Jerome Gambit: Still Waters Run Deep

Regular readers of this blog will know of Chris Torres, a chess coach in San Francisco.

This blog was a little over a year old when Chris referrred to Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1885 (0-1, 14) on his Chess Musings site as "The Most Violent Chess Game Ever Played!".

I later followed that post with "Another Lesson in the Jerome Gambit".

More recently I mentioned his "Special Coverage of the 2021 World Chess Championship".

Of course, Chris continues to have a presence in the physical world and on the internet.

I recently ran across a post on his site, dailychessmusings.com, referring to "A friendly game of chess"

To quote

Recently, I found myself playing a "friendly game" with a young player in the skittles room at the US Amateur Team West Chess Championship. I seized upon this opportunity to showcase the Jerome Gambit and enjoyed watching my opponent's eyes light up when I sacrificed two pieces within the first five moves! He, in turn, surprised me by initiating his own piece sacrifice with 7...Bxf2+. We played a lively game until my young opponent needed to run off to his next round. Unfortunately, I broke Rule 1 for friendly games by not remembering the name of my opponent. I had also promised this unnamed player the chance to analyze our game upon completion and to show him the best defenses to the Jerome Gambit. He seemed eager to accept my offer so I am hoping that he will read this post and I can fulfill that promise.

I hope that Chris has had contact with that young player. If not, perhaps today's blog post will help in that effort.

In the meantime, here is the game. It looks very much like a student vs coach game, in that there is often danger in what appears to be quiet positions.

Torres, Chris - Unknown

skittles, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 

7.Qxe5 Bxf2+ 

The Counter-Jerome Defense, recently mentioned in "Jerome Gambit: Humor vs Success".

8.Kxf2 Qh4+

9.g3 

Stockfish 15.1 recommends, instead 9.Qg3, although I can't get excited for White after 9...Qxg3 10.Kxg3!?, despite the computer's assessment of  about two pawns plus for White. 

Actually, Stockfish prefers to meet 9.Qg3 with 9...Qxe4 when 10.d3 leads to a similar assessment, although Black's activity can be annoying, e.g. 10...Qf5+ 11.Ke1 Nf6 12.Rf1 Re8+ 13.Be3 Qe5 14.Kd2 Qxg3 (14...Qxb2? 15.Nc3 Qb4 16.a3 Qe7 17.Nd5) 15.hxg3 d6.

9...Qf6+ 10.Qxf6+ Nxf6 

This is Black's idea: Queens off the board!

11.Rf1 Nxe4+

Evening up the material, but more risky than it appears.

12.Kg1+ Kg7 13.b3 

Initiating an attack along the long diagonal.

13...Rf8 14.Bb2+ Kg8 15.Rxf8+ Kxf8 16.d3 

16...Nd6 

While centralized, the Knight gets in the way of Black's development in a familiar way: blocking the d-pawn, which blocks the Bishop, which hems in the Rook.

Although it looks awkward, 16...Ng5 was probably better. 

17.Ba3 b6 18.Nc3 Bb7 

Black hurries to complete his piece development, but he always seems to be a step behind.

19.Nb5 Ke7 20.Nxc7 Rf8 21.Nb5 Rf6 22.Nxd6 Rxd6 23.Re1+ Kf6 24.Bxd6

At this point, the game was discontinued, but White is clearly winning, with an extra Rook and pawn.