I was emailing Chessville neighbor JanXena ("Les Femmes des Echecs" – news, games, and witty & urbane commentary) the other day when I got to wondering: did I know how many women were creative enough, courageous enough, carefree enough – or downright foolish, reckless, and bored enough – to play the Jerome Gambit?Hello! Oh, I know that I make often the opening with these moves as you mentioned...but unfortunately I NEVER have read a book or any theoretic things about it or even about chess. That's because I'm just learning by doing, I play most of moves very fast and as you can see, I play very often. So with the time I have my favourite openings, but am always open to try new ones or "unconventional" moves.... For me the game is interesting just by doing and I realized that I will get better with many many losses... that takes probably more time than studying the theory, but if I should study it, it wouldn't be fun any more for me.
Yesterday and the day before, I tried to orchestrate some J. Gambits at gameknot's blitz program... I played 15-20 games and was only able to get in one Jerome Gambit, which I won, although I missed a quicker, and nicer, mate which I saw while reviewing the game just now before sending it.
My opponent may have been a stronger player than he appears in this game. His play seemed a little contemptuous at first and it's more likely he underestimated the power of the open lines against his exposed king. Protecting his knight rather than moving it, only to lose it, cost him the game.
I'm always looking for more.
Some are historical
D'Aumiller - A. P.
Livorno, 1878
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 d6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.c3 Bb6 10.fxe5 dxe5 11.Na3 Nf6 12.Qf5+ Kd6 13.Nc4+ Kc5 14.Qxe5+ Kxc4 15.b3+ Kd3 16.Bf4 Kc2 17.Rc1+ Kb2 18.c4+ Ka3 19.Rc2 Re8 1-0
Some are tragic modern over-the-board games
Banks - Rees
Wolverhampton Summer League
Division 3S
Halesowen v Lucas BS, 2003
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kf8 6.Qh5 Qf6 7.Nxd7+ Bxd7 8.Qxc5+ Qd6 9.Qxd6+ cxd6 10.c3 Nf6 11.f3 Kf7 12.0-0 Rhe8 13.d4 Kg8 14.Bf4 d5 15.e5 Nh5 16.Bg5 Nxe5 17.dxe5 Rxe5 18.Bc1 Bb5 19.Rd1 Rae8 20.Bd2 Re2 21.Na3 Bd3 22.Re1 Nf4 23.Rxe2 Nxe2+ 24.Kf2 Rf8 25.b4 Nf4 26.Bxf4 Rxf4 27.Ke3 Rh4 28.Kxd3 Rxh2 29.Rg1 Kf7 30.Nb5 Rh6 31.Re1 a6 32.Nd4 g6 33.a4 Rh2 34.g4 Ra2 35.a5 Ra3 36.Re5 Ra2 37.Rxd5 Rh2 38.Rd7+ Kf6 39.Rxb7 h5 40.gxh5 gxh5 41.Rb6+ Kg5 42.Rxa6 h4 43.Ne6+ Kf5 44.Ke3 Rc2 45.Nd4+ 1-0
Some are internet beasties
blackburne - karmmark
Jerome Gambit thematic tournament
www.chessworld.net, 2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Nc6 8.Qxc5 Qe7 9.Qd5+ Kf6 10.Qf5 mate
Some are sleepy affairs
Brescak - Hefti
EU-ch U10 Girls, 1998
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ draw agreed.
In all about 7% are over-the-board games, 12% involve computers (person vs computer or computer vs computer), 2% are traditional (snail mail) correspondence games and 79% are games played on the internet (various time controls).
These statistics reflect the explosion of chess in general on the internet – as well as the continued challenge of unearthing historical games, as reflected in the two smallest per centages above. With good reason National Master Eric Schiller includes the Jerome Gambit, despite its untamed early life, among those he calls a "cyberspace gambit" in his Gambit Chess Openings (2002).
In fact, a ChessBase-generated graph of the games, distributed by year played, looks like a very skinny Bozo the Clown taking a nap on his back: his nose beeps up in the mid-1870s to mid-1880s and then there's very little in the sillouette until his large clown shoes explode in the 2000 to present era...
