Jerome Gambit: Fun

 

It is time to bring back, once again, the metaphor of "roller skating on ice" to describe the following 1-minute Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game.

At times, playing over the game, it feels like a scene from Laurel and Hardy (yes, I have used this photo before; see "Pie Fights")

Let's face it: the Jerome Gambit is fun.

Oh, and the above book (Ralph Nader, 1965) describes the car I regularly rode in to high school... Who knew that it would foretell this Jerome Gambit blog?

Ah, yes, the game...

Wolfpack1051 - Ck20

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2026

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6

7.Qd5+ Kf8 8.Qxc5+ d6 9.Qe3 Qe7 

10.Nc3 c6 11.d4 Bd7 

Stockfish sees this little move as changing its assessment of the position to equal.

12.O-O Nf6 13.f4 Ng4

Uh oh, the Knight harassing the Queen. 

(Sigh. I have over 100 such examples in my own games in The Database.) 

14.Qg3 Qh4 15.f5 Qxg3 

16.hxg3 

Reflex. 16. fxg6+ first was the way to go.

Remember, this is a bullet time control. During the course of the game players used, on average, about 2 seconds per move. 

16...Ne7 17.Rf4 h5 18.Bd2 Kg8 19.Raf1 Kh7 20.Ne2 Raf8 

21.R4f3 Rf6 22.Nf4 Rhf8 

Black's King, for safety, moved to a square in front of this Rook, on the h-file. With this move, the Rook joins in the action on the f-file - neglecting the pawn on the h-file.

Chess is a complicated game, especially when it is played at breakneck speed.

23.Nxh5 R6f7 24.Rf4 Nf6 25.g4 Nxh5 26.gxh5 

The intruder Knight has been chased off and exchanged.

26...Rf6 

Risky, as it strengthens the response g2-g4.

27.Rg4 

Missing a chance.

27...Rh6 

Ask not for whom the clock ticks, it ticks for thee...

28.Bxh6 gxh6 

Capturing with the King, 28...Kxh6, leaving the pawn on the g-file where it might meet White's f-pawn, was stronger.

It is easier to see the future after the game. 

29.f6 

Passed pawns must be... patient. (Often "pushed", but not here.)

29...Rg8 

You can feel the time pressure.

30.Rxg8 Nxg8 

Again, capturing with the King is relatively better. Relatively. Black's position would still be losing.

White's next move threatens an unavoidable checkmate.

31.f7 Kg7 

32.f8=B+

Sense of humor. "Objectively" 32.f8=Q+ was best

32...Kh8 33.Bxd6 Bg4 34.Rf7 Be2 35.Be5+ 

White won on time.

(He had a checkmate in 15 moves, or something like that. 😊)

Jerome Gambit: Danger

I am re-reading Amatzia Avni's classic, Danger in Chess, How to Avoid Making Blunders (Dover, 2003; Cadogan Books 1994).

Just, because.

Avni starts the chapter "Common Failures in the Sensing of Danger: Opponent-Related Factors", under the subtitle "When the opponent plays badly in the opening"

Suppose you play against someone who makes some silly moves, right from the start. He sheds material, or plays not in accordance with development rules, or he makes apparently self-destructive moves... Most chess players, when faced with such an enemy, tend to relax and expect an early success. It is a human trait to count on consistency in behaviour; if  our adversary played weakly until now, so we reason, he is likely to demonstrate the same low quality in the following phses of the game as well.

This line of thought is devoid of empirical justification. our opponent may posess poor openings knowledge, but still be a strong middlegame player. Or he may have deliberately made early provoations to lead us to think that our victory is assured.

Whatever our impression about our rivaal's level of play, we must stay on guard! 

The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) comes to mind, doesn't it?

Checking with The Database, I have played 786 games with the Jerome Gambit, scoring 82%.

This is dwarfed by Bill Wall's 1,352 games, scoring 94%.

The moral is clear, our opponents must stay on guard: after all, Stockfish 16.1 evaluates the Jerome Gambit (35 ply) as being about 2 2/3 pawns better, for Black.