Bill Wall is not a professional psychologist, but when it comes to playing off-beat chess openings, he understands a lot about how his opponents think. This can be of considerable help when playing the Jerome Gambit. In some of the notes I give a number of complete Wall games that have been referred to in previous blog posts, but have never been presented in their entirety. Wall, Bill - Guest2928386 PlayChess.com, 2015 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8
The Jerome Variation of the Jerome Gambit, played by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome against David Jaeger in correspondence, 1880. 7.Qxe5
d6 8.Qg3 Nf6 9.d3 Bill has also tried 9.Nc3 Nh5 (or 9...Kf7 as in perrypawnpusher - truuf, blitz, FICS, 2011 [0-1, 32] or 9...Ng4 as in perrypawnpusher - klixar, blitz, FICS, 2007[1-0, 33]) 10.Qf3+ Qf6 11.d3 Qxf3
12.gxf3 Bd7 13.Ke2 Bd4 14.Be3 Bf6 15.Nd5 Bd8 16.Rhg1 Kf7 17.f4 c6 18.Nc3
g6 19.f3 Be6 20.Rad1 Rf8 21.d4 d5 22.Kd3 Bc7 23.Ne2 Ke7 24.e5 Ba5 25.c3
Bb6 26.a4 Rae8 27.Ra1 Ba5 28.b3 Kd7 29.Rg2 Kc8 30.Kc2 Ng7 31.Kb2 Kb8 32.b4 Bd8 33.a5 Bh3 34.Rg3 Bf5 35.Nc1 Ne6 36.Kb3 Be7 37.Rg1 Bh3 38.Nd3 g5
39.fxg5 Rxf3 40.Rg3 Rxg3 41.hxg3 Rg8 42.a6 Bxg5 43.Rh1 Bf5 44.Bxg5 Bxd3
45.Bh4 Bxa6 46.Kc2 Kc8 47.Rh2 Kd7 48.Rf2 Ke8 49.Rf6 Rg6 50.Rf5 b6 51.Rh5
h6 52.Bf6 Kd7 53.Rh3 Bc4 54.g4 a5 55.bxa5 bxa5 56.Rh2 a4 57.Kb2 Nf4 58.Ka3 Bb3 59.Rh4 Nd3 White resigned, Wall,B - Ahmadi,S, Chess.com, 2010. 9... Bg4
Okay, Bill's got me puzzled - and I know something about the Jerome Gambit. How can he afford to play 11.h3 and 13.a3 when he is playing a gambit, and time is supposed to be of the essence? As we will see, he accurately accesses his opponent as being unprepared or uncertain about the proper defense (although the light-squared Bishop is free and trying to protect the Kingside), so there is time for White to keep his options open. Sometimes letting Black keep his options open can lead to him making errors. 13...Bg6 14.Bg5 Qe5 15.Bf4 Qe6 16.Na4
If nothing else, Bill can eliminate his opponent's "two Bishops". 16...Nh5 17.Nxc5 dxc5 Not 17...Nxg3 18.Nxe6+ Ke7 19.Bxg3
Kxe6 20.f4. 18.Bd6+ Ke8 19.Qh2
19...Kd7 Too casual. It is not clear that the King is safer in his new position, and the (doubled) pawn that he give up is certainly of worth. 20.Bxc5 b6 21.Bd4 Qf7
Black's pieces are not so much developed as they are jumbled on the Kingside. His Bishop should have gone to f7 on his last move. 22.f4 Qe7 23.g4 Nf6
24.e5 Nd5 Bill points out that Knight retreats lead to trouble too: 24...Ng8 25.f5 Be8 26.f6 gxf6 27.exf6 Qf7 28.Rae1 or 24...Ne8 25.f5 Bf7 26.e6+. 25.f5 Be8 26.c4 Nc7 27.b4
Those crazy pawns! All 8 of them. It is important to mention that Stockfish 6 rates White about 1/2 pawn better in this position. If Black can remain calm, he should be able to hang on. 27...Rf8 28.e6+ Kc8 29.a4 Kb7
Black has castled-by-hand, but his King still needs to be careful. I've got him right where he wants me! he might have thought, somewhat confusedly. 30.a5 Na6 31.b5 cxb5 32.cxb5 Bxb5 33.Rfb1 Nc7
Black's light-squared Bishop continues to defend valiantly with the Knight, but - those pawns... 34.axb6 axb6 35.Qg2+ Kc8 Black's situation has deteriorated to the point that only 35...Kb8 would save him from a forced checkmate. 36. Rxa8+ Nxa8
37.Qxa8+ Kc7 38.Be5+
Almost all of my games with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) played at FICS have been at blitz speed (the one notable exception being a mismatched game against MiloBot). I have decided to try the opening out at slower time controls. The following is my second non-blitz FICS game.
Including this game, The Database has 47 games with this move (reinforcing Black's hold on the dark diagonals), with White scoring 50%. Of interest are the 8 games between mrjoker and PhlebasP, where the first player scored 6-1-1.
Or 9.Nc3 as in Wall - GoldCoinCollector, Chess.com, 2010 (1-0, 17).
9...g6
Creating a refuge for his King.
10.Nc3 c6 11.d3 Be6
12.Be3 Bd4
Black sees the c3 spot as vulnerable, and figures that if White exchanges off the Bishop, the Queen will recapture and be centrally placed. This is an error that we both missed –which I realized as soon as I played my next move. This is something that I had hoped that "more time on the clock" would fix.
13.Bxd4
Too much of a reflex: after 13.Qxd6+ Black will simply lose the Bishop.
13...Qxd4 14.Kh1 Nf6 15.f4 Ng4
Eyeing the square e3, which no longer has the protection of White's dark-squared Bishop.
16.Rae1
This move is okay (protecting the square, developing a Rook) but after the game Houdini pointed out that I could have pushed 16.f5 anyhow, as I would not be losing the exchange, I would be getting two pieces for a Rook (leaving me up two pawns for the exchange): 16.f5 Ne3 17.fxe6+ Nxf1 18.Rxf1+ Kg8 19.Qg5 and White's Queen is ready to invade Black's fortress.
16...Qb4
This is the kind of move that makes my heart soar, especially after my games against irak, smarlny and chingching– it is dangerous for Black to let his Queen go wandering.
17.f5 gxf518.exf5 Bxa2
19.Nxa2
After the game Houdini pointed out that 19.Re4, both threatening to win the Knight at g4 and chase the Queen away from protecting the pawn at d6, was even stronger.
The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) hits f7, the weakest one in Black's fortress as it is only protected by the King. White has a "King Bishop Two" square though, and my oppponent decided to give it attention.
perrypawnpusher - salla blitz, FICS, 2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8
A defense mentioned by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome in a three-part analysis of his gambit in 1874. Jerome later used the line successfully in two correspondence games against Jaeger (who played the Jerome Gambit).
7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qg3 Nf6
9.d3 Ng4
Attacking my King's Bishop Two square. Continuing to castle-by-hand with 9...Kf7 seems more prudent.
10.0-0 Ke8
As if to say This won't take long, no need to castle...
When people notice a good trait in a person, they often assume other positives. With the Jerome Gambit often a negative "halo effect" occurs – if the early moves are bad, many of the other ones must be bad, too.
This is an error that 14.Be3 would have pointed out – just because White's early moves were bad doesn't make all of his other moves, or his position now, bad.
13...Rxf2 Rf8
Consistent, but 13...Bxf2+ 14.Qxf2 Qxf2+ 15.Kxf2 Rf8+ 16.Kg3 Rf7 18.Be3 would have given Black a position with the exchange for a pawn. Now White recovers.
15.Be3 Bxe3 16.Qxe3 Qd7
17.Rxf8+ Kxf8 18.Rf1+ Kg8 19.Qf3
Even stronger was 19.Qg5, when Black will have to give up his Queen (e.g. 19...h6 20.Qg6 Qe6 21.Nf6+ Qxf6 22.Rxf6) to avoid checkmate.
In the following game Black has a new idea in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) 5...Kf8 defense. It is dynamic and sound, but quick play leads to a quicker end for the second player.
Black is happy with his King's safety, and instead of looking to castle-by-hand (with 9...Kf7) he immediately counter-attacks. There are no examples of this move in the updated New Year's Database, but there should be.
10.0-0 Qf6 11.Nc3 c6
12.Be3 Nxe3
An interesting continuation of the attack would be 12...h5!?
A routine continuation of the attack would be 12...Bb6.
Instead, confident at being higher-rated than me and certain that the refuted Jerome Gambit can be quickly wiped from the board, Black errs.
13.fxe3
The kind of thing that happens in blitz play.
12...Bf5
Panic, but 13...Ke8 14.Rxf6 gxf6 15.d4 leaves White with a Queen and a couple of pawns against a Rook and Bishop – and vulnerable King.
