Although I won the first game in our 2-game match (see "Jerome Gambit: Return to Transylvania") I think that my opponent, mika76, was unlucky, not out-played by me.
In our second game mika76, using the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), bowled me over.
Let me be clear.
A long time ago I read an article that described chess players' thinking about winning and losing. They won, most said, because of brilliant play on their own part. They lost, most said, because they had blundered. This makes a tiny bit of sense – until you realize that chess players play against each other.
"I beat Gronch Quigly," Augie Schnutz proclaims, "with brilliant play"; while Quigly replies "I lost to Schnutz, because of my blunder."
I won't have any of that: Mika76 beat me with strong play. Take a look.
mika76 - perrypawnpusher
www.GameKnot.com 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d3 Nf6 6.Nxe5+
A Delayed Jerome Gambit, a rather rare beast.
6...Nxe5 7.d4
Transposing to the regular Jerome, a move down. Interesting. Black has one more piece developed – the Knight at f6 – but it blocks his strongest response, ...Qh4. "Objectively" Black is doing very well, but for some psychological rumblings, see "Sac a pawn, or a piece, or a..."
7...Bd6
Paging Dr. Freud! I have no idea where this move came from, but I am sure mika76 was glad to see it. I suspect I was in an anything wins against the Jerome Gambit state of mind – a deadly place to be, since my opponent plans to press and press until my game cracks.
Logical was 7...Bxd4 8.Qxd4 Nc6 with the typical advantage Black has early.
8.dxe5 Bxe5 9.f4 Bd6 10.Nc3 Bb4 11.e5 Ne8
12.Qd5+ Kf8 13.f5 Qe7 14.0-0 Qc5+ 15.Qxc5+ Bxc5+ 16.Kh1 Bd4
By exchanging Queens Black has eliminated the immediate danger to his King, but his development continues to lag.
In the meantime, White's pawns become more annoying.
17.Bf4 d6 18.e6 Nf6 19.Nb5 Bb6 20.Rae1 Ke7
21.c4 a6 22.Nc3 Ba5 23.Re3 Bxc3 24.Rxc3 b6 25.b4 Bb7
I finally have my Bishop developed, but there are dangers in the position.
26.h3 Rag8 27.c5
While Black is looking for a Kingside counter-attack, his Queenside springs a leak. Mika76 keeps his pressure on.
27...Nd5
This looked okay to me, but Rybka prefers 27...dxc5 28.bxc5 Ne4 29.Rc4 bxc5 30.Re1 Rf8 31.Rexe4 Bxe4 32.Rxe4 Rxf5 33.g4 Rd5 when things are messy, but the computer sees Black as better.
By keeping things complicated, mika76 looks for his chances.
28.cxd6+ cxd6
Surprisingly (to me) a game-losing decision: White is keeping things very dangerous for Black, and now gets his reward.
Rybka prefers 28...Kf6 29.Rd3 Nxf4 30.Rxf4 cxd6 31.Rxd6 Ke5 32.Rfd4 Rb8 33.Kh2 Rhe8 34.g4 g6 35.Rd2 Be4 to keep Black's edge, but that looks a lot like computer logic.
29.Bg5+ Ke8 30.Rc4 h6 31.Bh4 Rf8 32.Rfc1 Black resigned
I start the "modern" era of the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde somewhat arbitrarily, taking note of the contribution of L. Elliott Fletcher, whose quite enjoyable Gambits Accepted, a survey of opening sacrifices (1954) contains an interesting Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game. Alas, the players are listed as anonymous, and the location and date are not given.
Invented by an American named Jerome in the latter part of the nineteenth century much of the analysis given below was originated by another American, S. A. Charles, and subsequently revised by Freeborough and Ranken. The opening is frankly unsound but Black's task is by no means easy and he can quite likely go wrong...
Micah Fisher-Kirshner (see"A Few Words With... Micah Fisher-Kirshner") certainly deserves membership, for defending the honor of the Jerome Gambit against an early chess program, Knight Stalker (aka Fritz1) in a 1993 match.Certainly Master Jack Young ("Bozo" of "Bozo's Chess Emporium") should have his enthusiasm for the Jerome Gambit in his "Meet Jerome" article in Randspringer #6, 1990-1991 rewarded with membership.
Although FIDE Master Eric Schiller might shrug off the honor, he deserves a place in the Gemeinde for writing about the Jerome Gambit during a time when few even thought or knew about it, let alone analyzed it or shared their assessments. Unorthodox Chess Openings (1998, 2002), Gambit Chess Openings (2002), and Survive and Beat Annoying Chess Openings (2003) have new analysis, although the author's attitude was less tongue-in-cheek than thumb-in-eye
This is another cyberspace gambit. Virtually no attention was paid to this reckless move [4.Bxf7+] until its supporters started talking about it on the Internet. It can't be found in recent tournament games, and there is a good reason: It stinks. White whips up a brief attack, easily parried, and then spends a long time trying to justify the sacrifice. A popular gambit in cyberspace, but in the real world, it only succeeds in games where Black is a very weak player.
It is important to include Tim McGrew (see "A Few Words With... Tim McGrew") author of "The Gambit Cartel" series of articles at ChessCafe, and explorer of some of the vicissitudes of the Jerome Gambit.
The Gemeinde likewise has membership for Life Master Brian Wall, who has a 100% record with the Jerome Gambit (at least after one game) and who has presented devestating analysis of the Whistler Defense (see "Jerome Gambit Tournament: Chapter VIII") – one of the best refutations of the Jerome Gambit to date.
It's not every day (month, year, decade, century...) that an International Master mentions or makes a suggestion concerning the play of the Jerome Gambit, and because he has, IM Gary Lane (see "International Master Gary Lane") has a place in the Gemeinde; although this is not likely to be mentioned on the FIDE website.
There also are a number of players who deserve mention for their brave commitment to playing the Jerome Gambit, starting with Pete Banks ("blackburne"), whose game GM Lane analyzed in one of his "Opening Lanes" columns at ChessCafe.
Of note also are Louis Morin, whose name should have been mentioned here much earlier for his Jerome Gambit swash-buckling, and A.B. Hailey, who has produced his share of theoretical games.
Gary Gifford, current editor and publisher of the Unorthodox Openings Newsletter (and co-author of the brand new and exciting Winning with the Krazy Kat and Old Hippo) – see "But - Is this stuff playable??" – has been supportive of Jerome Gambit discoveries.
Finally, there are the many players who have ventured Jerome's Double Opening. It is not possible to mention all, but certainly those who have played in the five thematic Jerome Gambit tournaments mentioned on this blog should be welcomed into the Gemeinde: bobbob78, brain50, braken, breaker, calchess10, Capt.Mandrake, Carlos Azcarate, casker, dandoo, delboy138, drewbear, eddie43, Gary_Seven, gobo, hogmaster, HPotter, jelgava, jemasc, Kevin the fruitbat, koloman, mediax, mika76, panga74, Piratepaul, queen st, Rail2Rail, Sir Osis of the Liver, splott, Temmo, TJay2465, tonik, TWODOGS, vlad-tepes, willitfw and yorkypuddn.
I jumped at a chance to play a couple of games with mika76, who had played some interesting games in the GameKnot Vlad-Tepes Mini-Tournament.
This challenging battle finished first.
perrypawnpusher - mika76
www.GameKnot.com, 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kf8 6.Nxc6 
Side-stepping the Banks variation as looked at in "Jerome Gambit and Vlad Tepes..." and "Jerome Gambit, Vlad Tepes... and Garlic!"
6...bxc6
Usually Black captures with the other pawn, as in Jerome - Brownson, Iowa, USA 1875: 6...dxc6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Qf3 Qd4 9.d3 Bg4 10.Qg3 Bb6 11.e5 Nh5 12.Qh4 Be2 13.Qxd4 Bxd4 14.Re1 Bxe5 15.Rxe2 Re8 16.g3 Kf7 17.f4 Bd4+ 18.Kf1 Nf6 19.Nd2 Rxe2 20.Kxe2 Re8+ 21.Ne4 a5 22.Kf3 h6 23.c3 Ba7 24.Be3 Bxe3 25.Kxe3 Ng4+ 26.Kf3 Nxh2+ 27.Kg2 Ng4 28.Re1 b6 29.a4 Rd8 1/2-1/2
7.d4 Bb6 8.0-0 d6 9.Nc3
perrypawnpusher - hdig, blitz game, FICS, USA, 2007 continued instead: 9.f4 Bb7 10.Nc3 Qf6 11.e5 dxe5 12.fxe5 Bxd4+ 13.Kh1 Qxf1+ 14.Qxf1+ Ke8 15.Bg5 Kd7 16.Qf7+ Kc8 17.Qe8 checkmate
9...Qe7 10.f4
It's the same old story: Black has the advantage; White gathers up what he has and goes to work...
10...Nh6
An interesting, provocative idea.
11.f5 Bd7 12.g4 
Eying the Knight, but White should have tried 12.f6 Qe6 13.Bxh6 gxh6 14.Qd2 when Black's edge is small.
12...Bxd4+
Giving back the piece for some pawns, a standard defensive maneuver for Black; but here he had more, by playing out what he had started: 12...Qh4 13.g5 Nf7 and White loses the too-quickly-advanced g-pawn.
White has weaseled his way out of a tough situation.
13.Qxd4 Nxg4 14.Bf4
Safe-guarding the Kingside.
14...Rb8 15.Rae1 Qf6 16.Qxa7
Here mika76 took a break from our game. I've mentioned before that this kind of thing is laudable: people lead busy lives and there is much more to the world than the Jerome Gambit.
16...Qh4
Oh, no. Come back to the board too quickly, you might miss something...
17.Qxb8+ Black resigns.
(I inquired about take-backs, but the site doesn't allow them.)
Although I won the first game in our 2-game match (see "Jerome Gambit: Return to Transylvania") I think that my opponent, mika76, was unlucky, not out-played by me.
