Jerome Gambit: Overwhelmed

In the Jerome Gambit, White hopes to quickly overwhelm his opponent with a winning attack on the King.

If the first player is not careful, he can find himself the victim of an attack, as the following game shows.

NB_Chess44 - Mnakib90

10 0 rapid, lichess.org, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 

7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6 

Here we have a typical Jerome Gambit position, as old as Charlick - Mann, correspondence, 1881 (1-0, 72).

The Database has 1,044 examples, with White scoring 63% - despite Stockfish 16.1 rating the position (32 ply) as almost 1 2/3 pawns better for Black.  

10.f4 Ng4 

It is always tempting to attack the Queen.

11.Qf3 

I suspect that White avoided 11.Qg3 because of 11...Qh4 12.Qxh4 Nxh4 but, after 13.O-O that would have been better than the text. 

11...Qh4+ 12.g3 Qh3 

13.Nc3 

Black's Queen is up to no good, and White needed to address that immediately with 13.Qf1, even though exchanging Queens would reduce his attacking chances.

13...Rf8 

This move is good, but 13...Nxf4!? would cause even more problems after 14.Qxf4 Rf8. 

14.d4 Nh4 White resigned

Black's force on the Kingside is overwhelming, and he will break through, e.g

If 15.Qe2, then 15...Ng2+ 16.Kd2 Nxf4 17.gxf4 Rxf4.

Or 15.Qf1 Ng2+ 16.Ke2 g5.