Chessfriend and contributor to this blog, Yury V. Bukayev, pointed out to me that a recent FIDE World Cup game had a Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) echo to it - in terms of what was played and what was not, and, perhaps, why not.
The game Nepomniachtchi, Ian - Ghosh, Diptayan, FIDE World Cup 2025 reached the following position after 15 moves.
Now, White played 16.Qd1 and was eventually ground down by his opponent, resigning in 46 moves.
Why did Nepomniachtchi avoid 16.Bc4, instead?
Modestly, (A cat may look at a king) I would like to agree with Yury's suggestion that the super grandmaster was concerned that the Bishop move might be met by the Jerome-ish 16...Bxf2+, i.e. 17.Qxf2 Bxc4 or 17.Kxf2 Qc5+ 18.Be3 Qxc4.
In this case, I will call upon Stockfish 17.1 as arbiter: the computer notes that 16.Bc4 would still have been about 3/4 of a pawn better than 16.Qd1, even if it would still leave the second player about a 1/2 pawn better.
What's a half-pawn between grandmasters? 😃
(Check out Geoff Chandler's "Blunder Table")
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