Jerome Gambit: Incomplete Script

 

Many years ago, when I was a middle school student, I wrote a light-hearted playlet about a conflict between a Batman-like hero and his nemesis. It turned out that the bad guy had stolen the actual script of the play from the author before it had been completed (!), so he was able to write in a number of mishaps that befell the good guy in his pursuit of justice. As luck would have it, however, the final confrontation between the two characters had not yet been scripted by the author, and the evil-doer had not bothered to add an ending. So, the hero was able to ad-lib his lines and his actions, allowing good to triumph over evil, and the bad guy - who realized that time had run out on him - was defeated.

This tale was repeated, over an over again, metaphorically, in the games I played against a chess pal at the time, who would regularly complain, "I was beating you, right up to the point where you checkmated me!" Indeed.

All of this came to mind as I played over the following 1-minute Noa Gambit (a Jerome Gambit relative) game by angelcamina. Let me be clear: angelcamina has over 1,200 games in The Database, scoring 62%, and clearly qualifying him as a "good guy".

In the following game, angelcamina battles adversity and is faced, at the end, with distaster. Except, the "script" had not been completed, and with a final move, he triumphed over his opponent.

angelcamina - rutkaycabuk

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Bxf7+ 

As I wrote in "Against the Knights", this is

The Noa Gambit, otherwise known as the Monck Gambit, otherwise known as the Open Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit. White gets his sacrifice, after all.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe4 d5 7.Neg5+ Kg8 8.d4 

8...e4 9.Ne5 Nxe5 10.dxe5 Be7 11.Nxe4 

In a game with a slow time control, this move might be labelled "self-injurious behavior". In 1-minute bullet game, however, it can be seen as a calculated risk.

11...dxe4 12.Qxd8+ Bxd8 13.Bf4 Bf5 14.O-O-O Be7 15.e6 

15...Rd8 16.Rxd8+ Bxd8 17. Re1 Bf6 18.f3 exf3 

19.e7 f2 

Threatening the Rook, hoping to promote - and overlooking something.

20.e8=Q checkmate

Oh, yeah, that... But it wasn't in the script!