I was back at the Chess Club today.
In my first game, I was Black.
My opponent played a kind of double fianchetto opening - the kind of thing that Ricky Manganello played against me in junior high school. I scoffed, back then, but Ricky beat me, badly. Did that bother me? I still remember, although it happened over 60 years ago...
In response, today, I regressed, back to the first chess book I ever had. It basically reduced chess to a series of steps: Win a pawn; Exchange everything to reach a King plus pawn vs King endgame; promote the pawn to a Queen; Checkmate your opponent.
So, I exchanged.
With a few of the exchanges, I snagged a pawn here and a pawn there, so that I didn't need to fully reach that King plus pawn vs King endgame before actually checkmating my opponent.
So there!
I my second game, as White, I was ready to play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), but I was met with what a past opponent (not Ricky, I am sure, but perhaps a classmate of ours) called his "unbeatable defense": advancing alternate pawns one step, so as to create a mini-stonewall in front of his pieces.
Back in junior high school, such a thing caused many attackers to stumble and fall.
Not today. I advanced my center pawns, exchanged to open up lines of attack, and took all my pent-up Jerome aggression out on my opponent.
I was helped a bit by what one annotator once called the "Budweiser Effect" (referring to the 1975 commercial song) - Here comes the King, Here comes the King, Here comes the big Number One...
Given the choice, His Majesty should stay home, not wander, and certainly not advance.
Checkmate.
Two games, two wins, no Jeromes.
Better luck, next time.
