Jerome Gambit: Looking At the Cat's King (Part 1)

I have been spending more time at the Chess.com website lately, after reading Danny Rensch's Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life (Public Affairs, 2025), and I have been getting challenges from the bot Bob the Cat.

This morning, I finally picked up the gauntlet.

The game features one of the reasons Jerome Gambit players enjoy their opening: it is easy for the defender to make one careless move - and then regret it for the rest of the game.

Oh, and if a cat can look at a king, than someone can look at the cat's King.

perrypawnpusher - Bob the Cat

Play The Bots, Chess.com, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf6 

If Bob the Cat were able to think, it might just have come up with: I am out of my book! What do I do? I have to protect my Knight! It doesn't matter if my King goes to f6 or e6, right?

Actually, no. The move allows White to grab back his two sacrificed pieces.

According to The Database, there are 539 games with 6...Kf6, with White scoring 77%. I have scored 86% in 7 games.

The alternative, 6...Ke6 leads to complicated play, and simply giving up the piece with 6...Kf8 is probably best.

7.Qf5+ Ke7 8.Qxe5+ Kf8 9.Qxc5+ d6 10.Qe3 

I have reached this position 3 times before, winning each game.

10...Qf6 

Or 

10...Nf6 as in perrypawnpusher - badhorsey, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 30) and perrypawnpusher - Steadfast61, Giuoco Piano Game, Chess.com. 2023 (1-0, 38); or 

10...Bd7 as in perrypawnpusher-buddybuckets-dog, Chess.com, 2023 (1-0, 32). 

White is two pawns better.

11.O-O c6 12.d4 b5 

This reminds me of my old Chess Challenger 7. It seemed that whenever the position on the board became very complicated and congested, it would advance one of its Rook pawns two squares, for no apparent reason.

13.f4 b4 

It looks like Bob is operating on the wrong side of the board, but there is some method to the "madness": White's Knight can not now come to c3, and at d2 it will block his Bishop; In the meantime, Black's Bishop will go to a6, attacking the enemy Rook, and making space for the Rook at a8 to come into play. Fair enough, but there is danger in allowing the Kingside development to lag.

14.e5 Qf5 15.c4 

Adding a pawn to the center, and hoping for the cute 15...dxc e.p. 16.Nxc3. 

15...d5 16.cxd5 cxd5 17.Qb3 

17...Qe4 

Odd. Instead, there was 17...Rb8 or 17...Ne7 or 17...Be6. 

18.Qxb4+ Kf7 19.Nc3 Qd3 20.Nxd5 Ba6 

Black threatens checkmate, but he faces a greater threat from the "Jerome pawns".

[to be continued]