Jerome Gambit: Early Opening Tomes (Part 2)

In 1891, reflecting the chess world's ambivalence about the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), G.H.D. Gossip's Chess Player's Vade Mecum and Pocket Guide to the Openings Gossip had analysis of the Jerome, while his Theory of Chess Openings did not. The Handbuch was silent as well.

By 1900 a reader could still find references, but they might be delegated to instruction for novices. Chess Openings for Beginners, by Edward Ernest Cunnington, for example, exhausts itself with "Here we may mention, with a caution, as being quite unsound, the Jerome Gambit." The following year, Cunnington's The Modern Chess Primer mentions the first 6 moves of the named gambit.

In 1902, William Cook's (of Synopsis) The Chess Player's Compendium had no mention of the Jerome Gambit. For that matter, neither did his 1906 The Evolution of the Chess Openings.

Perhaps the 1904 The Complete Chess Guide, by G.H.D Gossip F.J. Lee, showed the Jerome Gambit's hanger-on status best. At the start of the book the authors proclaim

We have therefore eliminated obsolete openings and confined ourselves merely to a brief examination of a dozen of the leading debuts...; omitting those openings in which the defense is declared by the most competent theorists to be weak or inferior, as for example Philidor's and Petroff's Defenses to the Kings Knight's opening; the Sicilian; the Greco Counter Gambit; Center Counter Gambit; Fianchettoes, Blackwar [sic] and Jerome Gambit, etc.

HOWEVER, Part III of the book, "Guide to the Openings," contained Jerome Gambit analysis!

It was left up to the March 1906 edition of Lasker's Chess Magazine to pronounce
"Our Question Box"

Ichabodf: - 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.

Shillings: One Found, Two Lost (Part 1)

Sometime back I contacted Edward Winter, of "Chess Notes" and Chess History fame, with some questions about the origin and naming of the Blackburne Shilling Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4). He posted my query, and recently presented some relevant information. 

3786. Blackburne Shilling Gambit

From Rick Kennedy (Columbus, OH, USA):

‘The opening 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nd4 has been called the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, in recognition, apparently, of J.H. Blackburne’s use of it to win small stakes from players. However, I have yet to find a single game with it played by Blackburne. In fact, the earliest game uncovered was played in New Zealand in 1911. How did Blackburne’s name become attached to the variation? Indeed, when did it become attached?

Steinitz’s Modern Chess Instructor has a note on the line, but does not refer to Blackburne. Mr Blackburne’s Games at Chess makes no mention of it. Nor does Freeborough and Ranken’s Chess Openings Ancient and Modern attribute the line (given in a footnote) to anyone. E.E. Cunnington’s books (one on traps, one on openings for beginners), which were published in London shortly after the turn of the century, give the moves but do not name Blackburne.

One clue may be that the first edition of Hooper and Whyld’s Oxford Companion to Chess (1984) does not call the line by name, but the second edition (1992) calls it the Blackburne Shilling Gambit. Did the co-authors discover some historical information during that eight-year period?’

6470. Blackburne Shilling Gambit (C.N. 3786)

From page 429 of the December 1897 American Chess Magazine:

"All chess life seems to be with America," writes an esteemed and particularly well-posted English correspondent. "A great change has come over English chess. The 'old masters' are dying out. The new-born strength of amateurs has slaughtered them. They have no prestige. Names once of weight are now spoken of with contempt. No new professionals are coming in – no new Blackburnes or Birds. The 'nimble shilling,' for which the old professionals played at the Divan, is now too hardly earned. The country joskins know the openings and the principles, and instead of Bird's giving a Queen and winning twenty games in an hours, as I have seen ('hoc egomet oculis mei vidi'), he plays on even terms, and of five games wins only the odd one and a shilling. The ancient 'Shilling Gambit' is no longer a thing of dread. Young men from Birmingham walk into the Divan without awe and speak of giving odds. And the late H. Macaulay of this city (now Birmingham) actually conceded the Knight to a master who played and won a prize in the Manchester International, and Macaulay, giving the odds, won a majority of the games." - New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Short Takes

Sometimes – at least when it comes to the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) – there can be a big difference between having little to say and being speechless.

From Foster's Complete Hoyle: An Encyclopedia of Games, Including All the Indoor Games Played at the Present Day. With Suggestions for Good Play, All the Official Laws.By Robert Frederick Foster (1909)

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

From The Art of Chess, James Mason, Leopold Hoffer, (Third edition, revised and enlarged, 1905)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Here 4.Bxf7+ (Jerome Gambit) may be just mentioned as quite unsound.

From Chess Openings, James Mason (1905)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ (Jerome Gambit) may be just mentioned as quite unsound.

From Chess, Robert Frederick Green (1905)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ The Jerome Gambit. Seldom played.

From Chess Openings for Beginners, Edward Ernest Cunnington (1900)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Here we may mention, with a caution, as being quite unsound, the Jerome Gambit; 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ and Black plays 6...Ke6 (or B sq.) with a safe game.

From 200 Miniature Games of ChessCombinations in the Openings, J. du Mont, (1942)

1.e4 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ The Jérôme Gambit which is unsound, but has the saving grace of leading to a lively game and is therefore suitable for anoccasional friendly game. The defender cannot, however, afford to be careless...