A Walk on the Wild Side... (Part II)

Pete Banks ("blackburne") continues with his adventures...

"A Walk on the Wild Side..."

P Banks - R Brodie
Wolverton U-100 Cup

Halesowen v Bushbury
15.10.2008

25 minutes for 30 moves.
I'd better play quickly.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5

Ah! This gives me the chance to play the Jerome Gambit.
After the night I've had, I NEED to play it!

4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5
I love to see the look of bewilderment on their faces when they realise I've just sacced two pieces in 5 moves!

6.Qh5+ Ng6 7.Qxc5 d6
All standard stuff so far. I've played this lots of times but I'm still not sure of the best continuation now.

I've got a piece and 2 pawns for my two pieces and he can't castle. I need to develop quickly and push my extra pawns.

8.Qe3 Be6

[Played once before, but Brodie's bad luck is that it was in the game blackburne - calchess10, chessworld.com 2008, (1-0, 60) - Rick]

9.Nc3 N8e7 10.f4
Threatening a pawn fork.

10...Bd7

I've taken 4 minutes to his 20 so far. Another good reason to play the Jerome.

11.0-0 Re8 12.Qf2

I get nervous if my Q might be pinned, plus this stops ...Nh4.

12...Kg8 13.d4 Nc6 14.f5
This is starting to look good.

14...Nf8 15.Qg3

I don't think he's got time for ...Nxd4.

[15...Nxd4 16.f6 wins - Rick]

15...Qf6 16.d5 Nd4 17.Bg5

His Q is almost trapped. We both thought that if he played 17...Qf7 then f6 wins, but after the game we couldn't quite see a definite win.

[Neither can Deep Rybka 3, although it prefers 18.Qd3 - Rick]

17...Qe5

I don't want to swap queens, or my attack disappears and I might well end up losing.

18.Bf4 Qf6 19.Bg5 Qe5

Draw agreed.

I probably should have tried harder to see a win, but I only had about 10 minutes left to reach 30 moves.

After the evening I'd had I was glad of the draw.

[I fed the game to Deep Rybka 3 Human 32 bit, inside of Fritz8, and had it do a blunder check of the game, set for 5 minutes per half-move. It had only two suggestions of note, preferring 12.f5 (instead of 12.Qf2) Ne5 13.d4 Ng4 14.Qf3 Nf6 15.e5 dxe5 16.dxe5 Bc6 17.Qg3 Qd4+ 18.Be3 Qg4 19.exf6 Qxg3 20.hxg3 Nxf5 21.fxg7 Rxe3 22.Rxf5+ Kxg7 which looks drawish; and 16.Nd5 (instead of 16.d5) Qxd4+ 17.Be3 Qe5 18.Bf4 Qd4+ etc. leading to a draw similar to the game. It is possible that White could make something of 18.f6 (instead of 18.Bf4) Rec8 19.f7+ Kh8 20.Bf4 Qe7 21.Qd3 – but not with the time that he had left. - Rick ]

A Walk on the Wild Side (Part I)

From Great Britain's premier member of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e4 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) Gemeinde and regular contributor to this blog, Pete Banks ("blackburne").

"A Walk on the Wild Side"

P Banks v R Brodie
Halesowen v Bushbury
Wolv U-110 Cup
Board 1
15/10/2008

Chapter 1

I haven't played for a couple of seasons, so have forgotten where some of the clubs are. Anyway, I thought our captain had said Rushall, not Bushbury (well, they've both got an 'ush' in them!). Though Tony had sent me directions to Bushbury, I'd looked up Rushall while at work, and simply programmed their postcode into my sat-nav.

I set off in good time, but was held up by traffic and arrived just before 7:30. I tried the back door of the pub they play in. It was locked, so I went round the front.

Now the last time I played here one of the pub regulars spat at my feet as I was walking in, so I was slightly wary. I went in, and the place was deserted except for the barmaid and a few locals playing pool and glowering. The one I noticed particularly had a shaved head, and one of those T-shirts with the arms ripped off that said something like "F--- off world" on the front. He also had 'Love' and 'Hate' tattooed on his knuckles and a dotted line round his neck labelled 'Tear Here'. He had various other tattoos as well, but I didn't take them all in. Well you don't like to stare, do you?

Anyway, as I was asking the barmaid if the chess club still met there, only to be told "Yes, but on Mondays", this character marched purposefully behind me, taking his pool cue with him. Could be in a bit of trouble here I thought. The next thing I know, he taps me on the shoulder. Uh oh.

“Here, mate, you dropped your fags” he said, in a pleasant voice.

Chapter 2

Back in the car park, I had a think, and decided that the venue should have been Bushbury, so I drove there as fast as I could, arriving about 8:00 in the district, but nothing looked familiar.

I didn’t have anyone’s phone number with me, so I pulled into a side road and phoned home. I talked my computer-phobic wife through switching on, logging on, closing down warning messages etc, etc, and eventually managed to get her to navigate to Bushbury’s club site and give me the post code. I quickly found the club, which was locked.

I managed to get let in and sat down in the only empty seat. I now had 25 minutes left on my clock for 30 moves. I thought that the procedure was that if a team
member turned up late, everyone else moved up a place, so I assumed that I was
playing board 4. After the night I’d had so far I needed to let off steam a bit, and under the impression that I was on board 4, thought that my opponent would be relatively weak. So what else could I play but the Jerome Gambit?

After I committed to it, I looked at my opponent again, and recognised him. Surely he was a reasonable player? I sneaked a look over Tony’s shoulder at the match card, and sure enough I was still playing board one! Not one of my better nights!