Scotch Gambit: Be Very Careful

 

It is only fair to give your opponent who is defending against the Jerome Gambit and related openings the advice from baseball player Yogi Berra

You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.

In the following game, Black is on the road to success - until suddenly, as the Talking Heads sing, he was on the road to nowhere.

Ouch.

LSCLegend13 - Herculean_Widhynovich

10 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2026

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 

The Scotch Gambit.

4...h6 

To keep enemy pieces off of g5, even at the cost of time and possibly weakening the e8-h5 diagonal.

5.O-O Bc5 6.Bxf7+ 

Comparing the sacrifice in this game with LSCLegend13's earlier one against hughtough230, White has added the helpful 0-0, while Black has spent time with ...h6

We have already reached the point that there are no games with this position in The Database.

The closest game has 6.c3 dxc3 and then continues with 7.Bxf7+, i.e. 7...Kxf7 8.Qd5+ Kf8 9.Qxc5+ d6 10.Qxc3 Nf6 11.Nbd2 Qe8 12.b3 Qf7 13.Ba3 Be6 14.Nd4 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 g5 16.e5 Nd5 17.exd6 Kg8 18.dxc7 Nxc7 19.Bb2 Kh7 20.Ne4 Rad8 21.Nf6+ Kg6 22.Qe4+ Bf5 23.Qf3 g4 24.Nxg4 Bxg4 25.Qxg4+ Kh7 26.Qe4+ Kg8 27.Qe5 Qh7 28.Qg3+ Kf8 29.Ba3+ Ke8 30.Rfe1+ Kd7 31.Qg4+ Black resigned, Viner,William - Siebenhaar,Willem, Perth 1905. 

It is fun, if a bit off task, to add the following about each player

From the Australian Dictionary of Biography

Interested in chess from the age of 15, Siebenhaar had won a divided 3rd prize in the Dutch Chess Federation's annual tournament in 1881. He continued this pastime in Perth and became the unofficial Western Australian champion following a match with Ernest Hack in 1892; he took over Hack's chess column in the Western Mail. In 1894 he lost his honorary champion's title but remained an active player. Suffering from ill health, he again visited Britain and attended the Scheveningen chess tournament in the Netherlands in 1913.

From Wikipedia

Viner was the West Australian champion in 1900, 1901, 1903 and 1905, and won the Perth Chess Club's handicap tournament three times. He also won the Australian Chess Championship four times (1906, 1912, 1913, 1924) and once New Zealand Chess Championship in 1907. 

Ahem.

6...Kxf7 

Suddenly, through the magic of transposition, The Database has 46 games with the position, with White scoring 45%. (Some of the games even start with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+)

7.Ne5+ 

Very Jerome-ish - capturing a non-existant Knight.

7...Nxe5 8.Qh5+ Ng6 9.Qxc5 

Black has an extra piece. Still, he has to be careful.

9...N8e7 10.Qxd4 d5 

Textbook play.

11.f3 dxe4 

Careless, but not losing.

12.fxe4+ Kg8 

As Yogi said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Black chooses the wrong fork. Instead, 12...Ke8 would have maintained his advantage.

13.Qxd8+ Black resigned