Jerome Gambit: Not Annoying Enough

One serious defense to the Jerome Gambit is the "annoying defense." 

In the following game, Black passes on that defense, and his King pays the price.

alpingo45 - HAL-9000

5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.f4 Kd6 

Black's King tries to edge away from the danger. 

He would have done better with 7...d6, the annoying defense. 

8.Qxe5+ Kc6 9.Qd5+ Kb6 

If 9...Kb4, White has a checkmate in 14 moves.

Still, the King is in serious danger.

10.Nc3 Nf6 

Black needed to move his a-pawn so that his King had a place to retreat to from the coming Knight attack. Even so, the relatively safest retreat will be to the a-file.

11.Na4+ Kb5 12.Qxc5+ Kxa4 13.b3 checkmate

Jerome Gambit: Recent Miniature

Quite often, Jerome Gambit games end quickly - even (especially) the ones that the first player wins.

Here is a recent miniature.

MrFiore - Thal-011

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 

Blackburne's defense, tricky, but leading to a draw with best play - although Stockfish 14.1 evaluates the current position as 3 1/3 pawns better for White!?

On top of that, The Database has 952 games with the Blackburne defense, with White scoring 73%

Contrast that with Whistler's defense, 7...Qe7, which Stockfish 16.1 evaluates as about 2 1/3 pawns better for Black.

In 617 games in The Database, White scores only 51%.

8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.d4 

White's response to Black's Queen's arrival is best.

Instead, 9.O-O leads to 9...Nf6 10.Qd8 Bh3 11.Qxc7+Kf8 12.Qxb7 Bxg2 13.Kxg2 Qg4+ 14.Kh1 Qf3+ 15.Kg1 Qg4+ etc, drawing by repetition of position. Both players should be aware of this line of play.

9...Qxe4+ 

The computer sees 9...Bb4+ as the best choice for Black, here, although it does not come up with any move that changes the evaluation from "Better for White"to "Better for Black". 

There are only 3 games in The Database with 9...Bb4+, and White wins all of them, starting with 10.c3, but they are all messy; for example, perrypawnpusher - bakker, blitz, FICS, 2007 (1-0, 33).

10.Be3 Bb4+ 

Here, Black resigned.

He is down the exchange and a pawn. His King is uneasy. Possibly, the clock was working against him, as well.

Jerome Gambit: Ouch, That's Got to Hurt

I have hit my thumb a number of times while driving in a nail.

It should be an easy task, but it requires a certain amount of care.

As in the following Jerome Gambit game.

alpingo45 - Grandfather19

5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.f4 Qf6 8.Rf1 g6 9.Qh3+ Ke7 

10.Nc3 Nc4 

Black "aggressively" removes his Knight from the pawn attack, but he overlooks something. He has forgotten the lesson from one of his earlier games:  10...c6 11.fxe5 Qxe5 12.d3 (Better 12.d4, but it can be wild: 12...Qxd4 13.Bf4 d6 14.Qg3 Ke8 15.Rd1 Qg7 16.Na4 Bb4+ 17.c3 Nf6 [17...Ba5 18.Bxd6] 18.cxb4 Nxe4 19.Qe3 Qe7 20.Rd4 d5 21.Nc5 Nxc5 22.Qxe7+ Kxe7 23.bxc5 Bf5 = ) 12...d5 13.Bg5+ Ke8 14.Qf3 Qxg5 15.Qf7+ Kd8 16.exd5 Bf5 17.dxc6 bxc6 18.Qg7 Qf6 19.Qb7 Rc8 20.O-O-O Ne7 21.Ne4 Qd4 22.Nxc5 Qxc5 23.d4 Qxc2 checkmate, alpingo45 - amamba1966, lichess.org, 2025. 

As you might expect, best for Black is 10...d6 11.Nd5+ Kd8 12.Qg3 Nd3+ 13.cxd3 Qf7 with advantage. 

11.Nd5+ Black resigned

Ouch, that's got to hurt...

Jerome-Knightmare

I would like to add a couple of things concerning the line 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Bxf7+, a Jerome Gambit relative, to the posts "Jerome Gambit: Review of the Jerome-Knight Gambit" and "Jerome-Knight Gambit".

First, it is worth going back to the pair of posts, "A GM plays the Jerome Gambit ??" and "Here, have a bishop..." to take look at Grandmaster Larry Christiansen's blitz game, LarryC - therealwizard, blitz, 3 0 blitz, Internet Chess Club, 2008 (1-0, 51).

Also, here is a recent bullet game where Black underestimates his opponent's chances.

dziuba - KnightOfZero1205

1 0 bullet, 2025

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 

The earliest example that I have of this beginning in The Database is R.W. - H., Leipzig, 1874 (1-0, 8)  given the December 1874 issue of Schachzeitung.

Of course, as Yury V. Bukayev points out, Wikipedia shows even earlier examples

The Bishop's Opening is one of the oldest openings to be analyzed; it was studied by Lucena and Ruy Lopez. Later it was played by Philidor, whose influence gave the opening long-lasting popularity.

3.Bxf7+ 

Stockfish 16.1 (42 ply) evaluates this position as about 3 1/4 pawns better for Black - pretty sobering when you consider that, from a material perspective, White has given up a piece (3 pawns) and gotten a pawn (1 pawn) in return, only a 2-pawn investment. Does that mean that the computer assesses Black's positional "advantage" at 1 1/4 pawns?

By the way, the earliest unambiguous example of this sacrifice in The Database is Cunningham - Brookshire, IECC, 1999.

3...Kxf7 4.Nf3 

The computer suggests 4.f4, which is either very adventurous, or a sign of dispondency - Go ahead, play anything, it doesn't matter...

 4...Nxe4 

This position can also arise from the Petroff Defense, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Bxf7+

5.Nxe5+ Kf6 

Looking for trouble. The safe move was 5...Kg8.

6.Qf3+ 

Sharp, and in 1-minute games sharpness counts for something.

Duller, but more sound, was 6.d4.

6...Ke6 

Unless you have examined this line previously, you would be unlikely to see as "best" 6...Kxe5 7.d4+ Ke6 8.d5+ Ke7 9.d6+ Nxd6 10.Bg5+ Ke8 11.Bxd8 Kxd8 when White has 3 pieces for his Queen, and Stockfish 16.1 evaluates the position (29 ply) as a bit better for the first player.

7.Qxe4 Bd6 8.Nc6+ Black resigned

Was H.Nakamura Right? Is JG ‘Unbreakable’, Is EG ‘Legendary’ For Beginners’ Games? (Part 8)

 

Was H.Nakamura Right? Is JG ‘Unbreakable’, Is EG ‘Legendary’

For Beginners’ Games? (Part 8)

(by Yury V. Bukayev)

Dear readers, again I repeat the following. If an expert’s appraisal is based on something without real proofs, he can be right or “almost right” here sometimes. That is so, even in the case where he realizes that his appraisal is hasty, or non-serious, or bold, or emotional. Sometimes he is right here for a large per cent (for example, 55, 75 or 95) of cases which he appraises.

We remember Rick Kennedy’s post ‘Jerome Gambit: Which Tier? Unbreakable?’ (September 23, 2020) where the notable dialogue about the standard system of the Jerome gambit (JG) between Top GM Hikaru Nakamura and IM Levy Rozman was shown as the part of their popular video and as its approximate text. Thus, they have discussed there what chess opening tier for beginners’ practice is right for it. The end of this text contains several phrases by Mr. Nakamura where he places the standard system of JG near the top of ‘Unbreakable’. Mr. Nakamura’s words contain no proofs of this very high appraisal. In my opinion, the tier’s name ‘Unbreakable’ is very arguable, because we discuss an opening practice, not an opening theory: each opening can be broken in a game as a result of practical mistakes of a player. But this name plays no role for us, just this very high appraisal of 4.Bxf7+ for beginners’ practice is important for our consideration.

Before writing of my Part 1 of this analytical research (please, look at it: it’s a blog post of October 16, 2022) it was enough difficult for me to prove this Hikaru Nakamura’s appraisal, for a large per cent of cases. It was necessary to choose a certain control of time for beginners’ games, and I have chosen an unlimited one. And in the Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 of this research I have made some clear proofs of this Mr. Nakamura’s appraisal and some “not absolutely clear proofs” of it. We shouldn’t forget that the word ‘unbreakable’ includes a draw, not only a win. 

And here is my new invented trap - no.13 - which is based on a similar ‘natural’ reaction of a beginner. 

 

Trap 13. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 (Black defends his pieces, it is a typical response for an unlimited game.) 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.Bf4 AN (It’s the 1st part of my new and primitive trap against beginners.) 9…Bxb2 (It’s a typical and a nice reaction for everyone. Black has a winning advantage.) 10.c3 (It’s the 2nd part of this trap against beginners. They desire to make 10…Bxa1, and they start to celebrate their future win without thinking about plans of “the silly unknown opponent”.) 10…Bxa1?? 11.Qxe5+! White wins. The fastest way to win here after 11...Kc6 is 12.Na3! d5 13.exd5+ Kb6 14.0-0 with the following Rf1-b1.

 

That is why White will get here also a very large per cent of identical successful results against beginners (especially children-beginners).  

It maybe, the invention of my traps 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and my approaches (Part 1, Part 2) will cause Mr. Nakamura’s and Mr. Rozman’s wish to replace the standard system of JG into their top tier ‘Legendary’ (on ‘GMHikaru’ YouTube channel).

Contact the author: istinayubukayev@yandex.ru

© 2025 Yury V. Bukayev (Copyright © Bukayev Yury Vyacheslavovich 2025). All rights reserved.

[A legal using of this investigation with a reference to it is permitted and doesn't require author's consent.]