Cracked Up

Sometimes I will play a game, and be happy with it: I put on the pressure, my opponent cracked.

Then I will turn the game over to Rybka and see what the computer program has to say. About the following game, it suggested that I played so poorly, my opponent probably cracked up laughing, and as a result lost his focus and lost...

perrypawnpusher - bartab
standard, FICS, 2012

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

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Bxd4 8.Qxd4 Nc6 9.Qd3

Bill Wall has taken a look at 9.Qc4+, and maybe I should, too: 9...Kf8 (9...Ke8 10.Bg5 (10.0-0 Na5 11.Qa4 b6 12.e5 Ng4 13.Qxg4 h6 14.Qxg7 Black resigned, Wall,B - Donavan, Chess.com 2010) 10...h6 11.Bh4 g5 12.Bg3 d6 13.0-0-0 Qe7 14.Nd5 Nxd5 15.exd5 Ne5 16.Qc3 Qg7 17.Rhe1 Kd8 18.Bxe5 dxe5 19.Rxe5 Qd7 20.d6 c6 21.Rf5 Re8 22.Qf6+ Re7 23.dxe7+ Ke8 24.Qf7#  Wall,B - Firewoods, Chess.com 2010) 10.Bg5 h6 11.Bh4 d6 12.0-0-0 Bg4 13.f3 Bd7 14.Nd5 Be6 15.Rhe1 Bxd5 16.exd5 Na5 17.Qd3 g5 18.Bf2 c6 19.Bd4 Rh7 20.Bxf6 Qxf6 21.Qxh7 Black resigned, Wall,B - Jag, Chess.com 2010

9...Re8

Or 9...Ng4 10.Bf4 Nge5 11.Bg3 Nxd3+ White resigned, perrypawnpusher - anandh, blitz, FICS 2011.

Better, yet, might be 9...d5 10.Nxd5 Nxe4.

10.Bg5

A bit better was 10.0-0, as in perrypawnpusher - Duir, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 42).

10...h6

Missing the shot 10...Nxe4!?

11.Bxf6 Qxf6 12.0-0 Re5

Perhaps with the idea of shifting the Rook to the Kingside for attack, but this looks like asking for trouble.

13.f4 Re7 14.Nd5

It was either this move, or the positional 14.e5, with pressure against Black's d-pawn, which, in turn, confines Black's light-squared Bishop. Of course, after the game, Rybka preferred 14.e5 over the text.

14...Qd6

The safe play was ...Qd4+, exchanging Queens, either right away, or after 14...Qxb2 15.Rab1

15.Qc4 Re6

Planning to block the Queen's check, but sounding a lot like "Trouble, please."

16.Nxc7

Am I the only person who did not see 16.f5 Kg8 (16...Re5 17.Nb6+ Kf8 18.Nxa8 Rc5 19.Qd3) 17.fxe6 dxe6 ?

16...Qxc7 17.f5 Ne5

Perhaps my opponent was laughing too hard at my play to see 17...Kg8 18.fxe6 dxe6 with an edge to Black.

In any event, he missed something.

18.fxe6+ Ke7 19.Qxc7 Black resigned

That was not so much "funny, ha ha" as "funny, strange".

SNAFU

Here is my worst loss with the Jerome Gambit, ever. To someone rated more than 300 points below me. I was going to "overlook" it, but that did not seem quite honest.

As you might expect, there was something very strange about the game.


perrypawnpusher  - anandh
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

The Italian Four Knights Game.

5.Bxf7+

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 

7...Bxd4 8.Qxd4 Nc6 9.Qd3 Ng4

10.Bf4

Anticipating ...Qh4, protecting h2, and allowing the possibility of 0-0-0 – but when I played the move, something didn't look right.

I realized that my clock had stopped, and so had my opponent's. I was using the BabasChess software to connect to FICS, and that kind of a thing had never happened before.

I watched nothing happen on the screen for a while, then, foolishly, to see what would happen, I tried to move one of my opponent's pieces (nothing) and then one of mine (nothing).

Of course, the software took my attempt to move one of my pieces as a pre-move, and when everything unfroze, BabasChess executed my move right after my opponent's. Therefore

10...Nge5 11.Bg3 Nxd3+ White resigned

Like I said, I was going to just "forget" about the game and leave it out of The Database, but when I played through the FICS games from August, 2011 – provided, again, by the indefatigueable Jerome Gambit Gemiende member Welton Vaz – I encountered the following pair of miniatures

bogsnes - exactement
blitz, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8 7.Qf5+ Qf6 White resigned

White's 7th move was clearly a mouse-slip for the intended 7.Qxe5.

thehallmessenger - Gigabyterules
standard, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nd4 Bxd4 White resigned

White's 5th move was clearly a mouse-slip for the intended 5.Nxe5.

I decided that if I was going to include bogsnes' and thehallmessenger's slips, I should include mine as well.