The following game was a tense, balanced affair, travelling through known territory for a dozen moves and on into a balanced middle game. When I went pawn-grabbing with my Queen, however, my opponent struck back hard, eventually checkmating me.
Lesson?
perrypawnpusher - ZhekaR
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 Nf6
The Database shows that mrjoker has a win, a loss, and a draw against 8...Qe7.
9.Nc3
Or 9.d3, which can traspose to the game.
9...Qe7 10.Qe3 d6
11.0-0 Be6
Black has many alternatives, including: 11...b6 as in perrypawnpusher - Navarrra, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 24) [Hmmm, I don't think that I have posted this game yet - RK]; 11...Rf8 as in mrjoker - rex3, CC, 2009 (1-0, 50), perrypawnpusher - MRBarupal, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 31), perrypawnpusher - parlance, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 20) and perrypawnpusher - chingching, blitz, FICS, 2011 (½-½, 36); 11...Ne5 as in perrypawnpusher - mikelars, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 50); and 11...Kd7 as in perrypawnpusher - parlance, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 22).
12.f4 Bc4
Earlier this year I faced 12...Kd7 in perrypawnpusher - Solaar, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 33).
13.d3 Ba6
14.Bd2 b6 15.Rae1 Kd7 16.Qh3+ Kd8 17.Nd5
Planning to use the opened e-file for my Rook, but 17.e5 was probably a better idea.
17...Nxd5 18.exd5 Qd7 19.Qg3 Qf5
The game is about even, as White has two pawns, better development, and a safer King as compensation for his sacrificed piece.
20.c4 Re8 21.Rxe8+ Kxe8 22.Re1+ Kd7 23.Qe3 Rf8 24.g3 c5 25.dxc6+
After the game Rybka 3 suggested instead 25.b4 cxb4 26.Bxb4.
25...Kxc6 26.Bc3 Rf7 27.Qe8+ Qd7 28.Qe4+ Kc7 29.Qa8
A fool's errand. That pawn on a7 will turn out to be very, very expensive.
29...Bb7
This is good enough for advantage, but 29...Nxf4 was already crushing (i.e. 30.gxf4 Qg4+, etc.).
30.Qxa7
The only chance to keep on playing lay with 30.Qe8.
30...Qc6
Again, good; but, again 30...Nxf4 was much stronger.
31.Re4 Re7 32.Bd4 Rxe4 33.dxe4 Ne7 34.b4 Nc8 35.Qa3 Qxe4 36.Qb2 Qe1 checkmated
Wow. Nice work by ZhekaR to punish my pawn-grabbing!
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
Making sense of Jerome Gambit middlegames can be a challenge. To write the notes for this blog I make use of my friends Rybka 3, Fritz 10 and Fritz 8. Sometimes I tell them "I saw that!" and sometimes I don't...
perrypawnpusher - parlance
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
I've been here 30 times, and scored 82%. That's not due to the strength of White's position, mind you, but because I am familiar with the tricks and traps of the opening.
After the game, Fritz 8 suggested 10...d5!? which follows the idea that if you are ahead in development you should open up the game: 11.exd5+ Kf7 12.Nc3 (Hanging on to the d-pawn with 12.c4 wastes time that needs to be spent by White on development, e.g. 12...Re8 13.Qg3 c6 14.dxc6 bxc6 15.d3 Bf5) 12...Re8 13.Qc5 Ne7 14.d4 Nexd5 15.Nxd5 Qxd5 and Black survives the discovered check and his misplaced King to maintain his advantage.
If I face 10...d5, in the future, I am likely to try the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit-ish 11.d4 dxe4 12.f3!?
11.f4 Qe7 12.Nc3 c6
Keeping the White Knight off of d5.
A bit better might be 12...Kf7, continuing to castle-by-hand.
12...Ng4 worked out better than it should have in last year's perrypawnpusher - MRBarupal, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 31).
13.f5 Ne5 14.d4 Nc4
You have to wonder if, just once, ...Ned7 was the right idea, with castling-by-hand still on the menu.
15.Qd3 b5
I've seen this kind of maneuver in my game against Saltos and both games against VGxdys. I think Black does best, instead, simply to retreat his Knight with 15...Nb6.
After all the travelling that the piece has done (...Nb8-c6-e5-g6-e5-c4) perhaps my opponent was unwilling to invest one more move – although that soon changes.
16.Bg5
I thought this was a pretty interesting idea at the time.
After the game, Rybka 3 preferred 16.a4.
16...h6
Taking the pawn right away was possible: 16...Nxb2 17.Qg3 Nc4 18.Rae1 Qc7 19.e5 dxe5 20.dxe5 Nd5 21.Nxd5 cxd5 22.Qg4 with a slight edge to Black, but I would be okay with White's position.
17.Bh4
Simpler was 17.Bxf6 Rxf6 18.b3 Nb6 19.Rae1 but I was okay with some complications of the text.
17...Nxb2
Taking the pawn shifts the edge to White.
18.Qf3
It would have been stronger to try 18.Qg3, as in 18...Qd7 19.e5 dxe5 20.dxe5 Qd4+
18...Nc4 19.e5 Nd2
Enticed by the chance to fork my Queen and Rook.
Black needed to bite the bullet, give up some material and move his King to a safer place with 19...Kf7. The resulting position would be quite complicated.
If White captures the Knight on f6, Black can force the exchange of Queens, i.e. 20.exf6 Qe3+ 21.Qxe3 Nxe3, when some simplification leads to 22.Ne4 Nxf5 23.Rxf5 Bxf5 24.Nxd6+ Ke6 25.fxg7 Kxd6 26.gxf8/Q+ Rxf8 where White is a pawn up, but the game is close to a drawish Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame.
White can capture on c6, instead, and enter a somewhat better Queenless middlegame, i.e. 20.Qxc6 Qb7 21.Qxb7 Bxb7 22.exf6 gxf6 23.Nxb5 a6 24.Nc3 Rae8.
Rybka's preference, though, is to pursue the attack on the Kingside with 20.Bxf6 gxf6 21.Qh5+ Kg8 22.e6 in order to force Black to liquidate, when an exchange sacrifice by White will give him the edge: 22...Bxe6 23.fxe6 f5 24.Qxh6 Rf6 25.Qg5+ Qg7 26.Qxg7+ Kxg7 27.d5 Ne3 28.dxc6 Nxf1 29.Rxf1 Rxe6 30.Nxb5 Kf6 31.g4 Ke7 32.gxf5 Rg8+ 33.Kh1 Rf8 34.Nd4.
Like I said: "Quite complicated."
20.Qxc6+ Black resigned
White's Queen is very active, and the next few moves are easy to see: 20...Kf7 21.exf6 Qb7 22.Qxd6 (possible because the Black Knight no longer protects the pawn) Nxf1 23.Rxf1 and now 23...Qd7 24.Nxb5 shows that White has plenty for his sacrificed exchange.
Sacrifice unsoundly, fall behind in development, send the Queen out to hunt pawns...
Doesn't sound like much of a recipe for victory, does it? Oddly, that kind of describes the way that I played the following game. Wins with White in the Jerome Gambit are often odd things.
perrypawnpusher - Solaar
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
The Database has 82 games with this position. White scores 70%. This is my 29th time here, scoring 81%.
10.0-0 Qe7 11.Nc3
The alternative is 11.d3, although transpositions are likely.
11...Be6
Looking for trouble.
Rybka 3 suggests 11...Kf7, while 11...Rf8 was seen in perrypawnpusher - MRBarupal, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 31); 11...Ne5 was seen in perrypawnpusher - mikelars, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 50); and 11...Kd7 was seen in perrypawnpusher - parlance, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 22).
12.f4 Kd7
Odd, perhaps planning to castle-by-hand on the Queenside; but returning the piece, intentionally or otherwise.
Better was 12...Bc4 as in QuadCoreBR - Alecs, FICS, 2008: 13.d3 Ba6 14.b4 b6 15.b5 Bb7 16.f5 Ne5 17.d4 Neg4 18.Qg3 h5 19.h3 Nh6 20.e5 Ne4 21.Nxe4 Bxe4 22.Bg5 Qd7 23.e6 Qxb5 24.Bxh6 gxh6 25.a4 Qe2 26.Rf2 Qc4 27.Qg7 Black resigned.
13.f5 Bxf5
Slightly better was 13...Bc4 14.d3 Ne5 15.dxc4 Nxc4 16.Qd4 Ne5, when Black would be down a pawn, but he would have pressure and play against the backward White pawn on e4.
14.Rxf5
Was Solaar expecting me to play 14.exf5? If so, after 14...Qxe3+ 15.dxe3 Ne5 14.e4 the game would have reached the position mentioned in the note to Black's 13th move, only with Queens off the board and it being Black's move. White would still have an edge.
14...Rae8 15.d3 Kc8
The difficulty for Black here is that even though he is better developed and White's center is under pressure, there is time for White's Queen to go pawn-hunting.
16.Qxa7 Rhf8 17.Bg5
Also possible was 17.Qa8+ Kd7 18.Qxb7 but I decided to save that for later,
17...Qe6 18.Bxf6 Rxf6 19.Rxf6 Qxf6 20.Rf1 Qe5
21.Qa8+
After the game Rybka 3 pointed out the more ferocious 21.Rf5 Qe6 22.Rb5 Kd7 23.Rxb7 Rc8 24.Nb5. I was content to be a few pawns up and head toward the endgame.
21...Kd7 22.Qxb7 Nf4 23.Qb5+ Qxb5 24.Nxb5 Rf8 25.Nc3 c6 26.g3 Ne6 27.Rxf8 Nxf8
28.Kf2 Ne6 29.Ke3 c5 30.Ne2 g5 31.c3 Kc6 32.d4 c4
A slip that ends the game quickly, rather than slowly.
33.d5+ Black resigned
I have slowly come to the conclusion that there is more to the play of the "Jerome pawns" that White gets for his sacrificed piece than simply racing them up the board, hoping to frighten my opponent into error. The game is not as wild, but it seems more solid, with more realistic winning chances.
perrypawnpusher - parlance
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6
In an recent game against this opponent I faced a different defense, raced my pawns forward, and watched my game fall apart: 6...Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Ng6 9.Qd5+ Ke7 10.Qxc5+ Ke8 11.0-0 d6 12.Qe3 N8e7 13.f5 Ne5 14.d4 Ng4 15.Qg3 h5 16.h3 Nf6 17.Qxg7 Rf8 18.e5 dxe5 19.Bh6 Qxd4+ 20.Kh1 Rf7 21.Qh8+ Neg8 22.Nc3 Rh7 White resigned, perrypawnpusher - parlance, blitz, FICS, 2011.
7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6 10.0-0 Qe7
I just saw this move a few days ago, against mikelars. Hmmm, I wonder if I have learned anything...?
11.Nc3 Kd7
Wow.
perrypawnpusher - mikelars, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 50) continued with the active 11...Ne5.
Black's choice in the current game is even more provocative: apparently he plans to swing his King's Rook over to the e-file. Just the kind of move to stir me to over-reaction.
12.f4 Kd8
More psychological warfare?
This is all very interesting. White can now play 13.d4, and after 13...Re8 he can advance with 14.e5, although this is met with the too-familiar 14...Ng4 and it is not clear what the first player has accomplished.
13.f5 Ne5 14.d4 Neg4
Who was it that said: I can resist anything but temptation ?
15.Qf3
This move is okay, but with Black's King on d8 I might have done better to try 15.Qd3.
15...Re8 16.h3 Nh6 17.Bg5
This has to be better than 17.e5 dxe5 18.dxe5 Qxe5 19.Re1+ Bd7 20.Qxb7 Qc5+ 21.Kh2 Ke7!? when things are unclear, but tilting Black's way.
On the other hand, an improvement probably is 17.Bxh6 gxh6 18.Rae1 Bd7 when it is almost time to advance the e-pawn, i.e. 19.Qf2 Bc6 20.e5.
17...Qf7
Black attends to two issues: the pin along the d8-h4 diagonal, and the pressure on f6. Still, he would have done better with 17...Nf7, which attacks the pinning Bishop and removes White's chance to double pawns on the h-file.
18.Nd5
I assure you, my e-pawn was screaming that it wanted to advance. Instead, I attended to the pin of the Knight at f6. I could have both prepared the advance and threatened the Knight at h6 with 18.Qf4.
18...Nhg8
Quick! He's reinforcing f6. Do something!
19.Rae1
Yawn...
19...h6 20.Bh4 g5
Just when it gets time to play e4-e5, my opponent distracts me. If he had played 20...c6 I would have calmed my "Jerome pawns" with 21.Nxf6 gxf6 22.e5 with compensation for my sacrificed piece, maybe even an edge.
With his move Black tries to break the pin along the diagonal, but by capturing en passant (maybe he overlooked this) I can add a pin along the f-file, too.
21.fxg6 Qxg6 22.Nxf6 Black resigned
It is not just that White has won back his piece. After 22...Nxf6 23.Qxf6+ Qxf6 24.Rxf6 Black will have to deal with the discovered check when White's Rook moves; 24...Kd7 25.d5 does not improve his situation.
