Qxd5+ Nxd5