With one game left to complete in the ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament, and that one largely unbalanced, the final standings can be predicted as follows
AsceticKingK9 27/28
mckenna215 23.5/28
braken 19.5/28
Rikiki00 19.5/28
Knight32 18.5/28
shm19cs 16.5/28
blackburne 15/28
Magni 14/28
Haroldlee123 12/28
DREWBEAR 63 11/28
pixifrufru 9/28
Baron wd von
Blanc, heart pirate 8.5/28
Luke Warm 8/28
klonka59 5/28
martind1991 3/28
If the finish of the following game can be considered somewhat of a horse race, then it proves to be a mismatch, and a victory for White (and the Jerome Gambit).
mckenna215 - DREWBEAR 63
Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament
ChessWorld, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4
This move, as opposed to 6.Qh5+, saw a bit of a revival in this tournament.
6...Bd6
Not a cautious move. mckenna215 scored two points against it in the Thematic Tournament.
7.dxe5 Bxe5 8.Qd5+ Kf8
8...Ke8 9.Qxe5+ Qe7 10.Bf4 Qxe5 11.Bxe5 d6 12.Bxg7 Black resigned, mckenna215 - Magni, Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament, ChessWorld, 2011.
9.Qxe5 d6 10.Qf4+ Qf6
Perhaps Black is already thinking about finding safety in the endgame: so, off with the Queens!
11.Nc3 Qxf4 12.Bxf4 Nf6 13.0-0-0 Be6 14.Nb5
White's Knight abandons the e-pawn to go in search of larger prey. Black's Knight grabs the pawn, but cannot keep up.
14...Nxe4 15.Nxc7 Nxf2 16.Rhf1
The line-up of pieces on the f-file spell disaster.
16...Nxd1 17.Bxd6+ Black resigned
The double, discovered check assures that White will be a piece (and a pawn) ahead: 17...Kg8 18.Nxa8 h5 19.Kxd1 Kh7 20.Rf8 Rxf8 21.Bxf8
The standings of the current ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament
AsceticKingK9 25/26
mckenna215 23.5/28
braken 19.5/28
Knight32 18.5/28
Rikiki00 17.5/26
shm19cs 15.5/27
blackburne 15/28
Magni 12/26
Haroldlee123 11/27
DREWBEAR 63 11/28
pixifrufru 8/27
Baron wd von Blanc, heart pirate 7.5/26
Luke Warm 6/26
klonka59 4/24
martind1991 1/15
The ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament is underway, all 15 competitors and all 210 games!
We are already seeing results (8 completed games so far, 6 wins by White) from AsceticKingK9, mckenna215, Rikiki00, braken, blackburne, DREWBEAR 63, Knight32, Magni, pixifrufru, shm19cs, klonka59, Baron wd von Blanc heart pirate, martind1991, Luke Warm and Haroldlee123.
Many games are in their early stages, others are racing along.
There are a number of examples of the Jerome Gambit Declined (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kf8/Ke7) – a relatively rare beast making up only about 9/10th-of-a-percent of the games in The Database – those certainly will expand our understanding of that line.
At least 29% of the games are "classical" Jerome Gambits, with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7+ followed by 5.Nxe5+, which is the highest percentage that I have seen in a recent Jerome Gambit thematic tournament. Some "well established" theory is likely to be stood on its head by the time those games are done!
With about 7 out of 10 games following "modern" (non-5.Nxe5+ lines) there will be plenty of practice to round out the theory of this more tempered approach as well.
Next Sunday I will give further information on the progress of the tournament. When all games have developed far enough for me not to influence their play, I will begin presenting some with annotations.
(By the way, I predict that the tournament winner will score 24 out of 28 points.)
