Jerome Gambit Blog: More Tidying Up

It's time to do a bit more tidying up (see "Jerome Gambit Blog: Tidying Up") on the blog – looking back on older posts and updating things since the last effort...

Relationships with the ChessPub.com forum remain cordial, if distant (see "Jerome Gambit: Duck-Billed Platypus of Openings"). I posted a short message there with a link to this blog, and some people have followed it over, placing the site 13th in referrals to jeromegambit.blogspot.com, according to Google Analytics. Of course the actual number is 1/16 th of those who came over from the Something Awful website (see "Something Awful", "Something Awful Again" and "Return to Awful"), just to keep things in perspective.

"Is it September already?" requires a number of updates. To date there has been no Jerome Gambit tournament in Jerome, Arizona, as far as I know. I still have an observer near the scene, though (see "Driving Distance"). Bill Vallicella's very interesting and ever-challenging Maverick Philosopher website has a new location. A review copy of Benjamin Hale's book Philosophy Looks at Chess has arrived, and when I get past my current writer's block (i.e. spending all of my writing time on this blog, instead of writing reviews for Chessville) I'll have my say about it.

An update to "The Jerome Gambit Gemeinde (modern)" would have to include chessfriend and game-contributor Martin Moller, of Denmark (see "Jerome meets the Elephant", "Jerome Gambit Strikes in Denmark!" and "Deadly Duel in Denmark" ) Unfortunately, the tournament mentioned in "A Jerome Gambit Gemeinde Adventure in Denmark" did not proceed as expected, and it is not likely that we will see further Jerome Gambit games from it.

The possible connection betwen Winston Churchill and Alonzo Wheeler Jerome (see "From the Email Bag...") has been traced a bit. Churchill's mother was the American, Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill; 1854-1921). Jennie's father was Leonard Jerome (1818-1891) of New York City fame and fortune. Leonard's father was Isaac Jerome; his grandfather was Aaron Jerome; his great-grandfather was Samuel Jerome. Samuel's father, Timothy Jerome, according to thePeerage, in 1710 "fled from France to England. In 1717 he sailed from the Isle of Wight to settle in Connecticut." Papers from the military records of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome (born in Four Mile Point, New York, see "The Man, The Myth, The Legend...") show that upon his death in 1902, his widow, Jennie Jerome (the name is an interesting coincidence) filed for a survivor pension. One affadavit was signed by Edgar Jerome and Martha Millis, listed as brother and sister of Alonzo, living in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Further research, of course, is needed to make any link, such as an Alonzo Wheeler Jerome-linked homestead in Connecticut.

In a comment to "Why not join in the discussion?" Pete Banks wrote the following:

Hi Rick,

I sent my latest escapade to Gary Lane after I sent it to you, as he'd asked for Jerome examples. Here is the relevant part of his reply: 'Did Rick Kennedy ever have his article published in the Germanmagazine he mentioned called Kaissiber? Anyway, you won't be able to use the opening as a surprise weapon for much longer because in November a winning game of yours is mentioned in my book "The Greatest Ever Tricks and Traps in the Opening" published by Everyman. Cheers Gary'

So a Jerome Gambit is to appear in print! Perhaps we'll get a revival going!

A check of the Everyman Chess website shows that Gary Lane's The Greatest Ever Chess Tricks and Traps is available now. Perhaps it should be included as the next entry in the "Jerome Gambit Scrapbook".

By the way, as for the Kaissiber saga, see "To Infinity... And Beyond! (Part II)", "Breaking News..." and "Jerome Gambit Blog: Tidying Up". I'm still hopeful.

Regarding the "Jerome Gambit and the Perfesser series" Part I, Part II, Part III and PartIV, I have another instructive, exploratory "human vs computers" match coming up, where the protagonist, "RevvedUp" (a pseudonym of my invention), alternates between playing Black and playing White, using the line played by the computer in the previous game as his choice in the current one – thus extending his Jerome Gambit "book" through the use of the computers' praxis...

Return to Awful

Following up on Something Awful and Something Awful Again, I was able to contact both OrangeKing and jyrka.

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OrangeKing,

From Something Awful:"Fired up, ready to go I'm playing in a tournament this weekend (the Northeast Open, in Stamford), in the u2100 section. You guys are tempting me to play with a Jerome Gambit/Halloween Gambit/Fred repertoire."

Any chance you actually played a Jerome Gambit game?

If so, care to share?

Thanks.

perrypawnpusher

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perrypawnpusher,

Can't say I did - Sorry.

OrangeKing

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jyrka,

From Something Awful: "I didn't know it had a name but I meet the Jerome Gambit against crappy players A LOT. I don't really have any other reaction other than to consider the game won."

Care to share some of your games?

Thanks.

perrypawnpusher

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perrypawnpusher,

Ah, sorry, I don't really have any games on hand. If you haven't already, check out the Jerome Gambit blog... hold on, I just checked it and it's YOUR website. You've probably seen it already then.

Usually I meet the gambit in a dimly lit pub against drunk guys. Definitely not in tournaments. To put it in perspective, another commonly used move is spilling the beer accidentally on the board.

jyrka

Something Awful Again

Some time ago I mentioned that I'd run across the Something Awful website (subtitled "The Internet makes you stupid") while examining the "referring sites" listed by Google Analytics for this blog (see "Something Awful").

As you can see from the graph below, the fitting mention of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and this blog at Something Awful had a sudden, if not long-lasting, impact on the number of visitors here.

I've since been able to dig deeper into the site, and reproduce below some of the relevant exchanges concerning the Jerome.

I enjoyed monoceros4's comment, would like to see jyrka's plentiful crushes, and will let you know if either OrangeKing or wlokos takes the plunge.

Orange King: Oh, you can't just stop playing crazy gambits because they're "bad" or "unsound" or "totally refuted!" Next thing you know, people will be advising against the Jerome Gambit.

Hand Knit: I would think that the Jerome would be the exact opposite of 'unsound'.

monoceros4: I'd never heard of this gambit so I looked it up, only to discover that there's a good reason I'd never heard of it.

Hand Knit: How could you have not heard of it when there's a blog dedicated to it exclusively.

monoceros4: I'd never heard of that either. I'm not sure whether to be charmed or not.
In fact, if you're going to devote a whole website to one opening, it might as well be some relic of the Romantic era of chess that nobody plays any more. An online temple to (say) the Najdorf would be a tiresome place indeed.
The sour note is that the devotion isn't entirely genuine. When Weaver Adams preached the doctrine of the Vienna Game, he genuinely believed in spite of evidence that White could win with it against anybody. Modern-day endorsements of unsound, Romantic openings, though, are more evasive. "Oh, it's playable, as long as you're playing low-rated amateurs in rapid games," is the typical qualification. I think it's ungentlemanly to play with the hope that your
opponent is dumb. It's a respectable version of hoping they'll fall for Scholar's Mate or the Englund trap.

Hand Knit: The Jerome Gambit is so-called because white is said to have a much better chance of winning when after playing 4.Bxf7+ standing up and yelling "JERRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMEE." It's not an opening you play to win.

goggle-eyed freak: Speaking of off-beat openings, does (or has) anyone else here play the Fred? (1. e4 f5 2. exf5 Kf7, although I usually play 2. ... Nf6).I used to play it quite often on ICC and didn't do half bad with it against similarly rated opponents. Is there much theory on it after the second move?

Hand Knit: Back in my high school days I knew a guy who made a living playing that opening. The strongest player I knew he beat with it was rated over 2300, and that wasn't a one-time thing.
And yes, he played 2...Kf7, not 2...Nf6. I think his online rating was over 2800 blitz and pushing 3000 on lightning. not ICC, but another site that was able to compete with it for a while. Worldchessnet or something.

OrangeKing: Fired up, ready to go I'm playing in a tournament this weekend (the Northeast Open, in Stamford), in the u2100 section. You guys are tempting me to play with a Jerome Gambit/Halloween Gambit/Fred repertoire.

jyrka: I didn't know it had a name but I meet the Jerome Gambit against crappy players A LOT. I don't really have any other reaction other than to consider the game won.

goggle-eyed freak: If you're already out of the money before the last round, then what's the risk besides a few rating points? Plus it would make for a good post here.

wlokos: You guys are making me want to study the Jerome gambit and such when I should be learning real openings, shame on all of you.
I was actually having fun yesterday trying out completely random weird openings yesterday in blitz games on icc, it was actually pretty fun. It's not like it really matters with my current 1000 blitz ranking.