The Return of Jerome Gambit for Dummies (Part 2)

Building on yesterday's initial exploration into The Database, "[l]ooking for the 'essence' of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), or at least an insight into how it 'works', " I checked and found 23 games where White had won in 5 moves.

How do you win with White in the Jerome Gambit in 5 moves??  

The following game held the answer

mediax - jemasc
Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament
ChessWorld, 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ White claimed a win on time

Ah, yes, the "The-Clock-Is-My-Friend" motif. (Or the "My-Opponent-Lost-Interest-In-The-Game" dynamic; or the "My-Opponent-Is-Playing-Too-Many-Games-At-Once-And-Decided-To-Give-This-One-Up" strategy.)

Admittedly, that was not very enlightening.

More interesting was the question: How does White lose in 5 moves, as he did 34 times in The Database?

Again, time was a factor in many of the games, but half of White's 5-move losses went like this

Kaarvek - LuigiBot
standard. FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+

with White resigning before or after 5...Qxg5.

This was the first non-trivial finding of my research, but it came with a serious caveat.

It turned out that when I did a search in The Database for games that had the position after White's 5th move, I found 379 of them, averaging 24 moves in length, with the longest (a win for Black) lasting 91 moves.

On top of that, White won 81 of the games, and 9 were drawn, for a score of 23% for the first player.

My conclusion (more proof that the Jerome Gambit can lead to strange chess): [theoretical] Do not play 5.Ng5+ because it loses a piece, and [practical] it cuts White's scoring percentage in half.

The Return of Jerome Gambit for Dummies (Part 1)

Looking for the "essence" of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), or at least an insight into how it "works" – still pondering IM Gary Lane's challenge to identify some good, representative modern examples – I decided to turn to The Database.

Searching by position after the first 4 moves, I found about 8,780 games (admittedly missing those games that transpose later), which I then sorted by length (number of moves).

I began by examining the shorter games.

Not only did I find the elegant 1998 game between Yvonne Brescak and Stephanie Hefti, but I also found the quintessential Jerome (and four more with identical moves, but different players)

Carlos Azcarate - jemasc
Jerome Gambit Thematic, ChessWorld, 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 1-0

What could be simpler?

Unfortunately, I also found three games that went like this

flplayboy - parrot
standard, FICS, 2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 0-1

Worse, there were 28 games that went like this

one-eye bishop - blackburne
ChessWorld, 2004
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 0-1

Obviously I was going to have to dig deeper!

A Closer Look (Part I)

The recently completed Ninja Knights T3 Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) thematic tournament at ChessWorld – won by Carlos Azcarate – showed White scoring 65.5 points out of 156 games, for 42%, a figure consistent with that of other recent Jerome Gambit tournaments.

It is a tribute to the fighting nature of the players that there was only 1 draw in the whole tournament -- which amounts to about 6/10th of 1% of the games.

An overwhelming 92% of the games featured the "modern Jerome Gambit" – 5th move alternatives to the traditional 5.Nxe5+.

Three defenders declined the Bishop sacrifice (not recommended!) – 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ – with 4...Kf8, and two of them "got away with it": 5.Bb3

5.Bc4 Nf6 6.d3 Bb4+ 7.Bd2 b6 Black claimed a win on time. 0–1 TJay2465 - yorkypuddn, www.ChessWorld.net 2008;

5.d3 Kxf7 6.c3 Nf6 7.Ng5+ Ke7 8.Qb3 Ng4 9.d4 exd4 10.Qf7+ Kd6 11.Qd5+ Ke7 12.Nf7 Nb4 13.cxb4 Bxb4+ 14.Bd2 Nf6 15.Bxb4+ d6 16.Nxd8 Nxd5 17.Bd2 Rxd8 18.exd5 b6 Black claimed a win on time, eddie43 - yorkypuddn, www.ChessWorld.net 2008

5...Nge7 6.Ng5 Nd4 7.Nf7 Qe8 8.Nxh8 d6 9.Bf7 Qb5 10.d3 Qb4+ 11.c3 Qa5 12.b4 Qb5 13.bxc5 dxc5 14.cxd4 Qb4+ 15.Qd2 Qxd2+ 16.Bxd2 Bg4 17.dxe5 g6 18.Bh6 checkmate, drewbear - yorkypuddn, www.ChessWorld.net 2008

Three times White proceeded 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d4 successfully, with two wins on time (willitfw - TJay2465; Piratepaul - jemasc) and a third one "for real": willitfw - queen st, www.ChessWorld.net 2008 5...exd4 6.Ng5+ Ke7 7.Nf3 d6 8.Bg5+ Nf6 9.Bxf6+ gxf6 10.a3 Be6 11.b4 Bb6 12.c3 dxc3 13.Nxc3 Qg8 14.0-0 Bh3 15.Nh4 Ne5 16.Nd5+ Kf7 17.Nxb6 axb6 18.Qh5+ Ke7 19.Nf5+ Bxf5 20.Qxf5 Qg7 21.f4 Nd3 22.e5 dxe5 23.Qxd3 Rhg8 24.fxe5 fxe5 25.Rae1 Rgd8 26.Qb5 Rd6 27.Rxe5+ Kd8 28.Re8 checkmate

The exotic choices 5.a3 and 5.b3 also scored with the clock, although the latter saw a couple of games through to conclusion:

queen st - Piratepaul,www.ChessWorld.net, 2008: 5.b3 h6 6.Bb2 d6 7.0-0 Bg4 8.h3 Bh5 9.Na3 a6 10.d4 exd4 11.g4 Bg6 12.Re1 Nf6 13.Nc4 Rf8 14.Bxd4 Kg8 15.e5 Nxd4 16.Nxd4 Bxd4 17.Rb1 Bxe5 18.Qe2 Re8 19.Rbd1 Bh2+ 20.Kxh2 Rxe2 21.Rxe2 Kh7 22.f4 Bf7 23.h4 Nxg4+ 24.Kg3 Bh5 25.Re6 Qd7 26.Rde1 Nf6 27.Na5 c5 28.Re7 Qg4+ 29.Kh2 Qxf4+ 30.Kh1 Bf3+ 31.Kg1 Qg3+ White resigned

braken - yorkypuddn, www.chessworld.net 2008: 5.b3 d6 6.Bb2 Nd4 7.c3 Nxf3+ 8.Qxf3+ Nf6 9.d4 exd4 10.cxd4 Bb4+ 11.Nc3 Rf8 12.e5 dxe5 13.dxe5 Bg4 14.Qf4 Kg8 15.Qxb4 Nd5 16.Qxb7 Nxc3 17.0-0 Ne2+ 18.Kh1 Rb8 19.Qe4 Qh4 20.Qd5+ Kh8 21.e6 Rxf2 22.Qe5 Rg8 23.e7 Bd7 24.Rad1 Bb5 25.Qxg7+ Rxg7 26.Rd8+ Rf8 27.Rdxf8 checkmate

The in-your-face 5.Ng5+ was championed by tournament winner Carlos Azcarate (see "Carlos Azcarate Topping Ninja Knights T3") to the tune of one win and four losses

Carlos Azcarate - Piratepaul, www.ChessWorld.net 2008: 5...Qxg5 6.d4 Qxg2 7.Rf1 Qxe4+ White resigned;

Carlos Azcarate - eddie43, www.ChessWorld.net 2008: 5...Qxg5 6.d4 Qxg2 7.dxc5 Qxh1+ 8.Ke2 Qxe4+ White resigned;

Carlos Azcarate - casker, www.ChessWorld.net 2008: 5...Qxg5 6.0-0 b6 7.Qf3+ Nf6 8.d4 Nxd4 9.Bxg5 Nxf3+ 10.gxf3 Nh5 11.Nc3 h6 12.Bd2 Rf8 13.Nd5 Bd6 14.c4 Ba6 15.b3 Kg8 16.Kh1 Rxf3 17.Ne3 Bb7 18.Nf5 Bxe4 19.Nxd6 cxd6 20.Kg1 Rf5 21.Rae1 Bb7 22.h4 g5 23.hxg5 hxg5 24.Bb4 Kf7 25.Bxd6 Ke6 26.Rd1 Nf4 27.Kh2 Rh8+ White resigned;

Carlos Azcarate - drewbear, www.ChessWorld.net 2008: 5...Kf8 6.Qf3+ Qf6 7.Qxf6+ Nxf6 8.0-0 h6 9.Nf3 Nxe4 10.d3 Nxf2 11.Nh4 Ke8 12.Rxf2 Bxf2+ 13.Kxf2 Rf8+ 14.Kg1 Nd4 15.Nc3 Nxc2 16.Nd5 Kd8 17.Rb1 c6 18.Ng6 Rf5 19.Nde7 Rf6 20.Bd2 Nd4 21.b4 d5 22.Re1 Bf5 23.Nxf5 Nxf5 24.Nxe5 g5 25.Nf3 Kc7 26.a4 b5 27.a5 g4 28.Ne5 g3 29.Nf3 Rg8 30.Bc3 Rfg6 31.Ne5 gxh2+ 32.Kh1 Rxg2 33.Nf3 d4 34.Re7+ Nxe7 35.Bxd4 Nf5 36.Be5+ Kb7 37.Bxh2 Ne3 38.Bd6 Rd8 39.Bc5 Rxd3 40.Ne1 Rd1 White resigned;

Carlos Azcarate - queen st, www.ChessWorld.net 2008: 5...Ke8 6.Nf3 Qf6 7.c3 d6 8.0-0 Bg4 9.b4 Bb6 10.Bb2 Qg6 11.d3 Bh3 12.Nh4 Bg4 13.Nxg6 Bxd1 14.Nxh8 Bc2 15.b5 Na5 16.d4 Nc4 17.Ba3 Ba5 18.Bc1 Bxe4 19.Nd2 Bxc3 20.Nxe4 Bxa1 21.Ng5 Nh6 22.Ne6 Kd7 23.Bxh6 gxh6 24.Rxa1 Kxe6 25.a4 Rxh8 26.Rc1 Nb6 27.Rxc7 exd4 28.a5 Na4 29.Kf1 Rb8 30.Rxh7 d3 31.Rxh6+ Kd5 32.Ke1 Nc3 33.Rh5+ Kc4 34.b6 Re8+ 35.Kf1 Re2 36.Rh4+ Kb5 37.Rd4 Rd2 38.g4 Kxa5 39.bxa7 Kb6 40.a8Q Nb5 41.Qd8+ Kc5 42.Qg5+ Kb6 43.Qxd2 Nxd4 44.Qxd3 Nb5 45.h4 Black resigned

graphic by Jeff Bucchino, "The Wizard of Draws"