Jerome Gambit: Blackburne Shilling / Kostic Jerome Gambit (Part 1)

William Faulkner wrote in Requiem for a Nun (1919), “The past in never dead. It's not even past.”

Did Faulkner play chess? Quite possibily, as his Knight’s Gambit, a collection of six short stories written in the 1930s and 1940s, featured attorney Gavin Stevens (later to appear in his Intruder in the Dust, 1948) playing chess.

The following modern has significantly older roots.

IvanRusskih - zzzwww

Europa League 2022 - 2023

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit, so named because Joseph Henry Blackburne supposedly used the opening in many off-hand games, with a shilling wager apiece. (See David Hooper and Kenneth Whylde's The Oxford Companion to Chess, 1984.)

This is reflected in Edward Winter's "Chess Note" #3786,

        From Rick Kennedy (Columbus, OH, USA):

The opening 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nd4 has been called the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, in recognition, apparently, of J.H. Blackburne’s use of it to win small stakes from players. However, I have yet to find a single game with it played by Blackburne. In fact, the earliest game uncovered was played in New Zealand in 1911. How did Blackburne’s name become attached to the variation? Indeed, when did it become attached?

Steinitz’s [The] Modern Chess Instructor [1889] has a note on the line, but does not refer to Blackburne. Mr Blackburne’s Games at Chess [1899] makes no mention of it. Nor does Freeborough and Ranken’s Chess Openings Ancient and Modern [1893] attribute the line (given in a footnote) to anyone. E.E. Cunnington’s books (one on traps [1903], one on openings for beginners [1900]), which were published in London shortly after the turn of the century, give the moves but do not name Blackburne...

What we do know is that several times Blackburne played a variation of what is called the Bird Defense (named after Henry Edward Bird) to the Ruy Lopez, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4, arriving at the Blackburne Shilling Gambit position with an extra tempo for Black.

Lipke, Paul - Blackburne, Joseph Henry

DSB-09.Kongress, Leipzig, Germany, 1894

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 d6 5.Nxd4 exd4 6.O-O g6 7.c3 Bg7 8.cxd4 Ne7 9.d5 f5 10.d3 O-O 11.f4 Kh8 12.Nc3 c6 13.dxc6 bxc6 14.Kh1 Rb8 15.Bb3 Ba6 16.Re1 d5 17.e5 d4 18.Na4 Nd5 19.Nc5 Bc8 20.Bd2 Qe7 21.Rc1 Rd8 22.Ba5 Rb6 23.Na4 Qb7 24.Qf3 Bf8 25.Re2 Be6 26.Nc5 Bxc5 27.Rxc5 Rxb3 28.axb3 Rg8 29.b4 Ne3 30.Qxc6 Qxc6 31.Rxc6 Bd5 32.Rd6 g5 33.Bd8 Kg7 34.fxg5 f4 35.Kg1 f3 36.gxf3 Bxf3 37.Rf2 Bd5 38.Rf4 h6 39.Rxd4 Ba8 40.h4 hxg5 41.Bxg5 Nf5 42.Rd7+ Kh8 43.Rg4 Ng7 44.Bf6 Black resigned

Duras, Oldrich - Blackburne, Joseph Henry

Ostend-B, Belgium, 1907

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 d6 5.Nxd4 exd4 6.c3 dxc3 7. Nxc3 c6 8.O-O Be6 9.Bxe6 fxe6 10.d4 Nf6 11.Qb3 Qd7 12.Bg5 Be7 13.Bxf6 gxf6 14.d5 cxd5 15.exd5 e5 16.f4 O-O 17.Rae1 Kh8 18.Kh1 Rg8 19.Re3 Rg7 20.Qb5 Rd8 21.Qd3 Rdg8 22.Re2 Bd8 23.f5 Rg5 24.Qf3 Rg4 25.g3 Qf7 26.Rd1 Bb6 27.Ne4 Qf8 28.Qa3 R4g7 29.Qxd6 Qxd6 30.Nxd6 Rd7 31.Ne4 Kg7 32.Rc2 Kf7 33.Kg2 a5 34.Kf3 Ba7 35.g4 Rgd8 36.d6 h6 37.h4 Bb8 38.Rcd2 Rc8 39.g5 hxg5 40.hxg5 fxg5 41.Rh2 Rg8 42.Kg4 Rdd8 43.Rh7+ Kf8 44.f6 Black resigned

Lewis, John A - Blackburne, Joseph Henry

BCF, Oxford, England, 1910

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 d6 5.Nxd4 exd4 6.d3 g6 7.O-O Bg7 8.c3 Ne7 9.Qb3 O-O 10.cxd4 Bxd4 11.Be3 Nc6 12.Bxd4 Nxd4 13.Qd1 Be6 14.Nc3 c6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 16.Ne2 Nxe2+ 17.Qxe2 e5 18.d4 Qe7 19.Qc4+ Kg7 20.Rfd1 Rad8 21.Rac1 d5 22.exd5 Rxd5 23.dxe5 Rxe5 24.Qd4 Rf6 25.Qxa7 Re2 26.Qd4 c5 27.Qc3 Rexf2 28.Re1 Qd6 29.Rcd1 Qc6 30.Qh3 Rf7 31.Re6 Rxg2+ 32.Kh1 Rd2+ 33.Rxc6 Rxd1+ 34.Kg2 Rd2+ draw

The earliest example that I have found of 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4, from chessgames.com, is

McBride - Hill

club match, 1892

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxe5 Qg5 5.Nxf7 Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Nf3 checkmate

Occasionally the line is called the Schilling-Kostić Gambit, in part due to an early game by Boris Kostic, which follows the same path.

 

Muehlock - Kostić, Boris

Cologne, Germany, 1912

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxe5 Qg5 5.Nxf7 Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Nf3 checkmate

According to Bill Wall, the moves of the game were repeated in A. Jordan - Newell Banks, USA, 1917.

By the way, I have seen the spellings "Shilling-Kostić Gambit" (the name makes some sense to me, similar to how "Blackburne Shilling Gambit" does) and "Blackburne-Schilling Gambit" - but I have yet to find a player of that era (late 1800s to early 1900s) named Schilling. I suspect that there was an early mis-spelling, and later sources copied it

4.Bxf7+ 

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit. 

Apparently not played by (or faced by) Blackburne, Kostić, Hill or Newell Banks.

The Database has 7,742 games with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+, with White scoring 57%.

Certainly there is need for more research here. It is a bit odd that in a variation of a variation played by Blackburne (1841-1924) the earliest game in The Database with 4.Bxf7+ is from 1975. 

[to be continued]