Jerome Gambit: I Am Not As Smart As Bill Wall (Part 2)

[continued from previous post]

perrypawnpusher - LttlePrince

Italian Game Classic tournament, Chess.com, 2020

I was ready to answer 19...Nf2 with 20.Qxf5+ Kg7 21.Qf6+ Kg8 22.Qe6+ Kf8 23.Qf6+ etc. and split the point with a draw by repetition.

19...Raf8

My opponent was not amused. I could have now captured a pawn with 20.Qxf5+, but, after 20...Ke7 21.Qg4 he probably would have gone for the Knight fork with 21...Nf2, and there would be no draw for me to find for the loss of the exchange.

20.Rhf1 Ke7 21.Rf3 

The Rook was going - somewhere?

The irony was that while I was considering making moves against the enemy King on both the Kingside and Queenside, Black's Knight stood like a tower of strength in the middle of my position.

21...Qc5 22.Rb3 b5 

At the time, this looked like a consession by my opponent.

23.a4 a6 

Of course. It was a bit too much to hope for 23...bxa4 24.Rb7+.

24.Qh6 

This was the high point of my optimism about our game. It was mostly downhill, thereafter.

24...Rfg8 25.g3 Rg6 26.Qh5 Ke6 

What to do?

After the game, the computer suggested 27.Kb1, but I chose a different kind of piece shuffling. I wanted to leave my Queen where she was, as she seemed to be keeping the enemy Rooks busy. So - a Rook?

27.Re1 Qc4 

More salt in the wounds. I had the impression that opening a line would now be against my King, but I wasn't ready to give the a-pawn away for free.

28.axb5 axb5 29.Ra3 b4   Black resigned

Black's b-pawn is headed toward b3, and, in the meantime, where is my Rook to go? In the meantime, my Queen isn't holding his Rooks, the Rooks are holding my Queen. His extra Knight still sits there, smiling.

This is what it's like to be decisively defeated by a stronger opponent, one more proof that I am not as smart as Bill Wall.

Jerome Gambit: I Am Not As Smart As Bill Wall (Part 1)

I just resigned my Jerome Gambit game in the third round of the Italian Game Classic tournament at Chess.com. Truth be told, I ran out of ideas, in a bad position.

That's just one way that I am not as smart as Bill Wall - he never seems to run out of ideas. There are other ways, to be sure, and I will get to them.

In the mean time, I have to congratulate my opponent, who steadily and clearly out-played me, even more than I had feared.

Most likely I will finish in 3rd place in the tournament, out of 5 players, behind the undefeated Winawer99, and LttlePrince.

perrypawnpusher - LttlePrince
Italian Game Classic tournament, Chess.com, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ 

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

For the record, I had played this line against AndrewLLL earlier this round, winning in 18 moves. I was a bit worried that LttlePrince might notice, and learn from that game - as well as my blog notes.

This headache was just recently compounded, when I advanced to the fourth round of the Italian Game Battlegrounds tournament at Chess.com, along with TamasHK - and AndrewLLL (we had tied for top in our section and both moved on). So I can expect both of them to stop by and peruse this game coverage, too. (Hi, guys.)

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Bd6 8.dxe5 Bxe5 

9.Ne2

Previously, I had played 9.f4 in perrypawnpusher - joseluislopez, blitz, FICS, 2012 (0-1, 55) and 9.Bg5 in perrypawnpusher - lixuanxuan, blitz, FICS, 2014 (1-0, 22). I did not like how Black damaged my Queenside pawns in that first game, so I chose the text as a way of avoiding the Bishop-for-Knight swap.

According to The Database, 9.Ne2 was a novelty when I played it against AndrewLLL. I hadn't come up with anything better - so I played it again, against LttlePrince. 

9...c6 10.f4 Bc7 11.e5 Ne4 

A slight improvement over 11...Nd5, which AndrewLLL had played. This Knight seems to be floating in air, but, once it is cemented in place, it becomes a dominating force.

12.Qd3

Ah, yes. A decade ago, Wall, B - Stevanovic, R, Chess.com, 2010 had continued, instead, 12.O-O Bb6+ 13.Nd4 Bxd4+ 14.Qxd4 Qb6 15.Be3 Qxd4 16.Bxd4 and Black had succeeded in swapping Queens, exaggerating his Knight-for-a-pawn material edge. Since the game was a rare thing - a loss by Bill - I had figured that I could "improve" on his play by avoiding similar excitement along the a7-g1 diagonal. Fair enough; but, as I have pointed out, I am not as smart as Bill Wall...

12...d5 13.Be3 Bf5 14.Qb3 Bb6 15.O-O-O Bxe3+ 16.Qxe3 Qb6

This was my preparation for the line - no need to search for the game, it hasn't been posted on the blog, see "Do I Share Everything? No" - I even had an "answer" to "save" my Queen.

17.Nd4 g6 

Well, my King has castled, and my Rooks are linked - but his Rooks are linked, too. White's chances must lie in mobilizing his "Jerome pawns", starting with h2-h3, perhaps preparing this with g2-g3 in order to counter-act Black's possible prophylaxis with ...h7-h5 and ...h5-h4.

Instead, I decided upon a joke plan that probably would have worked in 1-minute bullet chess, and might have worked in 5-minute blitz chess, but had no place in a 3-days-per-move tournament. 

18.Nxf5 gxf5 19.Qh3 

See? Who could possibly resist 19...Nf2, forking both of my Rooks and my Queen?

Is this chess or stand up comedy?

[to be continued]

Jerome Gambit: Yet, Ever Onward

The third round of Chess.com's "Italian game Classic" tournament has started, and I find myself in Group 1 - which consists of me, LttlePrince, pitman63, Sp1derR1c0 and Winawer99. (I am the next-to-lowest rated.)

With two Whites to start off with, I faced a couple of Two Knights Defenses, and was able to wrangle one of them into an Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

The other game could have evolved into a Noa Gambit, but I haven't recovered the suffering I experienced at the hands of  RemoveKubab1, last year. (That is quite funny, given that Komodo 10 rates Black 3 3/4 pawns ahead in the Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit; while it assesses Black to be only 1 1/2 pawns ahead in the Noa Gambit.)  I keep thinking that I should try the Boden-Kieseritzky Gambit, but will probably return to using a couple of ideas from Yury V. Bukayev.