It's Hero Time!

I freely admit that many of my Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) games are ones in which I give "Jerome Gambit odds", where I use a refuted opening to "level the playing field" against a lower-rated player. Against a higher-rated player, I do not need an esoteric opening to lose, I can do it all by myself, thank-you-very-much.

In the latest batch of games played at FICS, sent to me by Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member and chessfriend Welton Vaz, from Brazil, I discovered the player klanga, who has taken up the Jerome this  year, and who plays it, apparently, against all comers. In the following game he takes on someone with a rating almost twice his own.

klanga (864) - TalesdeSousa (1720)
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit. Certainly nothing to worry about, Black figures.

5...Kxf7 6.0-0 Ng4

Let us just get about checkmating this tyro...

7.d4 Bxd4

Perhaps at this slip, klanga chuckled. Why would such a higher-rated player bother wasting a strong move on me, so early in a busted opening?

8.Ng5+ Kg8 9.Qxg4

White has recovered his sacrificed piece. No matter: the stronger player can inflict structural damage on White's pawns, then open up the game and use his superior strategic skills to wrest the point away.

9...Bxc3 10.bxc3 d5 11.Qf3 dxe4

Take that, you misplaced Queen!

12.Qf7 checkmate

The Gemeinde salutes its newest member, klanga!