Jerome Gambit: Challenge (Part 2)

                                                           

As I wrote in the previous post

Recently, chessfriend Yury V. Bukayev issued a challenge to me

...I would like to play as White against GM Kollars' favourite defence 5...Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ 9.g3 Qf6. [See"Jerome Gambit: GM vs GM!?"] Of course, Black stands better, but I'll try to play stronger than GM Nakamura, if you agree. Kollars played in 2020 without preparation and with a serious wonder. 

Well, you saw how the first game went - "Jerome Gambit: Challenge (Part 1)" - my game fell apart like a cookie in the rain.

As you can see from our second game, it's still raining...

Yury_V_Bukayev - perrypawnpusher

Chess.com, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ 9.g3 Qf6 

Again, this was our starting position. Another look at The Database shows 68 games, with White scoring 57%. (The only time that I have reached this position with Black was the previous game.)

 10.Qh5 

A reminder: I can find only 3 examples of this move in The Database: Wall,B - Marani,G, Chess.com, 2011 (1-0, 28), perrypawnpusher - izscha2014, GameKnot.com, 2014 (0-1, 23), and LetsJeromeGambit - ocelotosss, 10 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2020 (1-0, 21).

In my game against izscha2014 (see "Jerome Gambit: Help Arrives In Time") I had little success, leading to the realization that

The diversion 10.Qh5 did not work out well for me 

Once again, however, Yury did much better than I did. 

10...c6 

It feels like I have been here before... Once again, creating an escape hatch for Black's King like this did not turn out to be relevant.

Earlier: 

10...g6 in Wall,B - Marani,G, Chess.com, 2011;

10...Ne7 in LetsJeromeGambit - ocelotosss, Chess.com 2020 

Of course, after the game, Stockfish 16.1 suggested 10...Kc6 or 10...Ke7.

11.Rf1 

Varying from the previous game. The text is equally as strong as 11.fxe5+. 

11...g6 

This move only encourages White to make the move he wanted to, anyhow. Better was 11...Nf7, with the likely continuation 12.e5 Nxe5 13.fxe5+ Qxe5+ 14.Qxe5 Kxe5 15.b4!? 

12.fxe5+ Qxe5 13.Qxe5+ Kxe5 14.b4 

This position brings to mind Yury's Composition no.2 

I wish I had paid attention to that, before starting this game.

Instead, I gobbled the poisoned pawn, and my King then staggered across the board, to it's demise.

14..Bxb4 

Yury points out

Readers can find all moves of this game on Chess.com , and it can be added to collections of famous chess mistakes, even World Champions' games are in such collections: https://thechessworld.com/articles/general-information/top-10-biggest-grandmaster-blunders-at-chess/ .

15.Bb2+ Kxe4 16.Bxh8 Ba5 17.c4 Bb4 

18.Rf4+ 

Humorously, White had a checkmate-in-3 here, starting with 18.Ke2, but the text is strong and clearly winning.

18...Kd3 19.Rd4+ Kc2 20.c5 Ba5 21.Na3+ Black resigned

Black now faces a checkmate-in-3, and therefore Black Resigned

[Readers might notice, if they check out this game at chess.com, that it was played after the date on this post. We are not time traveling, I am behind on posting…] 

I suppose one "moral" of these two games is that the Jerome Gambit is a very dangerous opening for a club player to face. Especially if the Jerome Gambitter is a strong player.

Alternately, if a player were to play 100 games against another player who was rated 500 points higher (my situation), he might be expected to win, maybe, 5 games, while losing 95...