Jerome Gambit: History in Play

My first win with the Jerome Gambit, in the second round of the "Italian Game Classic" tournament at Chess.com, was a bit of a journey through the opening's history.

An unfortunate slip by my opponent allowed me a tactical shot that brought the game to an early conclusion.

perrypawnpusher - PDX84
Italian Game Classic, Chess.com, 2019

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

Black courageously thinks of holding onto both sacrificed pieces. The compter chess analysis at Chess.com, after the game, identified the move as "best".

7.Qf5+

Alonzo Wheeler Jerome first suggested this move in the April 4, 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal. He also played 7.f4 and 7.O-O in correspondence games against S.A. Charles, and suggested 7.b4 "for analysis"; this was covered in the October, 1881 issue of Brentano's Chess Monthly.

A check of The Database shows 507 games with 7.Qf5+, with White scoring 48%, as opposed to 517 games with 7.f4, with White scoring 61%. There are no games with 7.b4.

7...Kd6 8.f4 Qf6 9.fxe5+ Qxe5 10.Qf3 

Not 10.Qxe5+ this time. That move has given me mixed results, and a loss most recently: perrypawnpusher - djdave28, Italian Game Tournament, Chess.com, 2014, (1-0, 22); perrypawnpusher - djdave28, Italian Game Tournament, Chess.com 2015, (1-0, 32); and perrypawnpusher - Altotemmi, Giuoco Piano Tournament, Chess.com, 2016, (0-1, 51). 

The Queen exchange is at least as old as Jerome, A - Jaeger, D, correspondence, 1878 (0-1, 68).

10...Nf6 

This move makes a lot of sense.

Jerome faced 10...Ne7 in a correspondence game against Jaeger in 1878 (0-1, 68).

 Lowe,E - Cudmore,D, correspondence, 1881, continued 10...b5 (½-½, 48).

Keeble,J - Cubitt,J, Norwich 1886, continued 10...c6 (1-0, 17).

11.d3 Ke7 

Black dodges the crudest of threats - 12.Bf4, pinning his Queen to his King. The idea is at least as old as Vazquez - Giraudy, Mexico, 1876 (remove White's Queen Rook) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.c3 Bb6 10.f4 Qf6 11.fxe5+ Qxe5 12.Bf4 Qxf4 13.Qxf4+ Ke7 14.Rf1 Nh6 15.Qe5+ Kd8 16.Qxg7 Re8 17.Qg5+ Re7 18.Rf8 checkmate. Still, I've scored points from this "Optical Illusion" variation of the Jerome Gambit - see "Optical Illusion (1)", "Optical Illusion (2)" and "Disdainful Defender Defense".

Instead, 11...Kc6 was seen in Jerome, A - Colburn, correspondence 1879 (0-1, 34) and Jerome, A - Charles, S.A., correspondence, 1881 (unfinished).

12.Nc3 Bb4 

Pinning the White Knight to keep it off of d5.

Instead:

12...g5 was seen in Jerome, A - Shinkman, W, Iowa, 1874 (0-1, 21);

12...d6 was seen in Jerome, A - Brownson, O, Iowa, 1875 (1-0, 43);

12...c6 was seen in Jerome, A - Amateur, off hand game, 1876 (1-0, 20); and

12...d5 was seen in Jerome, A - Pane, M, correspondence, 1878 (1-0, 41).

13.Bd2

I was amused to see that I had played 13.O-O here, years ago, in perrypawnpusher - PREMK, blitz, FICS, 2005. The idea was that 13...Bxc3 14.bxc3 Qxc3 15.Qg3!? would give White good play for the sacrificed pawn.

13...Rf8 14.O-O d6 

Instead, in the post mortem, Komodo 10 recommended the brutal 14...Bd6, with the idea of forcing exchanges to eliminate White's attacking chances and highlight Black's piece-for-a-pawn advantage, e.g. 15.g3 c6 16.Bf4 Bc5+ 17.Kg2 Qh5 18.Na4 Qxf3+ 19.Rxf3 d6 20.Nxc5 dxc5 21.Raf1 Bg4 22.R3f2 Be6 

15.Nd5+ Black resigned

White will recover his sacrificed piece. He will be a pawn up, with better development and King safety. Black decided not to play on.

Jerome Gambit: Simply A Chess Bomb!

I love it when a chess player gets excited about a Jerome Gambit game, even if it is the notorious destruction of the opening, Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884.

So I enjoyed Suren Aghabekyan's YouTube video, "This Is Simply A Chess Bomb!", part of his "Chess with Suren" series.

It was nice to see that he not only showed that 10.Qd8 was the saving (winning) idea that White had missed against Blackburne, he showed how the Queen can be freed from the back rank.

Check it out.

[For those of you who are counting, and especially for those of you who are not, this is blog post #2,800. Just saying.]

Jerome Gambit: The Headless Chicken

The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is not for everyone. Sometimes, it is really, really, really not for some people.

I just ran across a YouTube video from ChessTraps.net, titled "Italian The Headless Chicken". Hysterical. Yes, the Jerome Gambit has been called many things, from the "Jerome Gamble" to the "Ashcan Opening", but, this one takes the prize.

The Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884 game is presented, without mention of the players, and the narrator is clearly repulsed.

I don't know how the next so-called trap managed to worm itself into our collection. It is simply horrendous and has little chess value whatsoever and you would all be advised never to try this one at home, it's so replete in mistakes...

Do check it out. Players who agree with the narrator, probably do not play the Jerome Gambit, anyhow. And - the lower they estimate the value of the opening, the more they open themselves to overlooking White's chances and opportunities.

Jerome Gambit: Interesting Sideline

Wandering around the internet today, I encountered a YouTube video (one of the Hindi Chess Videos) titled "Brilliant chess combination by Black Death". As you might guess, it covered the Jerome Gambit game Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884.

I am always interested in another look at that classic game, even if it does include a crush of my favorite opening.

This time, the presenter mentioned, in passing, what is known as the Whistler Defense - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7!? - which is much less known (and much less mentioned) than Blackburne's 7...d6!?. It also punishes White quickly, if he dares to take Black's Rook with 8.Qxh8?

(As a quick aside, The Database shows that White has a scoring edge after the capture of the Rook, 25 - 23 - 4, but that should not be taken as a recommendation.)

The presenter follows up with the logical 8...Qxe4+ 9.Kf1 Qh4 (best) 10.g3 Qh3+, and then things begin to wrap up the analysis with 11.Kg1 (not the best move, but nothing but a quick ending can be done about White's suffering) b5 - soon to be followed by ...Bb7.

I have only one game in The Database that wanders down this unfortunate (for White) path: ZahariSokolov - ekwador, standard, FICS, 2017, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7 8.Qxh8 Qxe4+ 9.Kf1 Qh4 10.g3 Qh3+ 11.Kg1 b5 12.d4 Bb7 13.Qxh7+ Qxh7 14.Nd2 Qh3 15.f3 Bxd4 checkmate.

Ouch. According to The Database, ZahariSokolov is 2 - 3 with White, after taking the Rook in this line, but I don't expect him to be playing it again, any time soon.

Jerome Gambit Unreality: More of the Same

Continuing the thread of the last few posts, it is no surprise that I have also been unable to find support for the suppossed Jerome Gambit game "Halpern, Jacob - von Scheve, Theodor, London, 1880".

I could find no game reference for Halpern earlier than 1883, and only four games by von Scheve earlier than that year - all games against Siegbert Tarrasch.

As interesting - if, in some ways, unfortunate - as it would have been for Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884 to have been anticipated, it remains an exciting and original "first".

Jerome Gambit: Unreality is Real

Responding quickly to my question concerning the suspect Jerome Gambit game Amateur - Neumann, London, 1880 - almost identical to Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884 - (see "Jerome Gambit History: Real?") - publisher McFarland and Company forwarded my query to Hans Renette, one of the authors of the forthcoming title, Neumann, Hirschfeld and Suhle19th Century Berlin Chess Biographies with 711 Games.

Mr. Renette was equally skeptical 

 ...I am pretty sure this game was not one played by Neumann (it is not in the book) and, very likely, is a variation of the Blackburne game. Neumann played his last known game in 1872 and afterwards fell into a mental oblivion - he spent the last years of his life in a mental clinic in East Prussia. 

Accidently, this reminds me quite a lot of a game Bird - Pfander, which is at chessgames.com, allegedly played in 1903 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1028251) - when Bird was out of public sight. This is game 512 in my book on Bird, and was played in 1879.

For Readers, here is the game, a King's Gambit Accepted, Allgaier Gambit:   

Henry Edward Bird - Pfander
England, 1879

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.h4 g4 5.Ng5 h5 6.Bc4 Nh6 7.d4 f6 8.Bxf4 fxg5 9.hxg5 Nf7 10.g6 Ng5 11.Qd2 Nxe4 12.Bf7+ Ke7 13.Bg5+ Nxg5 14.Qxg5+ Kd6 15.Qc5 checkmate

My thanks to Mr. Renette - author, as well, of H.E. Bird: A Chess Biography with 1,198 Games and the forthcoming Louis Paulsen: A Chess Biography With 668 Games - and the good people at McFarland and Company.

Jerome Gambit: More Unreality?

My early years of research into the Jerome Gambit had spots of sloppiness, which I have since regretted - most often, not recording the source of the games that I discovered.

For example, consider the following game

[Event "England"]
[Site "England"]
[Date "1880.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Halpern, Jacob C"]
[Black "Von Scheve, Theodor"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C50"]
[PlyCount "28"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.O-O Nf6 10.c3 Ng4 11.h3 Bxf2+ 12.Kh1 Bf5 13.Qxa8 Qxh3+ 14.gxh3 Bxe4# 0-1

It should leap out at you that this is the same as Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884.

Supposedly played 4 years before the "original".

Is this another bogus game created by database publishers, or the product of a "junk base", or even a chess "joke" that caught on?

Alas, I will have to research my research to know...

Jerome Gambit History: Real?

I recently emailed a contact at McFarland and Co., publishers of some very fine chess books

I have a question: Is there a way for me to contact the authors of the forthcoming  Neumann, Hirschfeld and Suhle19th Century Berlin Chess Biographies with 711 Games ?  

I understand that it might not be possible directly, and I don't need any of their actual emails. Would it be possible for someone at McFarland to forward an email? 

It is certainly not a matter of great import. I have been investigating the outrageous Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) for almost two decades, and have puzzled over the following game, the source of which, alas, my notes to not reveal: 

[Event "London ENG"][Site "London ENG"][Date "1880.??.??"][Round "99"][White "Amateur"][Black "Neumann, Guestav R.L"][Result "0-1"][ECO "C50"][PlyCount "28"][EventDate "1880.??.??"]1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Bxf7+ Kxf7 5. Nxe5+ Nxe5 6. Qh5+ g6 7. Qxe5 d6 8. Qxh8 Qh4 9. O-O Nf6 10. b3 Ng4 11. h3 Bxf2+ 12. Kh1 Bf5 13. Qxa8 Qxh3+ 14. gxh3 Bxe4# 0-1 

I suspect the game is specious, for a number of reasons: 

- Except for the move 10.b3, the game, including the Queen sacrifice, is identical to Amateur - Blackburne, London, frequently given as also played in 1880 (the actual date is 1884), and the most infamous of Jerome Gambit games. (Blackburne's opponent had played 10.c3.) 

- Neumann was alive in 1880 (he died the next year) but, according to Wikipedia (not always the best source, I know) "severe mental illness stopped him playing after 1872" 

- Commercial chess database producers have had a habit of salting their collections with occasional bogus games, in order to identify any mass copying of their intellectual property; and this game has an ersatz feel about it 

Still, it would be nice to have a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" from an authority. 

Thank you, very much.

I will let Readers know what responses I receive.

Wild Irishman's Gambit.

Bill Wall recently sent me a tantalizing reference to a Jerome Gambit game likely played in 1916 in Portland, Oregon - one I had been previously unaware of. It can be found in the pages of The Chess News (v.11, Jan -May 1916) - found on the Chess Archaeology site.

I am unfamiliar with the name the Boston players had attached to the opening. It is hard not to suspect that the editor of the "Games and Analysis" column, John F. Barry, was up to something...

Amateur - Blacklane1916

Ten years ago Boston players when in lighter vein indulged their fancy in the Wild Irishman's Gambit. Apparently it has just reached the Pacific coast. Score from the Portland Oregonian.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.O-O Nf6 10.c3 Ng4 11.h3 Bxf2+ 12.Kh1 Bf5 13.Qxa8 Qxh3+ 14.gxh3 Bxe4 checkmate

A brilliant finish, precisely reminiscent of Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884!

Still, I very much appreciate the leads, and will search for more Jerome Gambits in the Pacific northwest around the time of 1916; as well as more "Wild Irishman's Gambits" in the Boston area circa 1906.

Readers who have any relevant games or analysis are encouraged to contribute.

Jerome Gambit: Reassessing a Variation (Part 1)

I just completed my 3rd Jerome Gambit game in the first round of the "Italian Battleground" tournament at Chess.com. The win, making me 2 - 0 - 1 with my favorite opening, so far, should be enough to earn me first place in my group, and allow me to eventually move on to the second round.


perrypawnpusher - zmarian
"Italian Battleground" tournament, Chess.com, 2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ 

Despite Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's early preference, and that of Bill Wall and others, I have only played 6.d4 once, and that game took a bit of a swindle for me to get a draw. To each one's own.

6...g6 

This move was not a surprise. The best known Jerome Gambit game, Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884 (see "Nobody expects the Jerome Gambit!" and "Jerome Gambit: Dr. Harding Checks In") features this move, and if my opponent was likely to know anything about the opening, this would be it.

7.Qxe5 Bxf2+ 

A bit of a surprise - but not really.

Instead of offering a Rook with the Blackburne Defense, 7...d6!?, or preparing a wicked counterattack with Whistler's Defense, 7...Qe7!?, my opponent plays what I have elsewhere referred to as an "inoffensive defense" (see "An Inoffensive Defense") and a "calming defense" (see "Nothing Happened").

The Database has a surprising 1,375 games with this position, with White scoring 53%, which compares favorably with ther 46% produced by 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+. (Nine games are mine, with White scoring 89%).

In our first game in this tournament, we quickly moved to an endgame where I was a pawn up - but it took some fancy calculating to win the game. My opponent currently has fashioned a very interesting blockading position in one of his other games (he is a pawn down) and should soon split the point. So, to see our game move quickly to a Queenless middlegame, with the promise of an endgame, was understandable - zmarian likes endgames.

8.Kxf2

ZahariSokolov of FICS has played 8.Ke2?!, but I can't recommend the move: 8...d6? 9.Qxh8? Qf6? 10.Qxh7+Kf8 11.h3 b6 12.Rf1 Ba6+ 13.d3 Re8 14.Rxf2 Rxe4+ 15.Be3 Qxf2+ 16.Kxf2 Black resigned, ZahariSokolov - Posapiano, standard, FICS, 2015. 

8...Qf6+ 

Black did not improve things by playing 8...Qh4+ 9.g3 Qf6+ 10.Qxf6+ Nxf6 11.Nc3 Re8 12.d3 c6 13.Kg2 Kg7 14.Bg5 Ng4 15.h3 Nh6 16.Rhf1 d6 17.Rf2 Be6 18.Raf1 Rf8 19.Bxh6+ Black resigned, perrypawnpusher - Hensel, blitz, FICS, 2014.

9.Qxf6+ Nxf6 

The curious game perrypawnpusher - ronn, blitz, FICS, 2009, continued 9...Kxf6 Black resigned.

10.Nc3

I have played 10.d3 a couple of times, in perrypawnpusher - Edvardinho, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 42) and perrypawnpusher - Dubnobase, blitz, FICS, 2013 (1-0, 49).

10...d6 


Black has a number of replies. I have faced 10...Re8 a couple of times: perrypawnpusher - Conspicuous, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 22) and perrypawnpusher - BEEB, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1/2-1/2, 63).

(Oddly enough, I don't seem to have posted either of these games on this blog. I will have to remedy that.)

11.d4 

Playable is 11.d3, which I have tried a couple of times: AlonzoJerome - adroit, blitz, ICC, 2011 (1-0, 25) and perrypawnpusher - HelloGoodbye, blitz, FICS, 2012 (1/2-1/2, 34).

(You wouldn't have known it by this blog, though: two more games to find and post. What was going on in 2011 and 2012, I wonder.)

11...Bd7 

Interesting. Understandable was 11...Rf8, which I have also faced in perrypawnpusher - Mences, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 48).

(Also not posted here. Very odd. My "to do list" is growing.)

[To be continued]

Jerome Gambit History Tidbits

A few of my recent Jerome Gambit discoveries...

Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884
Stumbling over the infamous Jerome Gambit game Amateur - Blackburne, London in the Australian Town and Country Journal (Saturday, March 21, 1885, page 31) I found another comment that supported 1884 as the year of the game (as if there needed to be more than Dr. Tim Harding's words from the English Chess Forum, which I presented in "Jerome Gambit: Dr. Harding Checks In")

We reprint from the Adelaide Observer...The following affair occurred to the great blindfold player a few months ago in London... 

But the best part was the columnist's comment on the stunning move 4.Bxf7+: "So early in the morning!"


Emanuel Lasker, columnist
The Evening Post: New York  from Wednesday, November 30, 1910, (page 11) had Emanuel Lasker's "CHESS AND CHESS PLAYERS" column, including the following news

...At the rooms of the Rice Chess Club in the Cafe Boulevard, the team representing the Temple Chess Club of the Baptist Temple of Brooklyn encountered the team Stuyvesant High School, and, although handicapped by the absence of two players, causing forfeiture on two boards, the Brooklyn players carried off the victory by the score of 3 points to 2... The Temple Chess Club players had the white pieces on the odd-numbered boards. The Jerome gambit, king's bishop opening, and French defence were adopted at the last three boards...

Although the copy of the paper is at times difficult to make out, it appears that Board 3 was a match between E. E. Brodhead of the Temple C.C. and Gadiowitz of Stuyvesant H.S., with Brodhead's Jerome Gambit carrying the day. I have not yet discovered the game.

It should be recalled that Lasker, responding to a letter to “Our Question Box” in the March 1906 issue of Lasker’s Chess Magazine had already said his peace about the opening 

No; the Jerome gambit is not named after St. Jerome. His penances, if he did any, were in atonement of rather minor transgressions compared with the gambit.

Emanuel Lasker, Simultaneous Exhibition 
The Observer (Adelaide) of Saturday, December 29, 1906 (page 49) has in its CHESS column, under CHESS NOTES, the following

Simultaneous Chess. - Lasker, playing at Pittsburg, Pa., lately, out of 28 games won 24, drew 2, and lost 2, a fine score of 25-3. The openings adopted were varied - Sicilian Defence 3, Centre Gambit 5, Petroff 1, Evans 4, Four Knights 2, Vienna 1, Jerome 1, King's Knight 1, King's Gambit 5, French 2, Allgaier 2 and only 1 Ruy Lopez.

It would seem that the source of Observer column was the October 18, 1906 (page 9) Pittsburgh Press article titled "DR. LASKER PLAYED 26 GAMES OF CHESS AT ONCE.  He Succeeded in Winning 22 of Them and Drawing 2." It is unclear why the two news reports differ in the number of games reported being played and won; and the Pittsburgh Press names 27 club members who were seated against Lasker, so apparently at least one board was covered by two players.

The Jerome Gambit (neither a win nor a draw for White) was played by E. H. Miller. (This is likely Emlen Hare Miller, who, a decade later, had a win [opening unknown] against Frank J. Marshall in a simultaneous exhibition.)

Of note

Before the contest began Lasker made an address on "The Game of Chess and the Game of Life," which was highly appreciated by his listeners.

How I would love to discover how Lasker defended against the Jerome Gambit!
  
Beware, chess students, the dreaded Jerome Gambit
The Telegraph (Brisbane) of Saturday, December 14, 1929, (page 13) had a "CHESS" column that gave the Jerome Gambit a greater sense of scariness than I had realized it had ever projected   

Chess students are early taught to watch out for the dreaded Jerome Gambit, an attack however that owes its success mainly to the inexperience of the attacked. Unsound it undoubtedly is, but white obtains a ferocious offensive requiring on the part of black the very greatest care. An ounce of practice, we are told, is worth a ton of theory, so the following game in the case isoffered. It is a win by the famous Blackburne with the black; of course it is not given to us all to be Blackburne...

Jerome Gambit: Rooks at Large

The most well-known defense against the Jerome Gambit is the one that J.H. Blackburne used in a game over 130 years ago. As we have seen on this blog many times, however, it is a tricky defense, and the better player usually wins, despite the "objective" assessment of the line (i.e. it is dynamically equal). This caveat is especially apparent in the following game, where Black errs early - but White makes some later slips, only scoring the full point after much further work. It is not a safe game for Rooks.

ehmorris3 - F-Dynamics
10 0, lichess.org, 2017

1.e4  e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6. Qh5+ g6 7. Qxe5 d6

Blackburne's Defense, famous since Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884. Black offers a Rook, with the plan to trap White's Queen, and, while she is entombed, to attack White's King.

8.Qxh8 Be6 

It is difficult to grasp the idea behind this move, unless it is simply to follow up the sacrifice with further development. Perhaps Black believes that his opponent will need time to put his Queen back into play. White immediately moves to make sure his Queen will be free.

9.Qxh7+ Kf8 10.d4 

Sacrificing a pawn to prepare for further development.

Instead, 10.Qxg6 was seen in perrypawnpusher - saltos, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 40) and Wall,B - VJCH, FICS, 2013 (1-0, 16).

An alternative, 10.O-O, was seen in mosinnagant - mumbaII, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 38) 

10...Bxd4 11.Bh6+ 

The idea. White has to be careful about his own Rook on the a1-h8 diagonal, however.

11...Nxh6 

An earlier game had gone 11... Ke8 12.Nc3 Qf6 13.O-O Bf7 14.Nd5 Qe6 15.Nxc7+ Kd8 16.Nxe6+ Black resigned, Petasluk - cuadriculas, FICS, 2008. 

12.Qxh6+ Ke8  13.Qxg6+ Bf7 

A very dynamic position, with White better. The first player has the advantage of a safer King and is three pawns and the exchange ahead in material - but his Queenside is about to be demolished.

In the meantime, where should White's Queen go? There is only one safe square that keeps his advantage.

14.Qg3 

White needed to play 14.Qf5!? in order to be able to answer 14...Bxb2 with the fork 15.Qb5+, when he can then pick up the Bishop. Once Her Majesty  is safe, White can then play c2-c3 or Nb1-c3 to keep the enemy attack on b2 stifled.

14...Bxb2 15.c3 Bxa1 16.O-O Bxa2  

White's original idea might have been to block Black's Bishop in at a1, and then capture it, but that will not work out.

This odd position is about equal.

17.Na3 Bxc3 

Black surrenders his piece too quickly He could have tried 17...Bb2 18.Nb5 a6 19.Nd4 Qf6 20.f4 c5 and held the advantage - according to Stockfish 8. It is really hard for me to judge this unbalanced position.

18.Qxc3 d5 19.Qe5+  Kd7  

Each side has 3 connected passed pawns!  

20.Nb5 Kc8 21.Rd1 Kb8  

Black has castled-by-hand, but in doing so has entombed his Rook. He will not be able to escape checkmate.

22.exd5 b6 23.d6 cxd6 24.Rxd6 Kb7 

Yes, things are this bad. However, even after surrendering the Queen, there will still be checkmate.

25.Rxd8 Rxd8 26.Qe7+ Kc8 27.Nd6+ 

There was also 27.Qc7#, but White has the game in hand.

27...Rxd6 28.Qxd6 Kb7 29.h4 b5 30.h5 Black resigned