The Other Side

Sidran - Vong, 1992 (see "Offside!") was only an eyeblink look at the Jerome Gambit-style response to the 3...Na5 defense in the Italian Game. Strong? Weak? The line deserves further attention.

Benyovszki - Meyer

IECC email, 2001
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6 6.Qh5

In our previous game we saw 6.Qg4+ Kf6 7.d4 d6 8.Bg4 checkmate, Sidran - Vong, Compuserve email, 1992.

The text move is not as strong. Interesting is 6.d4 Nf6 with an unclear, but perhaps equal position.
6...Nf6 7.Qf7+

This is not going to lead to success – but Black has the advantage (a smaller one) after 7.Qf5+ Ke7.

7...Kxe5 8.d4+ Kxe4

The position is complicated, and Black misses his chance for 8...Kxd4! 9.Be3+ Ke5 ( 9...Kxe4? 10.Nc3+ Kf5 11.0-0-0 d5 12.Rxd5+ Qxd5 13.Nxd5 and White is winning) 10.Nd2 c5 11.0-0-0 Kd6 12.e5+ Kc6 13.exf6 Qxf6 with significant advantage.

Likewise 8...Kd6 9.e5+ Kc6 10.exf6 Qxf6 would have been better for Black.

9.Nc3+ Kf5

This move leads to a mate-in-nine, but 9...Kxd4 only puts off the inevitable: 10.Be3+ Ke5 11.0-0-0 d5 12.Bd4+ Kd6 13.Bxf6 Kc6 14.Bxd8 Bd6 15.Qxd5+ Kd7 16.Bxc7 Nb3+ 17.axb3 Ke7 18.Rhe1+ Kf6 19.Ne4+ Kg6 20.Qg5+ Kf7 21.Nxd6+ Kg8 22.Re8 checkmate

10.Nd5

Ooops!

White needed to find 10.g4+! Kxg4 11.Rg1+ Kh3 12.Rg3+ Kxh2 13.Bf4 d5 14.Ne2 Qd6 15.0-0-0 Nb3+ 16.axb3 Qxf4+ 17.Nxf4 Bf5 18.Rg2 checkmate.

Now he loses.

10...Qe8+ 11.Ne3+ Ke4 12.f3+ Kxd4 13.c3+ Ke5 14.Nc4+ Nxc4 15.Qxc4 Kf5+ 16.Kf2 Qd8 17.Re1 Kg6 18.Re5 d5 19.Qh4 Ng4+ White resigns.

graphic by Jeff Bucchino, "The Wizard of Draws"

Offside!

While putting together a post on a rare variation of the Italian Game (see "Don't make me go Jerome all over you...") I recalled a similar idea – and a similar response – with colors reversed in the old Hamppe -Meitner game (see "Godfather of the Jerome Gambit? (Part I), (Part II), (Part III) (Endnote) ).


That got me thinking: are there any examples of an earlier "offside" Knight?

It didn't take me long to round up a number of examples.

Sidran - Vong
email, 1992

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 4.Bxf7+

The Jerome-ish solution. Naturally there is also 4.Nxe5 Nxc4 ( 4...Qe7 5.Bxf7+ Kd8 6.d4 Nf6 7.Bg5 d6 8.Nc3 dxe5 9.dxe5+ Nd7 10.Bxe7+ Bxe7 11.e6 Bb4 12.exd7 Bxd7 13.Be6 Bxc3+ 14.bxc3 Black resigned, Chung - Bonney, corr 1995) 5.Nxf7 Kxf7 6.Qf3+ Nf6 7.Qc3 d5 8.exd5 Nb6 9.b4 Qe7+ 10.Kf1 Qd7 11.a4 Nxa4 12.Rxa4 Qb5+ 13.d3 Qxa4 14.Bg5 Bd6 15.Bxf6 gxf6 16.h4 Qxb4 17.Qxb4 Bxb4 18.f3 Bc5 19.Nd2 Bd4 20.Ne4 a6 21.c3 a5 22.cxd4 Kf8 23.Nxf6 c6 24.dxc6 bxc6 25.f4 c5 26.dxc5 Kf7 27.Ne4 Kf8 28.c6 h6 White resigned, Matogrosso - Jappe, Utrecht 1992

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+

Alternately 5.d4 d5 6.exd5 exd4 7.Ne5+ Kf6 8.Qxd4 Ke7 9.Bg5+ Nf6 10.0-0 b6 11.b4 Be6 12.bxa5 Qxd5 13.Bxf6+ gxf6 14.Qb4+ c5 15.Qa4 Qxe5 16.Nd2 Bh6 17.Nc4 Qd4 18.Rfe1 Kf7 19.Nxb6 axb6 20.Qc6 Qd5 21.Qc7+ Kg6 22.axb6 Rhc8 23.Qg3+ Kf7 24.Rad1 Qb7 25.Rxe6 Kxe6 26.Qh3+ Ke7 27.Qxh6 Qxb6 28.Qg7+ Ke6 29.Qd7+ Ke5 30.Rd5+ Black resigned, bigbreakout - iggydog, www.GameKnot.com 2005

5...Ke6 6.Qg4+ Kf6 7.d4 d6 8.Bg5 checkmate

Well, that was... awkward.

Surely Black had better defenses...

graphic by Jeff Bucchino, "The Wizard of Draws"