Like the first "Day in the Life of the Jerome Gambit", here is a game "that readily illustrates the highs and lows, attractions and pitfalls of that offbeat opening."
perrypawnpusher - jgknight
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6
7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6
10.0-0 Ng4
This move has more behind it than just being annoying. It's been played against me by Riversider, lorecai and pitrisko, but jgknight's follow-up has more potential poison.
11.Qg3 Rf8
The assessment of the position here is that Black is a bit better, but White should read his daily horoscope: As long as White guards the squares e2 and f4 and leaves the square h3 open, he should be okay.
Cryptic? Follow along.
12.h3
Uh-oh...
White should have tried 12.d3, 12.d4, 12.f4 or 12.Nc3.
12...N4e5
Instead, Black had 12...Nf4, protecting the Knight at g4 because of the awakward threatened fork at e2. After 13.Nc3, though, the follow-up 13...Nh5 shows just how bad things have gotten for White. Rybka 3 now recommends giving up the Queen with 14.Qxg4 as "best", as even the more hopeful-looking 14.Qd3 collapses after 14...Ne5, when 15.Qe3 is met by 15...Nf3+ 16.gxf3 Nf4 and White's King is in dire straits.
Oh, if only White's Queen could have escaped to h3 in respnse to 13...Nh5!
Let's continue a bit further in this "Day in the Life". Black does not take advantage of his opportunity, and soon the Jerome Gambiteer is looking pretty good.
13.f4 Nc6 14.f5 Qh4 15.Qe3 Nge5 16.d4 Nc4 17.Qd3 b5
I've seen similar c4-Knights in my games against saltos, VGxdys, parlance and pitrisko. The game is about even.
18.a4 Ba6
Tempting tactical fate.
After the game Rybka 3 suggested 18...Bxf5 19.axb5 N4e5 20.dxe5 Nxe5 21.Qe3 Qxe4 with the game still about even.
19.b3
This made the most sense to me, but Rybka much preferred 19.axb5 Bxb5 20.Nc3 Nb4 21.Qe2 c6 22.Nxb5 cxb5 23.b3 Nxc2 (23...Nb6 24.Qxb5+) 24.Qxc2 Nb6. If you saw that line of play and realized at the end that White is not merely up a pawn, but has great attacking chances (starting with 25.Qc6+), good for you!
19...N4a5 20.axb5 Nb4
Black's Knights are tripping all over each other, but my tactical sense of what is going on fails me even faster than my opponent's does.
21.Qe2 Bb7 22.Rxa5 Bxe4 23.Re1
More direct, and stronger, was 23.Rf4.
23...d5 24.Ba3 Nxc2 25.Bxf8
At first glance it looks like White is a Rook up. But, of course, Black can capture the Rook at e1. Oh, well, that still means that when the Black Knight and White Bishop come off the board, things will still be even, right? Well, not exactly...
25...Nxe1 26.Nd2 Kxf8 27.Nxe4 Qxe4 28.Qxe4 dxe4
What we have here is a messy game that computers analyze as won for Black. In other words, simply another day in the life of the Jerome Gambit...
29.Kf2 Nd3+ 30.Ke3 Re8 31.Rxa7 Nc1 32.Rxc7 Nxb3 33.b6 Na5
And, just like that (almost) White is winning (again).
Well, at least according to Rybka 3.
34.Rc5
I was looking for a draw here, and so I was paying more attention to capturing Black's pawn on e4 than I was to promoting my b-pawn.
The trick to understanding the position is to realize that Black's pieces are all tied down. His King is confined to the 8th rank. His Rook has to stay on the e-file and protect the pawn at e4. His Knight dare not wander, as White can try b6-b7 and Rc7-c8 as soon as possible.
Black can play with his pawns on the Kingside, but when those moves run out, he will be faced with trouble. In the meantime, White's d-pawn can advance as well...
So, White's best was 34.b7 simply adding to Black's misery. Rybka 3 suggests 34...Nxb7, but after 35.Rxb7 the Rook-and-pawns endgame is strongly in White's favor: extra pawn, passed d-pawn, Black's weak e-pawn.
34...Nb7 35.Re5 Rxe5
My opponent pretty much acknowledged with his play here that I would like to escape into a drawn end game, and he goes along with my play. Little did he (or I) realize that this move again gives me winning chances.
36.dxe5 Nc5
37.b7
Going along with the same plan that my opponent was going along with which was my plan... which was wrong.
It was late in this day in the life of the Jerome Gambit, and I missed the simple 37.Kd4, nudging away Black's protecting Knight and finally allowing me to play 38.Kxe4.
37...Nxb7 38.Kxe4 Ke7
Here the "Jerome pawns" offset Black's extra Knight, and we go through the motions of exchanging everything off.
39.g4 Nc5+ 40.Kd4 Nd7 41.g5 Nf8 42.h4 g6 43.Ke4 gxf5+ 44.Kxf5 Ng6 45.h5 Nf8 46.g6 hxg6+ 47.hxg6 Nxg6 48.Kxg6 Ke6 49.Kg7 Kxe5 Neither player has mating material, Drawn
I was feeling pretty good about the following game until I played it over and almost choked on the winning 21st move. I wonder if my opponent had the same experience? Oh, well, strange things happen in blitz...
Here we have another game that went bad just as it was getting good... Luckily, the Jerome Gambit has an endgame swamp that White can often disappear into.
perrypawnpusher - jgknight
blitz, FICS, 2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6
7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6
So far, all pretty standard. As usual, Black is better.
10.0-0 Rf8 11.f4 Ng4
Ah, the harassing horsie! This is better than the bodacious 11...Kd7 of perrypawnpusher - blackburne, JG3 thematic, ChessWorld, 2008 (1-0, 38), though not as thematic as the thoughtful 11...Rf7 followed by 12...Kf8 as in mrjoker - Mandragora, ICC, 2008 (1-49). Of course, 11...Kf7 followed by 12...Kg8 was a fine plan, too.
12.Qg3 Qh4
This seems a little bit better than the 12...h5 of perrypawnpusher - lorecai, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 47) and a bit less good than 12...Qf6, seen in perrypawnpusher - dkahnd, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 37), but all three moves, plus 12...c6 and 12...Ne7, seem very playable.
I know that the Jerome Gambiteer thinks of "attack!" but exchanging Queens is now best.
13.Qxh4 Nxh4 14.f5
This is not so much an improvement upon as an alternative to the 14.d3 of perrypawnpusher - MRBarupal, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 47), a game which saw 15.f5, anyhow. The goal is to work toward winning one of Black's two advanced Knights.
14...Ne5
Black sees what is up and evacuates a Knight. Instead, he chould have attacked White's advance pawn with 14...g6, an idea which he comes to, shortly.
15.g3
A complete mis-reading of the position. White needed to try 15.d4, and after 15...Nc6 he had either 16.d5 or 16.c3, each of which would have helped his lagging development and would have strengthened his position, not weakened it.
15...Nhf3+
And I thought that the Knights were annoying before!
16.Kg2 g6 17.c3 gxf5 18.exf5 Rxf5 19.d4
White's position is a mess (lack of development, for starters) and all Black needs to do is find 19...Nd3 to show this. Instead, he chooses the wrong square for his Knight.
19...Ng4
I've tried for a win, I've blundered into a loss, but this move gives me a chance for a draw...
20.Rxf3 Rxf3 21.Kxf3 Nxh2+ 22.Kg2 Ng4 23.Bg5 h6 24.Bf4 Bf5 25.Nd2 Kf7 26.Re1 Re8 27.Rxe8 Kxe8 28.Nc4 b5 29.Ne3 Nxe3+ 30.Bxe3
Around here, or soon after, I offered my opponent a draw, as we've reached a Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame which is quite even. jgknight declined, either out of principle or pique, or maybe he figured his "good" Bishop could out-duel my "bad" one.
As a result, we almost doubled the length of the game, but eventually, as my opponent fell behind in time, he decided to concede the half point.
30...Be4+ 31.Kh3 h5 32.Kh4 Bf3 33.Kg5 Kf7 34.a3 a5 35.Bf4 Ke6 36.Kg6 c5 37.dxc5 dxc5 38.Be3 Kd5 39.Kf5 b4 40.cxb4 axb4 41.axb4 cxb4 42.Bh6 Kc4 43.Kf4 Bg4 44.Bg7 Kd3 45.Be5 Kc2 46.Bd4 b3 47.Be5 Kd3 48.Bf6 Ke2 49.Be5 Kf2 50.Bf6 Kg2 51.Bh4 Kh3 52.Bf6 Bd1 53.Bh4 Bg4 54.Bf6 Bd1 55.Bh4 Bg4 56.Bf6 Bd1 57.Bh4 Bg4 58.Bf6 Game drawn by repetition
