Jerome Gambit: More GMs? (Part 1)

I received an interesting email from "Cliff Hardy" the other day. In it, he notes

In the post about my game vs the Cuban GM, "A GM Faces the Jerome Gambit (Part 2)", you mentioned the virtually mistake-free game:  ChessCoachUA - PArnaudov, 3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2017: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qg3 Nf6 9.d3 Qd7 10.Nc3 Qg4 11.Qxg4 Bxg4 12.h3 Be6 13.Be3 Bxe3 14.fxe3 Ke7 15.O-O Rhf8 16.Nb5 c6 17.Nd4 Nd7 18.a4 Rxf1+ 19.Rxf1 Rf8 20.Rxf8 Nxf8 21.Kf2 g6 22.Nf3 Nd7 23.b3 a5 24.Ke2 Nc5 25.e5 dxe5 26.Nxe5 Kd6 27.d4 Nd7 28.Nd3 Bf5 29.g4 Bxd3+ 30.Kxd3 b5 31.axb5 cxb5 32.e4 a4 33.bxa4 bxa4 34.h4 a3 35.Kc3 Nb6 36.Kb3 Nc4 37.c3 Nd2+ 38.Kxa3 Nxe4 39.c4 Black lost on time; in which black maintains a winning advantage the whole game (from move 4), according to the Stockfish feature on Lichess (but loses on time in a winning position). I mentioned in a comment to the game that, in a slight anticlimax to my game being a rare example of a GM facing the Jerome Gambit, the black player PArnaudov is also a GM! https://lichess.org/@/PArnaudov

This certainly got me thinking! I responded quickly

The game ChessCoachUA - PArnaudov, 3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2017, is a good example of why some skeptical people see the Jerome Gambit as only playable in very quick games. Black can figure it all out, but it might take too much time. Certainly angelcamina has found this out with his 1 0 games.

I was interested in learning that PArnaudov is a GM... 

For fun, I went to The Database and did a search for games with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ and "ratings > 2500". I found 25 games, with 6 games where White was >2500. 

Wow! I was going to check out the games where the 2500+ player played the Jerome Gambit, first. The relevant games in The Database were all played online, not over-the-board.

One game was by BlackDemon, at FICS; it's a computer account; still, it might be fun to see if the Jerome is/was part of its book, the way "Brause" was set up to play the Halloween Gambit... 

Two of the games were by Topper76, at redhotpawn.com, in a Kentucky Opening tournament; I will have to track him down. Oddly enough, he won one Jerome Gambit game, on time, in 7 moves, and lost the other to a player rated 2421. 

Three of the games were by ChessCoachUA, at lichess.org - in fact, he was rated 2394, 2453, 2519, 2530, 2514 and 2459 on the site, for 6 Jeromes. Alas, ChessCoachUA's lichess.org account was listed as "closed", when I tried to check up on him.

Concerning the FICS computer account BlackDemon, I went to the online FICS games database, and found only 2 Jerome Gambits that it played with White, both in TheDatabase, one where the computer was "only" rated 2347 on the site. As a silicon beast, it couldn't be a grandmaster "in real life", anyhow.

I could not find a Topper76, at redhotpawn.com or elsewhere. Of course, those Jerome Gambit games were from 8 years ago, so the player may have moved on.

The ChessCoachUA story is a bit more complicated, and I had slipped up in my response to Cliff, above. The Database has 2 games by ChessCoachUA, as well as 2 games by ChessCoach_UA, and 4 games by ChessCoach1985. All of the players have lichess.org accounts listed as "closed", so it was not possible to do the kind of research that Cliff Hardy did with PArnaudov (above), to see if we were dealing with a GM in real life.

I tried, though.

I could find nothing on ChessCoach1985.

On the other hand, ChessCoach_UA, could well be Vasily Burishin, of Kiev, Ukraine. I could not find an FIDE rating.

I did find a ChessCoachUA at Chess.com - Alexey Pugach, of Dnepr, Ukraine, whose FIDE Chess Profile lists his rating as 1985. Of course I messaged him.

So - the search to find a human GM (FIDE rating, not online site rating) has not (yet) been successful.

[to be continued]

Jerome Gambit: Worse vs Best (Part 2)

While I tend to refer to 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ as the Jerome Gambit, the name has been attached to other move orders, especially in earlier years. The issue often comes down to which aspect of the opening, the Bishop sacrifice at f7, or the Queen advance to h5 (after 4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+), the annotator is looking at.

For example, Joseph Henry Blackburne, in his Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess (1899) refers to the Jerome Gambit a "the Kentucky Opening". He was clearly focused on the Queen move, as my posts on "The Kentucky Opening" Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and "The Kentucky/Danvers Opening" [1.e4 e5 2.Qh5] argue.

On the other hand, some writer focus upon the Bishop sacrifice. Gerald Abrahams is, perhaps, the most extreme example, coming out of the Bishop's Opening rather than the Giuoco Piano, labeling 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+ as The Jerome Gambit, despite no analysis or games by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome focusing on that line. See "The Abrahams Jerome Gambit" Part 1 & 2.

(For that matter, Alessandro Salvio wrote, in the early 1600s, about 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qe2 Nc6/Nf6 4.Bxf7+, although White's Queen would subsequently go to c4, with check, instead of h5, to pick up the Bishop at c5.)

Similar is the Lewis Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.d4 exd4 4.Bxf7+, and the similar Von der Lasa Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4, 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+. Both, with their focus on the Bishop sacrifice, seem to have escaped the Jerome Gambit label, however, at least as I can tell.

Further extended are lines like 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.Bxf7+, arising from either the Scotch Opening or the Giuoco Piano. The earliest game that I have with it is Wright - Hunn, Arkansas, US, 1874, which in the Dubuque Chess Journal of November, 1874, was referred to as "an unsound variation of Jerome's double opening." It has also been referred to, later on, as "the Macbeth Attack". (Of course, the first 4 moves have been recently covered in The Italian Gambit and A Guiding Repertoire For White - E4! by Acers and Laven.)

Finally, we come to 1.e4 e5. 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Bxf7+, which has been referred to, variously, as the Noa Gambit, the Monck Gambit - and, more recently, as the Open Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit. A closer look will probably muddy thing further.

[to be continued]

Interesting...

There is an interesting article on the 1918 Rye Beach Masters' Tournament at the eclectic, educational and entertaining Tartajubow on Chess II website. I am always pleased to find "Danvers Opening", "Kentucky Opening" and "Jerome Gambit" on the same page.

Check it out.

The Montgomery Major Attack and Friends

I received an email the other day concerning Montgomery Major, whose name is attached to a gambit - the "Montgomery Major Attack" - that was touched upon in this blog about 4 1/2 years ago.

The line develops out of the Tennison Gambit, going 1.e4 d5 2.Nf3 dxe4 3.Ng5 e5 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.Qh5+. 

Of course, my interest was the way in which the opening showed certain Jerome Gambit (J. H. Blackburne might have said "Kentucky Opening") tendencies - although the piece sacrificed was a Knight, not a Bishop.

Much to my surprise, other than a half dozen bullet (1 minute, 0 increment) games at lichess.org, I have found only one example of the opening.

Watts,J (1835) - Zeidler,S (2235)
West Wales op Swansea, 1999

1.e4 d5 2.Nf3 dxe4 3.Ng5 e5 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.Qh5+ g6 6.Qxe5 Nf6 7.Bc4+ Kg7 8.d4 Nc6 9.Qg5 h6 10.Qg3 Nxd4 11.0-0 b5 12.Rd1 bxc4 13.Rxd4 Qxd4 14.Qxc7+ White Resigned

This, in turn, reminded me of the Damiano Defense 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f6, which can continue 3.Nxe5 fxe5 4.Qh5+. 

The Damiano came up in a couple of my games while I was attempting to reach a Jerome Gambit - starting 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 f6. These were examined in "A Jerome Gambit Declined" and "Frustration is the Grandmother of Invention".

A New Abrahams Jerome Gambit

The following game is typical of Philidor1792: an interesting opening line, pawn play against the extra piece, some sharp tactics - all executed at blitz pace. 

Philidor1792 - guest543
3 0 blitz, www.bereg.ru, 2014

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+ 

I have referred to this as the Abrahams Jerome Gambit (see Part I and Part II), after Gerald Abrahams, who, in his The Chess Mind (1951) and The Pan Book of Chess (1965) referred to the line as the Jerome Gambit or Jerome's Gambit. Other authors may have made this attribution, earlier - I would be glad to hear from Readers.

To date, I have not been able to find a game or analysis by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome with the line. My guess is that Abrahams decided that the presence of Bxf7+ was enough to make it Jerome's.

This kind of mis-attribution has occurred before. Joseph Henry Blackburne, in annotating his famous destruction of the Jerome Gambit (see "Nobody Expects the Jerome Gambit!"), referred to it as the "Kentucky Opening".

After some investigation (see "The Kentucky Opening" Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as "The Kentucky/Danvers Opening"), I ran across analysis of 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 - "the Kentucky Opening" - published in the Dubuque Chess Journal at around the same time the magazine was introducing the world to the Jerome Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+. My conclusion

[T]he Queen move in the Jerome Gambit, and the Queen move in the Kentucky Opening are an outstanding – but similar – feature in each opening, something which likely caught Blackburne's eye.

3...Kxf7 4.Qh5+ Kf8 5.Qxe5 d6 6.Qg3 Nf6

7.d3 Nc6 8.c3 Kf7 9.Ne2 Re8 10.f3 d5 11.d4 Bb6 12.e5 Nh5

13.Qf2 g6 14.g4 Ng7 15.Na3 Ne7 16.Nc2 h5 17.h3 Be6 18.Bg5 Qd7 19.Kd2 hxg4 20.hxg4 Rh8 

The position resembles an unusual French Defense Advance Variation!

21.Ne3 c5 22.Qg3 cxd4 23.cxd4 Ba5+ 24.Nc3 Rac8 25.a3 Bb6 26.Nc2 Nc6 

27.Kd3 Na5 28.Raf1 Nc4 29.Bc1 Ba5 30.Ne3 Bxc3 31.bxc3 Qb5 32.Kc2 Qa4+ 33.Kd3 Nxa3 34.f4 Qb3 35.Bd2 Nc4 

White is in trouble, and seeks counterplay against Black's King.

36.f5 gxf5 37.gxf5 Nxd2 

Just the break White was looking for! Now he has a forced checkmate, featuring a Queen sacrifice.

38.fxe6+ Kg8 39.Qxg7+! Kxg7 40.Rhg1+ 

Alas! White is short of time, and goes for the repetition of position and the draw. With a few more seconds he would have found 40.Rfg1+ Kf8 41.Rxh8+ Ke7 42.Rg7+ Kxe6 43.Rh6 checkmate.

40...Kh7

Black, in turn, misses the saving 40...Kh6.

41.Rh1+ Kg8 42.Rhg1+ 

See the note to White's 40th move.

Drawn

An Adventure

Researching and playing the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is a lot of fun, but I get the most enjoyment out of hearing from others who have discovered Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's impertinent opening, had had their own adventures.

Here's a recent email that I received; you will see what I mean.

Dear Rick,

I played your beloved Jerome Gambit in a real OTB tournament game (8 man 3 round Swiss G/30) at my local chess club last night.

First, a little background.  I played OTB rated chess at a chess club in the mid 1980’s as a young fanatic just out of school.  Then I got married and raised a family.  Chess was a rare occasional pleasure with friends or family.  I became known as sort of the Shane of my chess playing friends, trying to let the past remain in the past but getting called in from time to time to shoot down someone else’s evil black hatted nemesis.  But of course you know there is a world of difference between rated players and casual players.  So there is little real pleasure in beating Uncle Willie’s plumber.  Not even if it includes  a Fischer-esque ego crushing.

So after a 25 year absence I’ve started playing OTB USCF rated chess again.

I discovered your blog while googling “Bent Larsen quotes” and hit on this:

http://jeromegambit.blogspot.com/2011/08/powerful-like-storm.html

LOL.  Not the one I was searching for but fortuitously found out “why chess was invented”.  Truly a gift of the gods to a languishing chess world.  An adrenaline junkie’s wet dream.

In my sixth rated game since my return to chess, and the third game of last evening, I was playing white.  My opponent was rated in the mid-1300’s and my rating is probably comparable at this time.  We reached a Guioco Piano position after three moves.  My planned repertoire was to play the Evan’s Gambit vs GP and Max Lange Attack vs Two Knights Defense.   On a whim, I decided to play 4.Bxf7 and have some fun.

“This is totally unsound and should never be tried!” – GM Raymond Keene

With such an endorsement, who can resist?  Here’s the game.

White: Me

Black:  Mr. SF

G/30

1.e4            e5

2.Nf3          Nc6

3.Bc4          Bc5

4.Bxf7+      Kxf7

5.Nxe5+     Kf8

Unexpected.  Ke7 is the Paulsen variation.  I hadn’t seen this move on your blog….yet, but I’ve only read a few months worth of posts.  So from here, I’m on my own.  “Intelligence guided by experience.”  (OK Mr. Mystery writer - 10 extra credit points if you can identify that quote without google J)

6.Qh5         Nxe5

7.Qxe5       d6

8.Qh5         Qf6

9.d4            Bxd4

10.Be3       Bxe3

11.fxe3

I didn’t want to trade dark squared bishops, and I didn’t want to double the Jerome pawns, but I really, really wanted to open up the f-file for Rf1 pinning and winning the queen.  This is taking on the flavor of a Muzio King’s Gambit.

11. …           Qxb2

How to squirm out of this one?

12.O-O +   

The title of this should probably be “Thank You Mr. Polgar”.  I’ve been going through Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games lately and two themes popped up in my game.

Thank you Mr. Polgar.  The only “mate in one” that I had trouble with in your book was a mate that was delivered by white castling.  So it was fresh in my mind.  This doesn’t deliver mate obviously but it makes my game come alive and saves my rooks.

12. ….          Nf6

13.Nd2        Qc3

14.e5           Qxe3+

15.Kh1        Qxe5

Well done by black.  At this point I’m thinking my game is going nowhere.  I’m down material, my attack is fading, and I don’t have the Jerome big pawn center to shove down black’s throat.  But this is no ordinary game.  This is the Jerome Gambit!  All you have to do is jump on its back and hang on for the ride!  Right?  Right???

16.Qf3          d5

17.Rae1       Qg5

What to do… what to do…. Ah ha!  Let’s sneak in the back door and stir up the hen house.

18.Qa3+      Kf7

19.Qe7+      Kg6

20.Re3

With the intention of Rg3 pinning and winning the queen.  I have to be careful about the back rank mate threats.  I almost played Rf3??

20. …           Re8

21.Rxf6+     Qxf6

22.Qxe8+    Kh6

23.h3

Removing the back rank mate threat and setting up my next two moves.

 

23. …               Qf4

24.g4                b6

He missed the point of g4 entirely.
 

Thank you Mr. Polgar for including a lot of examples in your book of utilizing pawns to help deliver checkmate.  This was the second game of the evening that my pawn pushes put my opponent’s king in peril.

25.Qh5 #

Obviously not a high quality game.  I’m sure we both missed many opportunities.  Just two class C players doing their best.

Thanks for the blog.  Do I have the USCF apply my gained rating points to you?

Sincerely,

Mr. J.E.

Danville, IL

A fine adventure, eh, Readers? Many thanks for sharing, Joe.

(From Danville, IL, huh? That reminds me of Danville, Kentucky, which reminds me of the Danvers Opening and the Kentucky Opening, which the Jerome Gambit reminded J.H. Blackburne of... But I digress. - Rick)

So Much Fun...

Looking back at some of the highlights of the early posts to this blog was so much fun, I decided to do a little more digging and sharing... Here we go.

I have made at least a half-dozen trips to the White Collection of the Cleveland Public Library to look up Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) games and analyses. I have also used my local library, interlibrary loan and the online Google Books.

For example, a few years ago I came across Volume XI of The Westminster Papers of London, "A Monthly Journal of Chess, Whist, Games of Skill, and The Drama" which had this note in its February 1, 1879 issue:

We shall be most happy to receive some games fairly well played in which the Jerome Double Gambit was adopted. They will be handed to our annotator indue course and will analyse them in an unprejudiced and impartial manner.

Unfortunately, the The March and April issues which complete Volume XI have no further reference to Jerome's Gambit; and, alas, they were the last issues of The Westminster Papers to be published 

Sometimes the searching turns up fun stuff. What about a "reversed Jerome Gambit?" Sounds crazy, but the posts on 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Bc5, known by some as the "Busch - Gass Gambit", or, with the addition of 3.Nxe5 Nc6, as "Chiodini's Gambit" might be "Worth A Second Look"

Jumping on the trend, I invented the fictional "Jerome Gambit For Dummies" and provided educational material that I've added to from time to time (you can use the "search" feature on the blog). It's as lighthearted as "Whodunnit?", but that's okay. It makes more sense than "The Jerome Gambit shows up in the oddest places..."

The "Optical Illusion" variation of the Jerome Gambit continued to crop up.Jyrki Heikkinen shared his version of the "Sicilian Jerome Gambit". There was some work on "The Kentucky Opening". Then, there is that "Pie-in-the-Face" Variation"...

I opined on "A Side Line to Watch". I started sharing some "Stats" on the Jerome.

Who knows if there is a "Conspiracy of Silence" surrounding a particular variation of the Jerome Gambit? What about that "Critical Line 5...Kf8"?  What do we know about "The Life of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome"? What's with "the Nudge"? Did Adolph Albin actually play the Jerome Gambit? Can you handle the "Jerome Gambit Quiz"?

These are just some of the highlights of the blog posts made in 2009 alone (with 365 a year, there are plenty to choose from). Many games were presented that year, and I continued to share my Jerome Gambit wins and losses (my score is 83% in games with that refuted opening)

Play the Jerome Gambit Quad

Around the corner, as it were, to the "1st Jerome Gambit Race" at Chess.com, mentioned in yesterday's post, is Chess.com's Play the Jerome Gambit Quad, which includes long-time Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member Bill Wall.

I'd like to share some of the rock 'em sock 'em games, starting with the first one finished.

bfcace (1619) - DeDrijver (1388)
Play The Jerome Gambit Quad
Chess.com, 2012

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Qf6 8.Nc3

There are only 8 examples of this gambling move (Will Black withdraw his Knight? Will he capture the pawn on f4?) in The Database, with the oldest being from a game between Hiarcs8 and Fritz7 in 2002 (0-1, 59), and the most recent from a game between Yigor and mrdenetop (1-0, 10) from the Kentucky Opening /Jerome Gambit tournament played at Chess.com last year (see "My Old Kentucky... Opening" and "Sunday Tournament Update").

8...g6 9.Qh3+ Kf7 10.Nd5 Qc6

Allowing White to capture at e5, which opens the floodgates.

11.fxe5 d6 12.Rf1+ Kg7 13.e6 Bxe6

Black is in trouble, but this move leads to mate.

14.Qc3+ Kh6 15.d4+ Kg7 16.dxc5+ Nf6 17.Qxf6+ Kg8 18.Ne7 checkmate