From the previous post:
Ten years ago I wrote a substantial article on the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and submitted it to the German language chess magazine, Kaissiber. The editor, Stefan Buecker, was supportive, and tried, over the years, to somehow make the submission work. His was a serious and well-respected magazine, however, and even a well-written (and revised) piece on a highly suspect chess opening could not find a place in its pages.
My presentation of the article continues.
This light-hearted approach found full form in the May 1877
issue of the Danish chess magazine Nordisk Skaktidende, where Lieutenant
Soren Anton Sorensen, analyzed the Jerome
Gambit in his “Chess Theory for Beginners” column:
With this
answering move of the Bishop [1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6
3.Bc4 Bc5] we have the
fundamental position for that good old game
which the Italians, hundreds of
years ago, when they were masters of
the Chessboard, called "Giuoco
Piano," even game, but the later age,
for generality of explanation, the
"Italian game." On this basis the
usual continuation is 4.c3, whereby
the QP at the next move threatens
to advance, and the White middle
Pawns to occupy the centre. In the
next articles we will make mention
of that regular fight for the
maintenance or destruction of the
center, which is the essential point
of the Italian game; in this, on
the contrary, we will occupy ourselves
with a Bashi-Bazouk attack, over
which the learned Italians would
have crossed themselves had they
known it came under the idea of
piano, but which is in
reality of very recent date - 1874, and takes it
origin from an American, A.W.
Jerome. It consists in the sacrifice of a
piece by 4.Bxf7+. Naturally we
immediately remark that it is unsound,
and that Black must obtain the
advantage; but the attack is pretty sharp,
and Black must take exact care, if
he does not wish to go quickly to the
dogs. A little analysis of it will,
therefore, be highly instructive, not to
say necessary, for less practiced
players, and will be in its right place
in our Theory, especially since it
is not found in any handbook. The
Americans call the game
"Jerome's double opening," an allusion,
probably, to the fresh sacrifice of
a piece which follows at the next
move, but we shall prefer to use
the short and sufficiently clear
designation, Jerome Gambit.
This
nomenclature was examined earnestly in the Huddersfield College Magazine
of July 1879
We do not well know why this
opening, (a branch of the
“Giuoco”)
is styled a gambit, as it consists in White sacrificing a
piece on
the fourth move, and Staunton
in his Handbook defines a
gambit as
a sacrifice of a Pawn.
The Americans recognize the force of
this by styling the
Opening
“Jerome’s double opening,” although we don’t quite see
the
meaning of this. How “double”? We think that the simple and
natural
definition of Jerome’s Attack – as Cochrane’s Attack in
the
“Petroff” where a piece is also given up by White on his fourth
move –
would suffice)
The
August 1877 issue of the British Chess Player’s Chronicle and the
December 1877 issue of the Italian Nuova Rivista Degli Scacchi,
reprinted Sorensen’s article (in English and Italian, respectively),
introducing the Jerome Gambit to an even wider audience. Almost every Jerome
Gambit analyst since has leaned heavily on Sorensen.
Hallock
reconciled with Jerome in the September & October 1877 issue of the American
Chess Journal
We are pleased to note that the
daring and brilliant debut
invented
by our friend Jerome, of Paxton,
Ill, is receiving
recognition
abroad, both among players and analysts. Sr. Vazquez,
the
Mexican Champion, plays it with fine success when yielding
the odds
of a Knight, while Mr. Charlick, a strong Australian
player,
has been giving us some fine specimens of his chess skill in
the new
opening; some time since the Italian Chess Magazine published
a game at
this opening with favorable comments on the “new departure,”
and in
the May number of the Nordisk Skaktidende, S. A. Sorensen
gives us
a sparkling analysis of the “Americanism,” a translation of
which we
herewith present. The MSS was submitted to Mr. Jerome,
who
expresses himself highly pleased with the thoroughness and ability
with
which our Danish contemporary has presented the subject…
Now that chess players abroad are
investigating the merits of
the
Jerome we would suggest that our magnates at home give it some
attention…
Interest in the Jerome Gambit did not remain just among beginning chess players.
A couple of years later, Andres Clemente Vazquez included three wins with the Gambit, from
his 1876 match against carrington, in his Algunas Partidas de Ajedrez Jugadas in Mexico por
Andres Clemente Vazquez.
G. H. D. Gossip’s 1879 book, Theory of the Chess Openings, included an analysis of the Jerome Gambit,
“substantially the same” as that which appeared in the Chess Player’s Chronicle, as the latter noted in a review of the work. At about the same
time, the American daily newspaper, the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, in its chess column, struck the right tone in its review of Theory,
noting gleefully
...the Jerome Gambit, which high-toned players sometimes affect
to despise because it is radically unsound, finds a place, and to this it is certainly entitled.”
The next year, in 1880, when the 6th edition of the illustrious Handbuch des Schachspiels was published, the Commercial
Gazette’s chess columnist was again ready to “complain” about the state of affairs
…that the"Jerome Gambit" should be utterly (even if deservedly) ignored.
[to be continued]
