The most well-known defense against the Jerome Gambit is the one that J.H. Blackburne used in a game over 130 years ago. As we have seen on this blog many times, however, it is a tricky defense, and the better player usually wins, despite the "objective" assessment of the line (i.e. it is dynamically equal). This caveat is especially apparent in the following game, where Black errs early - but White makes some later slips, only scoring the full point after much further work. It is not a safe game for Rooks.
ehmorris3 - F-Dynamics
10 0, lichess.org, 2017
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6. Qh5+ g6 7. Qxe5 d6
Blackburne's Defense, famous since Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884. Black offers a Rook, with the plan to trap White's Queen, and, while she is entombed, to attack White's King.
8.Qxh8 Be6
It is difficult to grasp the idea behind this move, unless it is simply to follow up the sacrifice with further development. Perhaps Black believes that his opponent will need time to put his Queen back into play. White immediately moves to make sure his Queen will be free.
9.Qxh7+ Kf8 10.d4
Sacrificing a pawn to prepare for further development.
Instead, 10.Qxg6 was seen in perrypawnpusher - saltos, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 40) and Wall,B - VJCH, FICS, 2013 (1-0, 16).
An alternative, 10.O-O, was seen in mosinnagant - mumbaII, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 38)
10...Bxd4 11.Bh6+
The idea. White has to be careful about his own Rook on the a1-h8 diagonal, however.
11...Nxh6
An earlier game had gone 11... Ke8 12.Nc3 Qf6 13.O-O Bf7 14.Nd5 Qe6 15.Nxc7+ Kd8 16.Nxe6+ Black resigned, Petasluk - cuadriculas, FICS, 2008.
12.Qxh6+ Ke8 13.Qxg6+ Bf7
A very dynamic position, with White better. The first player has the advantage of a safer King and is three pawns and the exchange ahead in material - but his Queenside is about to be demolished.
In the meantime, where should White's Queen go? There is only one safe square that keeps his advantage.
14.Qg3
White needed to play 14.Qf5!? in order to be able to answer 14...Bxb2 with the fork 15.Qb5+, when he can then pick up the Bishop. Once Her Majesty is safe, White can then play c2-c3 or Nb1-c3 to keep the enemy attack on b2 stifled.
14...Bxb2 15.c3 Bxa1 16.O-O Bxa2
White's original idea might have been to block Black's Bishop in at a1, and then capture it, but that will not work out.
This odd position is about equal.
17.Na3 Bxc3
Black surrenders his piece too quickly He could have tried 17...Bb2 18.Nb5 a6 19.Nd4 Qf6 20.f4 c5 and held the advantage - according to Stockfish 8. It is really hard for me to judge this unbalanced position.
18.Qxc3 d5 19.Qe5+ Kd7
Each side has 3 connected passed pawns!
20.Nb5 Kc8 21.Rd1 Kb8
Black has castled-by-hand, but in doing so has entombed his Rook. He will not be able to escape checkmate.
22.exd5 b6 23.d6 cxd6 24.Rxd6 Kb7
Yes, things are this bad. However, even after surrendering the Queen, there will still be checkmate.
25.Rxd8 Rxd8 26.Qe7+ Kc8 27.Nd6+
There was also 27.Qc7#, but White has the game in hand.
27...Rxd6 28.Qxd6 Kb7 29.h4 b5 30.h5 Black resigned
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 believe that it was GM Andy Soltis, long ago, who wrote that it can be difficult to decide, when there is a choice of either Rook to move to a square, which one to choose. He even humoursly suggested that, regardless of which one the player chooses, the annotator would be able to to kibitz "Wrong Rook".
That assessment is at the heart of this game (even though, here, it is a matter of choosing which of two Rooks should be moved, each to a different square), but it probably should be written "WRONG ROOK!" and placed against the background of a ticking clock...
perrypawnpusher - pitrisko
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 Qf6
In a game that we played 3 days earlier (see "Like the Big Boys"), my opponent had tried the very reasonable 9...Nf6.
10.Nc3
I've played a couple of games with 10.0-0; see perrypawnpusher - TJPOT, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 48) and perrypawnpusher - LeiCar, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 25).
Louis Morin ("mrjoker") has played a couple with 10.d4; see guest2199 - guest401, ICC, 2004 (1-0, 87) and mrjoker - Igor77, ICC, 2008 (1-0, 70).
10...c6 11.0-0 N8e7 12.f4 Rf8
This is Black's idea: with the King Knight on e7, he can double the heavy pieces on the f-file. He will have four pieces trained on the f5 square.
13.f5 Ne5 14.d4 Nc4 15.Qd3 b5
I've seen similar Knight vs Queen face-offs, for example perrypawnpusher - saltos, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 28).
16.b3 Nb6 17.Bb2
I liked this move, both kicking the enemy Knight and preparing to put my Bishop on the long diagonal.
Yet, Rybka 3, after the game, preferred the same move that I've been wrestling with, in different settings, recently (see "What does the Jerome Gambit deserve?" and "Like the Big Boys"): 17.e5
The main idea is the clearance sacrifice, 17...dxe5 18.Ne4. The secondary idea is that if Black advances his Queen, instead, with 17...Qh4, White will advance his pawn with 18.f6. There is also the ugly 17...Bxf5 18.exf6 Bxf6 19.cxd3 Rxf6 20.Rxf6 gxf6 Ne4 where White will have an edge in the endgame.
I guess when I better understand e4-e5, I'll have a better handle on the Jerome Gambit.
17...Kf7
It's never to late to castle-by-hand.
18.Ne2 Nd7 19.Rae1 a5 20.Nf4 Kg8
Things seem to be going as planned: I have plenty of development as compensation for my sacrifice, I am about to drop a knight into an outpost at e6, and my opponent is running short of time.
21.Ne6 Rf7 22.e5
Give yourself credit if you saw the Bishop-and-Knight-tour: 22.Bc1 h6 23.Nc7 Ra7 24.Ne8 Qh4 25.Nxd6 winning a pawn.
22...dxe5
pitrisko's time was running out, so he overlooked the better 22...Qh4, which left White with only a small edge.
23.dxe5 Qh4 24.Rf4
All together now: WRONG ROOK!
Of course, after 24.Re4, Black's Queen is in danger of being trapped, and his best move, 24...Qh5, allows 25.Nf4 followed by 26.e6.
What a sad way to mess up a relatively well-played game by White!
24...Qxe1+ 25.Rf1 Qh4 26.Nc7 Nxf5 27.Nxa8 Nc5 28.Qc3
Here, much to my relief, Black forfeited on time.
Another example of the equalizing injustice of chess.
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.
The following game takes its time getting where it's going. In fact, it probably could have taken even longer, if my opponent had not forseen the future and decided to stop travelling.
perrypawnpusher - VGxdys
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6
The Semi-Italian Opening.
4.O-O Bc5 5.Bxf7+
The Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit.
5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.Qh5+ Ng6 8.Qd5+
Interestingly, Rybka 3 (at a depth of 20 ply) sees this "nudge" as 1/2 pawn better than the immediate capture, 8.Qxc5.
8...Ke8 9.Qxc5 d6 10.Qe3 Nf6
A standard Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit position, although Black has also played 10...Qf6 in perrypawnpusher - saltos, blitz FICS 2009 (1-0, 28); 10...Ne5 in perrypawnpusher - Kotimatka, blitz FICS, 2009 (1-0, 21) and perrypawnpusher - Eferio, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 24); 10...Qe7 in perrypawnpusher - Macgregr, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 23); and 10...N8e7 in perrypawnpusher - apinheiro, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 59), perrypawnpusher - VGxdys, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 32) and perrypawnpusher - apinheiro, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 25).
11.f4
Or 11.d4 and then 12.f4 as in perrypawnpusher - KenWhitaker, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 27).
11...Kf8
Taking the King off of the dangerous e-file, if temporarily putting him on the dangerous f-file. Black's plan is to castle-by-hand, with the King ending up on h7. Instead a center strike with 11...Qe7 12.d3 d5 occurred in perrypawnpusher - LeifPetersen, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 30).
12.f5 Ne5 13.d4 Nc4
It was probably safer to play 13...Nf7, but who can resist harassing the Queen?
14.Qd3 b5
Oddly similar to our earlier game, referred to above.
15.b3 Nb6 16.Nc3 Kg8 17.Qxb5 a6 18.Qe2 Kh7
White has grabbed a Queenside pawn while Black has castled-by-hand on the Kingside. The game is about even.
19.e5 dxe5 20.dxe5 Nfd5 21.Bb2
Good enough, although with White's forces focusing on the f6 square, 21.Ne4 would have been even better.
21...Re8 22.Rad1 Qg5
This was Black's idea, attacking White's King.
25.Rd2 a5 26.Qf2 Ba6 27.Rfd1 Rad8 28.Rxd8 Rxd8 29.Rxd8 Qxd8
30.Qd4 Qg5 31.e6 Bb7 32.Qf2 Be4 33.f6 gxf6 34.Bxf6 Qc1+
The game has taken on some of the annoying aspects of the typical Jerome Gambit Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame. Still, I was willing to exchange Queens and try my luck. Too, exchanging Queens was Black's best chance.
35.Qf1 Qe3+ 36.Kh1 Bxc2 37.e7 Bd3
A slip, which should have been punished by 38.e8/Q, winning the Bishop.
38.Qg1 Qe6 39.Bh4 Qf7
40.Qe1 Bb5 41.Qe4+ Kg7
Another slip: White can now check the King and win the Bishop.
My opponent seems to have been a bit too comfortable with his assessment of the endgame as drawish. That made two of us.
42.Qg4+ Kh7 43.Qe4+ Kg8 44.h3
A small idea, but a useful one. With the back-rank checkmate prevented, my Queen can wander more successfully, not just limiting herself to offeres to exchange or checks on the enemy King.
44...Bd7 45.Kh2 Qe8
White's e-pawn is effectively blockaded, his Queenside pawns will not produce a passer on their own, and creating one on the Kingside will expose the White King to plenty of attacks. A win for for me, if it is there, is a long way down the road.
46.Qc4+ Kh7 47.Qxc7 Black resigned
With my King safe, however, my pawns do not have to do it on their own. The Queen will soon pick off Black's a-pawn, and then White's Queenside pawns will begin to advance and assert themselves.
My opponent decided that there was no need to let things go that far.
23.Nxd5 Nxd5 24.Rxd5 Bb7
