Jerome Gambit: Even Gambit Players Have to Play Endgames (Part 1)

A lot of my Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) games (win or lose) are over long before the endgame is reached.

Still, the Gambit player has to have some comfort with the endgame, for those times - like the following game - where the battle stretches on and on.

perrypawnpusher - accattone444

Jerome Gambit Classic #1, Chess.com, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 

Interestingly enough, this move was seen in accattone444 - perrypawnpusher, Jerome Gambit Classic #1, Chess.com, 2024 (0-1, 32). We will get to that game.

7.Qxe5 Qe7 

Whistler's defense. 

8.Qf4+ 

Taking the Rook is a bad idea. See Jerome - Norton, correspondence, 1876 (1/2 - 1/2, 20) and Jerome - Whistler, correspondence, 1877 (0-1, 15).

White also had 8.Qd5+, which I played in perrypawnpusher - moush54, Chess.com, 2021 (1-0, 23) and which was examined in analysis and three games by Yury V. Bukayev in 2023. See Yury V. Bukayev's "Anatoly Karpov & Jerome Gambit (Parts 7 & 8)" and "JG: The New in Its Opening Theory, in Its Psychology (Parts 15 & 16)

Stockfish 16.1, at 38 ply, sees only 8/100th of a pawn difference between 8.Qf4+ and 8.Qd5+.

8...Nf6 

This move protects the King, develops a piece - and is not as strong as it looks.

I have faced 8...Kg7 in perrypawnpusher - tmarkst, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 43); and 8...Qf6 in perrypawnpusher - Yaku, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1/2 - 1/2, 26);  perrypawnpusher - alvarzr, blitz, FICS, 2014 (1-0, 49); perrypawnpusher - Tacotopia, Chess.com, 2020 (1/2 - 1/2, 61); perrypawnpusher - MeisterBob, Chess.com, 2021 (1-0, 32); perrypawnpusher - IndeedPerhapsYes, Chess.com 2021 (1-0, 32); and perrypawnpusher - joro_videv, Giuoco Piano Game, Chess.com, 2022 (0-1, 34) 

9.e5 

This move looks premature, given White's uncastled King on the same file as Black's Queen (soon to be joined by his Rook), but after the game the computer identified it as the best in the position.

As I wrote in "Jerome Gambit: Routine Play is Not Enough"

The position is trickier than it looks at first glance. Probably best for Black at this point is 9...Re8, when 10.d4 Bxd4 11.Qxd4 Qxe5+ 12.Qxe5 Rxe5+ 13.Be3 Ng4 gives Black (who has given back a piece for a couple of pawns) an edge.

9...d6 

Attacking the advanced e-pawn.

9...Kg7 was seen in perrypawnpusher - F0nix, Chess.com, 2021 (1-0, 16); while 9...Re8 was seen in Jerome, A - Jaeger, D, correspondence, 1879 (0-1, 45). 

Stockfish 16.1 prefers 9...Re8. 

10.Qxf6+ Qxf6 11.exf6 Re8+ 

White's extra material is balanced by Black's better development; even game.

12.Kf1 Bd7 13.Nc3 Bc6 14.d3 Kxf6 15.Bd2 Kg7 

I figured that I could unravel the position a bit and then go about making use of my extra pawn. As Bruce Pandolfini has said, "if winning, clarify; if losing, complicate.

16.f3 Re7 17.Re1 Rxe1+ 18.Bxe1 Re8 19.Bf2 

And this, students, is why we play the wildly attacking Jerome Gambit, because who wants, instead, to grovel in an endgame, a pawn up?

[to be continued]