Too Weird for the Jerome Gambit?

 

I was meandering through The Database when I discovered 11 Jerome Gambit games that went 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.b3.

Really?

I quickly flashed back to when I was a younger chess player, learning about the Snyder variation of the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5 2.b3), the Euwe attack against the Caro Kann (1.e4 c6 2.b3) and the Reti gambit against the French Defense (1.e4 e6 2.b3).

But - who would play b3 against the Jerome?

Turns out, Bill Wall would - but he is known to experiment a lot in the opening. 

And, despite Bill's success in that game (1-0, 31), the opening line has scored slightly more than 25% in the 15 games I have in The Database.

The lichess.org database has 202 games with the line, with White scoring a somewhat better 32%.

I think, at least for now, I am going to stick with the "classical" 5.Nxe5+.