Instead of grabbing the second sacrificed piece, Black plays a defensive system - but he plays it too defensively. Hanging on to material, instead of returning it at the right moment, can spell disaster, even (especially) against the Jerome Gambit. jankrb (2055) - musirpha (1874) Giuoco Piano Jerome Gambit tournament, 2013 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
Sometimes it is a little bit too easy for me to post other people's games here, with commentary, pointing out good moves and bad moves. I tend to forget that playing the game can be much more challenging. The following wretchedness is another opportunity for others to look at my play and laugh their heads off. Turn about is fair play.
perrypawnpusher - Tensecterror blitz, FICS, 2012
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf6
This is an example of the defender relaxing a bit too soon. Certainly he should feel confident, as he is two pieces ahead. He has every reason to believe that White, having played foolishly, will continue in his bizarre ways. Yet, a bit of care in analyzing the position would have shown that the attacker can now regain significant material.
My pawn strike was designed to win a piece, because it threatened to win Black's Queen. This is already faulty thinking, as the note to my 7th move shows that there were two pieces to grab.
On top of this, Black could have defended here with 7...Bb4+ 8.Nc3 (8.c3 Nd3+) Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Nf7 opting to give back a piece after 10.e5+ Ke7 11.Bg5+ Nf6 12.exf6+ gxf6.
8.Qg5+ Kf7 9.Qxd8 Nc6 10.Qh4
White has a Queen for two pieces, but should not relax, either.
By the way, retreating the Queen was best, as 10.Qxc7? Be5 would have immediately been embarassing.
10...Nb4 11.Na3 Bf6 12.Qf4 d6
Black's pieces are swarming, but only a truely careless move will break White's attack which comes after 13.e5, winning a piece.
13.c3 Nd3+ 14.Ke2 Nxf4+ 15.Bxf4 Ne7
And, just like that, I was down a piece for a pawn. How embarassing!
My only other "compensation" is hard to see, but my opponent was running short of time, doing most of his thinking on the 10 second increment. I decided to keep firing off moves to keep the pressure on, as the worst that I could do at this point was lose a lost game...
The best-known Jerome Gambit game is Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1885, when the British master started with a two-Rook sacrifice and ended with a Queen sac to produce a beautiful mate. Alas, "The Black Death" was defending against the Jerome Gambit, or this blog would be much less obscure today.
In the following game, my opponent played what seemed to me to be a weak move. It turns out, it lost a Rook. Then, much to my delight, it lost another Rook. I was not looking ahead, but when I did, suddenly, my opponentwas threatening checkmate...
perrypawnpusher - badhorsey blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kf8
The same defense as in yesterday's game against a different opponent.
6.Nxc6 bxc6
Capturing with the d-pawn is recommended as a preventative against 7.d4.
7.d4 Be7 8.f4
With no ready targets available, this looks like another case of "too many pawns, too soon." This time, I luck out.
8...Bh4+
Aiming for "tricky", but 8...d5 was probably better. In either case, Black still has an edge.
9.g3 Qe8
Offering to return the piece in exchange for busting up my position, 10.gxh4 Qxe4+ 11.Kf2 Qf5 (or 11...Qe7 threatening ...Qxh4).
badhorsey may not know the intricacies of the Jerome Gambit, but he surely came to play!
10.Nc3 Be7 11.0-0 Bb4 12.Qf3 Bxc3 13.bxc3 Ba6
Having made half of his moves with his dark-squared Bishop, Black finds that it is now gone; so he uses his light-squared Bishop.
The psychology is pretty good, and Houdini and Fritz both still give Black the edge.
14.Ba3+ d6 15.Rfe1 Nh6
The Knight needed to go to e7 to protect the pawn at c6.
16.e5 Qg6
This really is not a good move, objectively (Houdini went wild after the game) but I have to think that my opponent saw what was coming and told himself "What the heck, why not give it a try!"
17.Qxc6 Qxc2
Baiting the hook.
18.Qxa8+
Taking the bait.
18...Kf7 19.Qxh8
Going for more.
19...Ng4
Here we go! Rooks? We don't need no stinkin' Rooks... Black threatens mate.
"Double Rook sacrifice?" or "Double Rook blunder?" At the time, I was not at all sure. In fact, I had the terrible feeling that I had fallen into a devious trap and was about to be seriously embarassed!
20.e6+
Yes, this has to be the move.
20...Kf6
The task for White was more complex after 20...Kg6.
Again, the key move 21.f5+ is easy to find, but the followup to cover the f-file is essential: 21...Qxf5 22.Qe8+ Kh6 23.Qf7. Black can then return to his earlier configuration with 23...Qc2, but that gives White time to get in 24.Bc1+ which allows him to force exchanges, i.e. 25...g526.Bxg5+ Kxg5 27.h4+ Kh6 28.Qf4+ Kg7 29.Qxg4+ Qg6 30.Qxg6+ Kxg6 and now the extra two Rooks do matter.
All of this is relatively easy, after the game is over.
21.Qf8+
White has to keep checking the enemy King, and some ideas were coming to mind, here,but I missed the simpler 21.Qd8+ Kg6 22.Qg5 checkmate.
21...Kg6 22.f5+
The key, again. Exchanging Queens at f5 would douse Black's attack.
22...Kh6 23.Bc1+
Joining the attack just in time.
Now 23...Qxc1 would put off the mate of Black's King for a few more moves, but I think badhorsey still was hoping for the tempo he needed to say "checkmate!" first.
Yesterday's game featured White reaching a fine Jerome Gambit position out of the opening, only to miss all of the attacking splendor that he had available. Sad.
In today's game, Black understimates the danger that he faces and quickly goes from two pieces up to two pawns down. Instead of my usual, conservative, "consolidate at all costs" approach, I decided to attack violently.
And it would have worked, too, if I hadn't hung my Queen.
Again: don't blame the Jerome Gambit for this "0-1".
perrypawnpusher - chingching blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf6
A rare, usually careless (see the "Halo Effect" theme) response that takes Black quickly from a won game to nearly lost one. It is not an "instant victory", but it should be close.
The Queen checks were covered in the notes to my recent games against badhorsey (1-0, 30) and navarrra (1-0, 26). Her Majesty has now returned home safely, two pawns to the better.
12.Nc3 Kf7 13.0-0 Re8 14.d3 c6 15.f4 Ng4
Completing castling-by-hand with 15...Kg8 or striking the center with 15...d5 were better ideas than the off-task, but irresistible, strike at the White Queen.
16.Qg3 Kg8 17.Bd2 d5 18.Rae1 Qb6+
This move caught me by surprise. It is actually a time-waster: compare White's Bishop and Rooks to Black's Bishop and Rooks and ask should Black be taking his Queen away from the action to win a pawn or two?
The similarity to the wandering enemy Queens in my games against irak (1-0, 33) and jgknight (1/2-1/2, 49) encouraged me.
19.Kh1 Qxb2 20.f5 Qxc2
21.Qxg4
Unnecessarily acrificing the Bishop at d2 because I believed that I had a "killer" followup move.
After the game, Houdini suggested the prudent 21.Nb1, instead, as White actually has time to protect his Queenside minor pieces because the Black Knight on g4 isn't going anywhere: after 21...Nf6 White would play 22.e5 and Black's "best" would be to hang his horsie out to dry again with 22...Nh5 23.Qf3.
Houdini's suggestion of 21.Nb1 Rf8 22.Rc1 allows Black to complete his Queenside meal with 22...Qxa2, but after 23.Qxg4 White will go a piece up and soon position his Bishop on the a1-h8 diagonal and advance his "Jerome pawns" with a winning attack on the King.
21...Qxd2
Now, the rather pathetic 22.Ne2 would preserve whatever was left of White's initiative, giving him a small edge at the very best, due to Black's delayed development.
22.f6
Well, at least I could say that the odds were with me: Black has 41 possible responses, and 40 of them lose, almost all of them very quickly.
22...Bxg4
Of course, that one remaining move wins my Queen...
I played on a bit longer and recovered some material, but there was no way that I was going to survive being down a Rook for a Queen.
When the creative and indomitable Danish Grandmaster Bent Larsen wrote "A Personal Approach to the Openings" for the wonderful How To Open A Chess Game, he began the chapter by recalling that when he was 9 he found a chess book that inspired him, even if, he admitted, the text was 20 years old and the chess ideas of the author at least three times that aged. Larsen remembered an inspiring quote
The Jerome Gambit is powerful like a storm; nobody can tame it. Nothing shows more clearly the lack of greatness in the chess professions of today than the fact that none of them have the courage to play the Jerome Gambit...
Oh, no, wait a minute, I got that wrong: the author was writing about the King's Gambit, not the Jerome...
My opponent was using up a lot of thinking time on each move, so I decided to develop conservatively (using a formation that I borrowed from the b3 Sicilian) – to stay away from something bright, sharp, brilliant and wrong.
14...Rf8 15.Bb2 Kg8 16.Rae1 b6 17.f4 Ng4
Black has castled-by-hand, and with the exception of his Bishop (which I had expected to go to b7) his developement has progressed as well. The text move shows the irresistible temptation (which should, nonetheless, be resisted) to harass the Queen.
18.Qg3 Bd7 19.Nd5
From this point on, White's game becomes scarier and scarier (for Black).
