The Jerome Gambit shows up in the oddest places...

I was doing my standard weekly online search for mention of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) when I noticed a reference in a blog at bighollywood.brietbart.com.

It was titled My Weekly Date with a Liberal - Date #2 by Jon David.

Politics aside, the blogger explains how (and why) he came to be on a particular hiking date, and it doesn't take long before he falls into chessic metaphor.

Then I saw it. My first move…. and then the second… and then the whole board. I was Big Hollywood’s Bobby Fischer.

Maybe, maybe not. Especially since a short time later he admitted

I was setting up the Jerome Gambit, an opening move in chess described as extremely dubious, where White sacrifices two pieces in hopes of exposing Black’s king and obtaining a mating attack.

Note: I have no idea what that means.

Is it any surprise that this self-admitted non-member of the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde failed to score?

A couple of pawns among friends...

In a game between equally-rated players, it would be odd for one to offer the other odds of two pieces, or even of two pawns. However, in the following game White offers "Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) odds" and when his opponent realizes that his defense is the same as offering two-pawn odds, he turns over his King... 

perrypawnpusher - Leontes blitz 10 0, FICS, 2009 

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5

What's a couple of pieces among friends? It's the Jerome Gambit way. 

6.Qh5+ Kf6 No, no, I insist: what's a couple of pawns among friends? Black had many options, just not this one – giving back both of the pieces (see "Jerome Gambit and The Perfesser (Part I)" ) 

7.Qf5+ Ke7 8.Qxe5+ Kf7 9.Qd5+ Ke8 

Or 9...Kg6 10.Qf5+ Kh6 11.d4+ g5 12.h4 d6 13.Bxg5+ Kg7 14.Qd5 Qe8 15.dxc5 dxc5 16.Nc3 Bg4 17.f3 c6 18.Qxc5 Bd7 19.0-0-0 Qe6 20.Qd4+ Nf6 21.Bxf6+ Qxf6 22.Qxf6+ Kxf6 23.Rxd7 Black resigns, guest1088 - guest567, ICC 2002

10.Qxc5 Qe7 11.Qxe7+ Black resigns

White will simply be up two pawns in a Queenless middle game. Likely my opponent had better things to do than play that out.

Kersplat!

Readers may be skeptical about my enthusiasm for the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), as this blog features many of my wins (with and against) and few losses.

The fact is that my Jerome and Jerome-ized games database includes 49 wins, 4 draws, and 6 losses by perrypawnpusher.

The following battle, my most recent, is one of those losses – my opponent out-played me with ease and grace; and my game, which never really got started, came to a swift and unhappy end.

Hats off to my opponent, Raankh, for the stern lesson.

perrypawnpusher - Raankh
blitz 2 12, FICS, 2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8


As old as Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's third episode of analysis from the Dubuque Chess Journal, July 1874; and good enough to last that long. Black is better.

7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qc3

Jerome recommended, instead, 8.Qf4+, which I'll try to remember next time.

8...Qf6 9.0-0 Qxc3 10.Nxc3 a6

11.Nd5

Better was 11.Ne2. The Knight eventually gets there...

11...c6 12.Nf4 Nf6 13.d3 g6 14.Bd2 Kf7 15.Ne2 Rf8 16.Bc3 Nh5 17.Kh1 Kg8

Black has castled-by-hand, and White has gotten nothing started to speak of.

18.g3

Thoughtless and easily punished.

18...Bh3 19.d4 Bxf1 20.Rxf1 Bb6



White's two extra pawns do not offset his missing Rook

21.f4 Rae8 22.g4 Nf6 White resigned

I hope he's not holding his breath...

From the Unorthodox Chess Openings news group on the internet, a number of years ago:

20.07.2002
[Internet - Unorthodox Openings - Nakamura]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ -- In UnorthodoxChessOpenings@y..., "richardfkennedy" wrote: Until the time that there is a "Dumb Chess Openings" group, I guess that a discussion of the discredited Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5) will have to show up in UnorthodoxChessOpenings... :-)

Actually, I am researching the Jerome, especially its early years, which go back to the 1870s and Alonzo Wheeler Jerome. (Some of what I have discovered is at www.chesshistory.com.) I would be interested in anyone's experiences or games with the line.

Many thanks!

From: "hawgambit"
Date: Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:39 pm
Subject: Re: Jerome Gambit

Greetings from Hawaii, Richard F. Kennedy.

You are a new member who just joined our Unorthodox Chess Openings Newsgroups recently. I do welcome you as a new member.

I will post 15 Jerome Gambit Games (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+) in the files section.

I have played the Jerome Gambit before in blitz games and have analyzed this gambit. Currently I do not believe that this gambit is sound.

It seems that once white trades queens he is lost in the endgame. White has to avoid trading queens.

I recently did some further analysis of the Jerome Gambit and came to the same conclusion.

If you do find some good lines for white, I wlll be first to congratulate you.

Best Regards
Clyde Nakamura

Best Lines

From the upcoming post on Jerome Gambit [1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+] for Dummies comes the question:

What if I don't know how to play against the best lines in the opening, and my opponent avoids them, anyhow?

perrypawnpusher - ViennaMike

blitz 8 5, FICS, 2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qf6 One of the many winning defenses against the Jerome Gambit. 

 9.fxe5+ Qxe5 10.Qf3 Nf6 11.d3 So far, following in the footsteps of BronxBoyII, but instead of repeating his error at this point – ViennaMike comes up with one of his own.

11...Bb4+

Unaware of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's analysis and advice. See "In The Beginning..."

12.c3 Ba5

Sad to say, the proper line was to give up the Bishop with 12...Ke7 13.cxb4. White then would only have a small advantage after 13...d6 14.0-0 Be6 15.Nc3 Kd7.

13.Bf4 Rf8 14.d4

Being cute. Simply 14.Bxe5+ Kxe5 15.Qf5+ Kd6 16.Qxa5 was enough to reach an overwhelming position.

14...Qxf4 15.Qxf4+ Kc6 16.d5+ Kb5 Avoiding the loss of his Bishop, after all, after 16...Kb6 17.b4.

17.Na3+ Ka4 18.b3+ Kxa3 19.Qc1 checkmate

Chess Publisher

I have been using the Chess Publisher software to present games in a play-through-each-move format at the end of my posts at jeromegambit.blogspot.com at Blogger.

Today, "This Account Has Been Suspended" messages have been appearing on my blog (and likely on other sites that use Chess Publisher) in place of the chess boards and moves. This seems to be an issue between Chess Publisher staff and their website host.

The problem has nothing to do with this website and our host, Blogger. It is hoped that things will return to normal for Chess Publisher in a day or two.

If not, I will seek out other software to present games. -- Rick

Endgame Skillz

Having spent time preparing the posts "To belabor a point..." and "Reeling Sequel", you would think that I (with the White pieces) would have been ready for the following endgame position:

Something "neutral" like 34.g3 g6 35.f4 gxf4 36.gxf4 Rf7 would have kept the game in balance and led to the "inevitable" draw.

Instead, I moved my f-pawn.

34.f3 Rf4+ 35.Rxf4 gxf4

You don't actually have to be able to see 14 moves ahead to know that this is going to result in an unfortunate, un-draw-able Queen-vs-advanced-f-pawn endgame:

36.Kd4 Kb5 37.Ke4 Kc4 38.Kxf4 c5 39.Ke3 Kxc3 40.g4 c4 41.f4 Kc2 42.f5 c3 43.g5 Kd1 44.f6 gxf6 45.gxf6 c2 46.f7 c1Q+ 47.Ke4 Qc8 48.Ke5 Qf8 49.Kf6 Kd2

With the White pawn blocked, Black marches his King up to help collect it – standard strategy.

50.Ke6 Ke3 51.Kf6 Kf4 52.Kg6 Ke5 White resigned

Only after the game did I realize that there was still a draw after Black's Rook check – provided that I didn't enter the endgame that I thought I "knew". Simply 35.Kd3 Rxg4 36.fxg4 Kd5 was enough to split the point!

[analysis diagram]