Jerome Gambit: Flashback

By way of preface, I am going to quote at length from a post from about a year ago

Three years ago (see "Jerome Gambit: Oops, He Did It Again?!" and "Jerome Gambit: Which Tier? Unbreakable?") I wrote

in a light-hearted YouTube video, GM Hikaru Nakamura and IM Levy Rozman assessed different chess openings and assigned them to different levels in a tier.

Oh, and GM Nakamura, in assembling an "Intermediate Opening Tier List", bypassed "Legendary", "Solid", "Legit", and "Maybe Not", to place the Jerome Gambit in "Tricks Only" - above "Garbage" because, as he said, "I don't think it loses by force".

Recently the two starred in another, similar, updated video, "The Chess GAMBITS Tier List ft. Hikaru Nakamura", although the Tier List was different:

"Unstoppable", "Very Powerful", "Tons of Tactics", "Easy to Equalize", "One Trick", "Total Trash"

I wish I could tell you that the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) stayed at "One Trick", and did not slide back into "Total Trash" - but I can't.

Of the 32 chess openings that they discussed, the Jerome was not one of them. 

Ah, yes, the Jerome Gambit moves from notoriety to obscurity. 

Fortunately, chessfriend Yury V. Bukayev has come to the rescue, reminding me of another, earlier, blog post, "Jerome Gambit: Tradition Continued" from which I will quote, as well

Recently, in the post "Jerome Gambit: Missing", which referenced the video "The Chess GAMBITS Tier List ft. Hikaru Nakamura", I noted that 

Of the 32 chess openings that they discussed, the Jerome was not one of them. 

That seemed odd to me.

Yury V. Bukayev, in detective mode, pointed out that this was not unexpected, as

It's GothamChess channel in 2023 in contrast with GMHikaru channel in 2020 in both cases (for intermediate players, for beginners). Mr. Rozman has no materials on JG in his channel in contrast with Mr. Nakamura, so this tradition was continued

Thank you, Detective Bukayev. 

But wait, as they say, there's more...

There is a recent, similar, Opening Tier List, by a different pair of players, and the part that is relevant here can be found on the video "letting Paul go if he makes Pt 3 of the opening tier list"

Their asssement of the Jerome Gambit, the first opening covered in Part 3, is not particularly positive or in depth 

Now comes the simply brilliant Jerome Gambit... Now you may be asking "Well, what does this sacrifice accomplish?" Absolutely nothing. There is no reason, you to give him a bishop and you don't even have a check, that's the funniest part, and then you pretty much just castle... [1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.O-O]"

Oh, well.

Not everyone is going to fully appreciate the Jerome Gambit.

At least they spelled the opening's name right.