Tournament Update: Ahead of the Scrum

As J.M. Barrie wrote in Peter Pan, 

All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.

And, so it is that, once again, somehow - thank you, Jerome Gambit - I find myself at the top of the heap in my section in the second round of the "Italian Battleground" tournament at Chess.com.

With one game not yet completed, it looks like I will be followed in the standings by four players who will each have the same score. It will be up to the tie breaks to decide which two, among warwar, docfb, manospawn, and vasbur, will join me in advancing to the third round. (I won a Jerome Gambit against warwar, the only player in this group to allow the opening. If he is interested in a return match, I supect he is happy to have the edge in the tie breaks at this point.)

In the other section, two games remain to finish, but XristosGikas and 275Jukka have secured their advance, while Abhishek29 and Alfonso10 are likely to be the ones relying on tie breaks to secure an advance for one of them.

If my predictions hold, I am likely to be the 4th highest rated amongst the final 6 - but, then again, I will have my secret weapon.

A Strange Jerome Gambit - But What's New? (Part 3)

[continued from previous post]

perrypawnpusher - vasbur
Italian Battleground, Chess.com, 2018

White's pawns have raced forward, based on a mixed-up plan (see previous post). What to do? What to do? What to do?

My brain kept screaming Kick the Knight! Kick the Knight! Kick the Knight! but I focused on patiently developing my Rooks.

23.Rhf1 Rf8 24.Qd2 g6 25.Rae1 

The Rooks have taken up central squares, but there is no reason to hurry advancing the "Jerome pawns", as the enemy King is Queenside-ish. Time for more preparing. Ugh. Like eating vegetables.

25...Bd7 26.Ne2

This at least has the opportunity to lead to an unclear game after 26...Nxa2?! 27.Qa5 c5 28.Bxc5 dxc5 29.Qxc5+ Kd8 30.Qa5+ Ke8 31.Qxa2 when White would have 3 pawns for his sacrificed piece, and Black's King would be in the dangerous center.

Black is not tempted.

26...Na6 27.c4 b6

It looks like Black is preparing to move his Knight to c5, and answer Bxc5 with ...bxc5. He can also consider placing his King at b7, linking his Rooks.

28.e5 

Time to strike at the center, regardless. It's what you do in the Jerome.

28...dxe5 

This is unfortunate, and a bit unfair. Black has defended well against the Jerome Gambit (his Knight foray to b4 and then back to a6 was a small waste of time) and he could have skated to a safe and even position by returning the sacrificed piece with 28...Nxd5 29.cxd5 Qxd5+ 30.Kg3 dxe5 31.fxe5 Rxf1 32.Rxf1 Bc6 33.Nc3 Qd7.

Perhaps his strong play was his downfall - why settle for a draw, after all?

With a few moves, though,White throws back Black's pieces. 

29.fxe5 Qg8 30.Rxf8+ Qxf8 31.e6 Be8 32.Rf1 Qg8

33.Qg5 

I had orginally intended 33.Bg5, but I found this move to be stronger. Black's Knight is lost, and, suddenly, White's extra pawns mean something - as do his advanced pawns and better development.

33...Nc6

A great try at escape. If now 34.dxc6?! Bxc6+ 35.Kg3 Qxe6 the game would be even, or Black might have a slight edge.

34.e7

This is the move that shows up the looseness of Black's position. White threatens to bring his Rook to f8 with many threats, and Black finds he is a step behind in his defending a not-difficult-to-find set of moves: 34...Nxd4 35.Rf8 Ne6 36.Rxg8 Nxg5 37.Rxe8+ Kd7 38.Rxa8 Kxe7 and White would be only a pawn and the exchange up, but an additional couple of pawns would soon fall to his Rook.

Black resigned.

.  

[I have one game left to finish in the second round of the Italian Battleground tournament at Chess.com. A win would allow me to move on to the third round - and possibly more Jerome Gambits. A draw would probably allow me to squeak on by. A loss would likely end my play.]

A Strange Jerome Gambit - But, What's New? (Part 2)

[continued from previous post]

perrypawnpusher - vasbur
Italian Battleground, Chess.com, 2018

10...Qf6

This is a very reasonable retreat from the chaotic situation (10...Ne7!? continues the weirdness), and I was surprised to find that The Database had only two other examples. Both games are losses by me, however.

11.Qd5+ Ke7 12. Qxc5+ Kd8 

I was ready, in case Black played 12...Qd6, which would transpose to an earlier game that featured the Queen retreat to h6, not f6.

13.Kg2

I once tried 13.e5 as an improvement on this move, in perrypawnpusher - HarlemKnight, blitz, FICS, 2014, without success (0-1, 24).

13...d6 14.Qf2

I am not sure what White's Queen's best retreat is, but I lost quickly after14.Qd5, i.e. 14...Ne7 15.Qd3 Nd4 16.e5 dxe5 17.c3 Bf5 18.fxe5 Qc6+ White resigned, perrypawnpusher - james042665, blitz, Chess.com, 2008. 

14...Nd4 15.d3 Bg4 16.Be3 Nc6 

The Knight returns home, with tales of adventure to tell.

Black has the usual Knight for 2 pawns advantage, and his King appears a bit safer than usual at d8.

I was not happy with my position. I am more comfortable with "forcing" strategies, starting with 6.Qh5+ instead of 6.d4, and I had to work hard to simply develop and then improve my position, slowly.

17.Nc3 Nge7 18.h3

This move was agony. Nothing is going to happen to the Black Bishop. I simply wanted to make the d1 square safe for one of my Rooks, should I decide to put one there. Prepare first, then attack.

18...Bh5 19.g4 Be8 

20.d4 Kc8 21.d5 

Part of a strategy based on a mistaken impression...

21...Nb4

This Knight is getting too much exercise. It probably should simply retreat.

22.Bd4 Qf7 

I was shocked by this move, until I realized that my chess board at home was set up wrong - Black's Bishop, of course is at e8, but on my travel set I had misplaced it at f7. All my great ideas about trapping Black's Queen with my pawns and Bishop went right out of the window...

[to be continued]

A Strange Jerome Gambit - But, What's New? (Part 1)

I just completed a Jerome Gambit game in the Italian Battleground tournament, online at Chess.com. It had more than the usual amount of strangeness in it.

perrypawnpusher -vasbur
Italian Battleground, Chess.com, 2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+

This move marks the "classical" Jerome Gambit lines, with the "modern" lines avoiding the second piece sacrifice, e.g. 5.0-0.

With the updated Database, I took a look at how the two ideas differed in success in club player practice.

I discovered 14,407 games which contained the acceptance of the first piece sacrifice, 4...Kxf7. White scored 45%, which is consistent with past measures.

I found 6,602 games (less than half?!) that continued 5.Nxe5+, and in those White scored 55% (suggesting that the "modern" lines scored somewhat above 35%).

Even though the edge in successful playgoes to the "classical" lines, it might be time to take a closer look at what "modern" lines do best. 

5...Nxe5 6.Qh5+

With 4,328 examples in The Database, this line is more popular than 6.d4 (with 1,924 games), although in both White scores 55%

6...Ke6 

For the record, there are 1,091 games with this position in The Database. White scores 53%.

This compares with 514 games with 6...g6, where White scores 72%; 2,010 games with 6...Ng6, where White scores 53%; and 645 games with 6...Kf8, where White scores 49%.

The practical (based on games played, primarily by club players, primarily online) defensive choice, by a small margin, would seem to be 6...Kf8. Of course, "objectively" all of these 6th move alternatives for Black give him a winning position. Do remember, however, how hard it can be to win a "won" game...

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ 

Wow. This is Black's sharpest defense. I have scored 19 - 6 against it (76%), but there always seemed to be a bit of luck involved - overall, White scores 52% in 77 games, according to The Database.

9.g3 Nf3+

Yikes.

10.Kf1 

I am not sure why I didn't play 10.Kd1, instead, with which I am 6-0. Before this game I had played 10.Kf8 11 times, going 8-3.

Over all, The Database shows 10.Kd1 as scoring 14 - 8 - 2 (63%), with 10.Kf8 at 12 - 5 (71%).

Of course, 10.Ke2 is a bad idea (White has scored a win and a draw in 10 games) but it's hard not to mention 10...Nd4+ 11.Kd3 Qe7? 12.Qd5 checkmate, ZahariSokolov - epifend, 15 0, FICS, 2018. 

[to be continued]

Tournament Update Update

Things move slowly in the "Italian Battleground" tournament at Chess.com. By my count, there are 11 games to be completed - although 2 of those cannot be started until a couple of ongoing ones are finished. Still, it is possible to identify those in each group who will move on.

In Group 1 there are a couple of games to complete, but  Marek_Sturmvogel, warwar and Iliwo will make it to round two.

Group 2, with two games to go, will see perrypawnpusher (that's me), JohnDuh2 and Abhishek29 move on to the next round.

Group 3 will see 275Jukka, manospawn and either thejamch, Alfonso10, Tarongrig or Asdksafa (yes, that is everyone else) progress. Seven yet-to-be-finished games keep that third spot in competition.

In Group 4, xtfabio, vasbur and XristosGikas will make it to round 2.