Jerome Gambit: Another Miniature

In the following game, I suspect that Black felt comfortable entering an apparently boring opening line - only to discover that his opponent was willing to mix things up with the sacrifice of two pieces.

The defender was able to inflict pawn structure damage on White, but his King could not escape the aggression that followed, allowing another Jerome Gambit miniature.

angelcamina - djtiempobullet

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ 

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Bd6 

8.dxe5 

Stockfish 16.1 surprised me with the suggestion 8.Bg5. 

I checked The Database and found 9 games with the move (White scored 7 - 2), the earliest of which was Philidor 1792 - NN, 2011 (1-0, 27). 

The creative Philidor 1792 also played 5 games in 2011 with 8.f4. (scoring 3 - 2).

 8...Bxe5 9.O-O Bxc3 10.bxc3 

10...Rf8

Leave the e-pawn alone: 10...Nxe4? 11.Qd5+ Kf8 12.Qxe4 d5 13.Ba3+ c5 Black resigned, angelcamina - InmortalArtist, 1 0 bullet, lichess.org,  2020.

More to the point was 10...Re8!? 11.f3 Kg8 12.Bg5 d6 13.Rb1 Re5 14.Bh4 Rh5 15.Qe1 Qf8 16.c4 Qf7 17.Rb3 Nd7 18.Bg3 Qxc4 19.Rc3 Qb4 20.Rxc7 Qb6+ 21.Kh1 Qxc7 22.Qd1 Rh6 23.f4 Qc4 24.e5 Qxa2 25.f5 dxe5 26.Bxe5 Nxe5 27.Qd8+ Kf7 28.f6 Rxf6 29.Re1 Qxc2 30.Qd5+ Re6 31.Rf1+ Kg6 32.Qd4 b5 33.Qf2 White resigned, aymmd - Gamin, FICS 2011.

11.e5

The basic plan: get the King off of the dangerous e-file, then advance the e-pawn.

A few years ago, angelcamina tried this out in a delayed form: 11.f4 Kg8 12.e5 Ne8 13.Ba3 d6 14.c4 Be6 15.Qd3 Rf7 16.Rae1 dxe5 17.Qxd8 Rxd8 18.Rxe5 Bxc4 19.Rfe1 Nf6 20.h3 h6 21.g4 Rfd7 22.g5 hxg5 23.fxg5 Nh5 24.g6 Nf4 25.Re8+ Black resigned, angelcamina - raho22121964, 1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2019.

11...Ne8 

It is interesting that Stockfish 16.1 suggests that Black return a piece here, giving the drawish line 11...d6 12.exf6 Qxf6 13.Qd5+ Qe6 14.Qb3 Qxb3 15.cxb3.

12.Qd5+ 

Thematic.

12...Ke7 

In a 1-minute game it can be hard to see that this "safer" move, isn't. With 12...Kg6 13.Qd3+ Kf7 14.Qxh7 Qe7 15.f4 the game would be even.

13.Bg5+ 

What was overlooked.

13...Nf6 

What a mess! The "better" move was giving up the Rook with 13...Rf6.  

14.exf6+ 

This wins. To note, 14.Rfe1 and 14.Rae1 would have put even more pressure on Black.

14...gxf6

Again, sadly, 14...Rxf6 was nominally better. 

The value of the text move is that it ends Black's suffering.

15.Rae1 checkmate