Showing posts with label De Arman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label De Arman. Show all posts

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Slippery Slope

De Arman's 1893 Guide to the Chess Openings notes "The Jerome Gambit... is of course strictly unsound, as the sacrifice of a piece thus early in the game must ever be..." but, nonetheless, calls it "a very hazardous but interesting attack." True, an unfortunate slip early on can take Black down a slippery slope.

perrypawnpusher - louarn
blitz, FICS, 2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bc4 h6 5.0-0 Bc5


Transposing, at last, to the Semi-Italian Four Knights Game.

6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Nxe5+ Nxe5 8.d4


8...Bxd4

Our earlier game continued 8...Re8 9.dxc5 d6 10.cxd6 Qxd6 11.Qe2 Bg4 12.f3 Bh5 perrypawnpusher - louarn, blitz, FICS, 2010. After an exchange of errors I escaped into a won endgame (1-0, 49).

9.Qxd4 Qe7 10.f4 c5


A slip: I attack Black's Knight with a pawn (more effective than with a Bishop, as in perrypawnpusher - philippeemuuma, blitz, FICS, 2010, 1-0, 28) so he reflexively attacks a bigger piece, my Queen.

The correct move, as in perrypawnpusher - kinghh, blitz, FICS, 2010, was 10...Nc6, (1-0, 31)

11.Qxe5 Qxe5

Worse than 11...Re8, as seen in perrypawnpusher - jaymen, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 40)

12.fxe5 Ke6


There's no stopping the slide now, although 12...b6 13.exf6 g5 would have slowed it a bit.

13.exf6 Rf8 14.fxg7 Rg8


15.Bxh6 d6 16.Rf8 Bd7 17.Raf1 Ke5


18.Rxa8 Rxa8 19.Rf8 Rxf8 20.gxf8Q Be6 21.Bg7 checkmate