Jerome Gambit: Out-Stranged? Post Script

                                                        

                                                            

As I noted in the previous blog post, one of my ongoing games in the "The Italian Game" tournament at Chess.com has started 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 g5!?         

                                                        

There is a similarity with the Brentano Defense to the Ruy Lopez - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g5!?

It is fun to quote from the July/August/September 1949 issue of  CHESS,  H.G. Schenk's explanation of the idea of 3...g5 in the Ruy Lopez - which could also apply to the move in the intended Giuoco Piano (or Jerome Gambit)

...By playing 3...g5, Black is hoping to wrest the initiative from his opponent; for in answer to 4.0-0, or 4.d3, or again 4.Nc3, Black intends to push on 4...g4, after which exciting complications may arise. It is true that after 4.d4 Black must be prepared to allow an early exchange of queens; but it is only fair to add that White need not exchange queens at all; thus in a recent game played between C. Duffield and myself, the following variation was played... In choosing Brentano's paradoxical defence in the Ruy Lopez, Black must be prepared for the wildest complications, or, as the case may be, a quiet endgame

Indeed, the game already features "the wildest complications", as I will share when the game has concluded.