Jerome Gambit: Inescapable Problems

The following Jerome Gambit game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) features a creative, but ineffective, defensive line - and attacking move which creates inescapable problems for Black's Queen and King.

Richi_the_king - poglas

5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 

7.Qxe5 Bd6 

Attacking the Queen, but letting go of the Rook.

8.Qxh8 Qg5 

Things have already gotten out of hand, and the text does not fix them, nor did any of these other recent tries -

8...Qe7 9.Qxh7+ Kf8 10.Qxg6 Qf7 11.Qxf7+ Kxf7 12.O-O Bc5 13.d3 d6 14.Be3 Bb6 15.Bxb6 axb6 16.a3 Be6 17.Nc3 Nf6 18.b4 c5 19.b5 Nd7 20.f4 Ke7 21.f5 Bf7 22.f6+ Nxf6 23.Nd5+ Nxd5 24.exd5 Bxd5 25.Rae1+ Be6 26.Re3 Kd7 27.Rfe1 Re8 28.c4 Bf7 29.Rxe8 Bxe8 30.g4 Bg6 31.Re3 Bf7 32.h4 Be6 33.g5 Ke7 34.Kf2 Kf7 35.Kg3 Bf5 36.Rf3 Kg6 37.Kf4 Be6 38.Re3 Bf5 39.Re7 Bxd3 40.Rxb7 Bxc4 41.Rxb6 Kh5 42.Rxd6 Bxb5 43.Rh6 checkmate JabbaKappa - Zauberer, Chess.com, 2020;

8...b6 9.Qd4 Bb7 10.Nc3 Qe7 11.O-O Rf8 12.d3 Ke8 13.Nb5 Bc5 14.Nxc7+ Kd8 15.Ne6+ Qxe6 16.Qc4 Qf7 17.Qxf7 Rxf7 18.Bg5+ Kc8 19.c3 h6 20.Bh4 g5 21.Bg3 h5 22.d4 Be7 23.d5 h4 24.Be5 d6 25.Bd4 Rf4 26.f3 Kd7 27.b4 Ba6 28.Rfd1 Bc4 29.a4 a6 30.Bxb6 Bf6 31.b5 axb5 32.axb5 Bxb5 33.Rab1 Bc4 34.Rb4 Be2 35.Rdb1 Bxc3 36.Ra4 Rf8 37.Bd4 Bd2 38.Rb7+ Ke8 39.Ra8 checkmate, timinphilly - BrennanBibic, Chess.com, 2020;

8...Qe8 9.Qxh7+ Kf8 10.d3 Bb4+ 11.Nc3 d6 12.Bh6+ Nxh6 13.Qxh6+ Ke7 14.Qg7+ Kd8 15.Qf6+ Kd7 16.a3 d5 Black resigned cian_hudder - 11wduuwdbjn, 10 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2020; and

8...Nf6 Black resigned Mathiasgraabeck - IMMERAMZOCKEN23, 10 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2020, 9.Qxd8 Black resigned, Fedez9292 - mnt0788, 1 0 bullet, Chess.com, 2020.

9.Qxh7+ Kf8 10.O-O Nf6 11.Qh8+ Ng8 

12.d3 Qf6 13.Bh6+ Kf7 14.Qh7+ Ke6 15.Qxg8+ Ke7 

Unfortunately, 15...Qf7 would allow the exchange of Queens, with little compensation for the lost Rook and pawns; and 15...Ke5 would be met with 16.Qd5 checkmate.

16.f4 

How does Black deal with the threat 17.Bg5 ?

16...b6 17.e5 

This wins - but so does 17.Bg5.

17...Bxe5 18.fxe5 Qxf1+ Black resigned

What else? There was no way to escape checkmate - other than resignation. Wow.

Picking Up & Losing A Historical Thread (Part 2)

Yesterday's post – see "Picking Up & Losing A Historical Thread (Part 1)" – presented some possible further information about one of the players in the almost-70-year-old Jerome Gambit game, Sgt. W.A.  Harris - E. H. Quayle, correspondence 1944.

Not only did the "Bryant College Goes to War" collection have two letters by a Sgt. Winston Arthur Harris, there was a comment that began

Thank you so much for posting these letters! My grandfather, Winston Arthur Harris...

which suggested a family member as a further contact who might have more information for my search.

While trying to figure out Sgt. Harris' connection to a school in Rhode Island, I noted his return address in the May 14, 1944 letter

644 Bomb Squadron
410 Bomb Group

A.P.O. 140, c/o PM, NY, NY

This was taking my search in a completely opposite direction: while I had previously linked Sgt. Harris to the 124th Cavalry Regiment out of Brownsville, Texas (the location given by Herman Steiner in his Los Angeles Times "Chess" column), the 644 Bomb Squadron was deployed to the European Theater of Operations, not China-Burma-India.

Indeed, if the Wikipedia entry for the 644th is correct, the Bomb Squadron was stationed at Will Rogers Field and Muskogee Army Airfield in Oklahoma in 1943; then Laurel Army Airfield in Mississippi in early 1944; and then Lakeland Army Airfield in Florida; before moving overseas to RAF Birch and RAF Gosfield, in England, in April 1944.

Thus, there is no Brownsville, Texas connection for the 644 Bomb Squadron.

It looks like there may have been (at least) two "Sgt. W. A. Harrises"...  

The Joy of Discovery (Part III)

In my further search for any information on the chess player Sgt. W. A. Harris of Brownsville, Texas – see "The Joy of Discovery (Part I)" and "The Joy of Discovery (Part II)" – I hoped to find clues in John Randolph's Marsmen in Burma (1946), his tale of and tribute to the 124th Cavalry, the last mounted unit in the United States Army.

The MARS TASK FORCE was one of two American Long Range Penetration Units which saw action in far-off Burma. With a mission to circle around and behind Jap[anese] lines through dense Burma jungles and over high mountains, it made history for itself which is matchless among the unique chronicles of world War II.

Although a chess player himself, Randolph has only two chess references in his book.

On the U.S.S. General H. W. Butner, the troop ship that took the 124th across the Pacific, he noted activities including

Card games, checkers, dominoes, "Salvo" (battleship), and men learning to play chess.

When the men were getting ready to hit the trail in Burma, they had to divest themselves of everything except the essentials.

Things not edible were almost 100% excess baggage. My mother-in-law sent me a tremendous volume of chess plays. to ease my conscience, I slipped up on another chess player, M/Sgt. Arnold M. Rouse, from Houston, dropped it and ran. I have never inquired if he burned it, buried it, or gave it to some native.

Randolph does not mention a Harris in his recounting. His selection of photographs includes one of 15 members of the 124th from Brownsville, Texas, so maybe Harris is included there.

For now, this trail has become impassible.

(The above regimental print is available from the offical Marsmen online store: http://store.marsmen.org)

The Joy of Discovery (Part II)

I was excited to discover the Jerome Gambit game Harris - Quayle 1944, and decided to see if I could obtain the Los Angeles Times chess column referred to in the "L A TIMES 1881-1955" database – see "The Joy of Discovery (Part I)."

I contacted the Los Angeles Public Library, and Librarian Teni Bedrosian was quick to send me a PDF file of Herman Steiner's "Chess" column for January 7, 1945.

Under the heading "Correspondence Game" was the introductory note "A short game by Ladderite E. H. Quayle of Westwood, Cal., and Sgt. W. A. Harris of Brownsville, Tx."

Interesting!

Blackstone, in his database, gives Quayle's first name as "Ernest" – an educated guess on his part, or based on research of his own?

The Ernest H. Quayle Papers (1920-1939) includes five (of seven) journals by the naturalist (think: similar to Darwin and the Beagle) which currently reside in the University of Utah Mariott Library Special Collections.

I wrote to Manuscripts Librarian Dr. Stan Larsen for further information about Quayle's chess playing, if any. Unfortunately the diaries do not appear to have any chess content.

Ernest H. Quayle lived in Los Angeles in the early 1930s, but at the end of the decade he was involved Westwood is district in western LA.

As for Sgt. Harris, 1944 was war time, and Fort Brown in Brownsville, Texas was where the 124th Cavalry Regiment was stationed. The 124th remained a mounted unit until its deployment in the China-Burma-India theater of operations.