Joker's Wild (2)

We continue with an article (see "Joker's Wild (1)") by Louis Morin ("mrjoker") of Montreal, Canada – a long-time Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) Gemeinde member – as he gives his response to the "Bashing the Jerome Gambit" chapter in Schiller and Watson's Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings (2003).

11.d4!

At the cost of a pawn White opens the game and puts the centralized King in real danger.

11...Qxd4 12.c3!

Attacks the Queen with tempo.

12...Qc4

I cannot give each and every variation, but 12...Qd3 is strongly met by13.Rf3 Qc2 14.Nd2. With his Queen out of play and his King dangerously standing in the center, Black will soon have to give back at least his Bishop, for example 14...Kc6 15.b4! Bd6? (he should leave his Bishop where it stands) 16.e5! Bxe5? (same comment) 17.Qc4+ Kd6 18.Ne4+ 1-0

analysis
diagram





13.Nd2!

Still attacking the Queen with tempo!

13...Qe6 14.Qg3+

Now attacking the King with tempo.

14...Kc6

Of course not 14...Qe5 15.Nc4+

15.b4!

And now attacking the Bishop with tempo. Black is so busy defending against so many threats that he cannot save this Bishop anymore.

15...Bd6?

Black should let his Bishop go, for example 15...Bb6 16.a4 a5?? 17.b5+ followed by mate.

[to be continued]

Joker's Wild (1)

This article is by Louis Morin ("mrjoker") of Montreal, Canada. mrjoker is a long-time Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) Gemeinde member, and his games have appeared on this blog numerous times before.

I hope readers enjoy this contribution, especially those who question whether "serious analysis" and "Jerome Gambit' can fairly occupy the same sentence.

I just bought the book Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings by Schiller and Watson, because I was eager to read the section entitled "Bashing the Jerome Gambit". Should I say that I am very disappointed? Even though though the authors are strong masters, their piece of analysis is very lousy at best.

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

the authors suggest that Black can get a promising position after 6...Ke6 7.f4 Qf6! 8.Nc3 Ne7 9.Rf1 g6 10.Qh3+ Ng4! because the f-file remains closed and White's attack fades away.

I will NOT discuss this position for a very simple reason: it it completely irrelevant!Schiller and Watson simply missed that their suggested 8.Nc3 for White is a losing blunder! Black gets a winning position after the obvious 8...Qxf4 9.d4 Nf6!
(they probably only looked at 9...Qf6 10.d5+ Kd6 11.Nb5+ Ke7 12.Bg5), for example 10.Bxf4 Nxh5 11.Bxe5 Bb6 followed by 12...d6.
White is simply a piece down for a Pawn, with no compensation whatsoever.
Instead of 8.Nc3? losing the f4-pawn and the game, White should play the obvious 8.Rf1, and unfortunately Schiller and Watson do not say how Black should continue. But wait a minute. Suppose Black plays 8...Ne7, then White will answer 9.Nc3 and Black is back in the variation he wants by 9...g6 10.Qh3+ Ng4! etc. Right?

Wrong! After

8.Rf1 Ne7?

White gets a promising game with the simple

9.fxe5 Qxe5 10.Qg4+
and now we see the flaw in 8...Ne7?. Black would like to go back to e7, but unfortunately a Knight is occupying this vital square. So the King has to stay in the center with 10...Kd6. How should White react?

[to be continued]

King in Peril

The task of defeating the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) can be turned into a simple rule: exchange down to the endgame and make your extra piece count*. Of course, the asterisk (*) is there to remind defenders that they shouldn't let anything bad happen to their King while they are following the rule...

blackburne - Crusader Rabbit

JGTourney4 ChessWorld, 2009

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6

A tough defense for White to handle, if Black knows what he's doing. Fortunately for the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde, that doesn't always happen.

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.0-0 Ne7 TN

Many excursions away from "book" are not improvements; but this move is just fine. Hats off to Crusader Rabbit.

9.Qf4 N7g6 10.Qg3 Qe7

This is solid, but better was either breaking the pin with 10...Ke6 or offering to exchange Queens with 10...Qh4. White's response is thematic.

11.d4 Bxd4 12.Rd1 Kc5

Black will have to return a piece, but it looks like the only thing he has to be worried about is his wandering monarch.

Looks can be deceiving: the next time this position appears, White should look at the shot 13.Rxd4, as after 13...Kc6 (13...Kxd4? 14.Qe3+ Kc4 15.Qb3+ Kc5 16.Be3+ Kc6 17.Qd5 checkmate) 14.f4 the game is even.

Gotta love that Jerome Gambit!

13.c3 Bxf2+ 14.Qxf2+ Kc6

Despite his exposed King, Black is doing fine. It is White's job to make as much mischief as possible.

15.Qd4 b5

Either too casual or too panicky. The routine 15...Qc5 was what the position (and the King) needed. Now things get dangerous for Black.

16.Qd5+ Kb6 17.Be3+

17...Ka6

Another reflection of the psychological stress of defending (against the Jerome Gambit, of all things): Black's inconsistency is his undoing. He should have continued with 17...c5, when White's followup will produce a complicated game that still favors the second player: 18.b4 d6 19.Qxa8 Bb7 20.Rxd6+ Kc7 21.Qxa7 Qxd6.

White is now winning.

18.a4 c5

The addition of White's Rook to his attack is devastating. Black's "best" was 18...c6 when White's play unfolds with intensity: 19.axb5+ Kb7 20.bxc6+ Kc7 21.Bc5 dxc6 22.Bd6+ Kd7 23.Qc5 Qe6 24.Bxe5+ Ke8 25.Bxg7

19.axb5+ Kxb5 20.Qxa8 Nc6 21.Na3+

White's Queen is safer than Black's King.

21...Kb6 22.Nc4+ Kc7 23.Rxa7+ Nxa7 24.Qxa7+ Kd8

25.Bxc5 d6 26.Bb6+ Ke8 27.Nxd6+

All of White's pieces join in. Compare that with Black's Rook in the corner.

27...Kf8 28.Nxc8

28.Qa8 leads to mate; but the text wins easily as well.

28...Qe6

Allowing mate.

29.Rd8+ Qe8 30.Rxe8+ Kxe8 31.Nd6+ Kf8 32.Qf7 checkmate

A Rook and Pawn Endgame

Time to take a break from the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) for a moment and visit with an educational endgame. Well, it helped me get "educated" both during and afterward. The way my opponent disappeared from FICS the moment the game was over, I got the impression that he, two, was going to give the game a good look-over...

perrypawnpusher - cmcj
blitz FICS, 2009


After 50 pretty boring moves followed by 25 rather sloppy ones, White finds himself up a pawn in one of those you-should-know-how-to-play-this endgames.
Kind of looks like the Lucena Position, doesn't it? As opposed to the Philidor Position? Does any of that make sense to you? Do you know how to play either one?

Welcome to the club.76.Ra7

Try this instead: 76.Rf4 Rh2 (Black plans to check the White King endlessly) 77.Re4+ Kd6 (The Black King has been bumped away, so that the White King can emerge) 78.Kf7 Rf2+ (as planned) 79.Kg6 Rg2+ 80.Kf6 Rf2+ 81.Kg5 Rg2+ 82.Rg4 Aha! The pawn will advance and promote! White has used the proper plan!

76...Rh4 77.Ra7+ Ke8 78.Rf7

Well, that was fun. What did it accomplish that the simple 76. Rf7+ wouldn't have accomplished? Well, Black's Rook is now on the important 4th rank, but it has to either leave or stop covering the h-file. Black, rightly, leaves his rook on the h-file.

78...Rh3 79.Rf5

This is funny. Why? Because the Rook is on the wrong rank. Watch and see.

79...Re3 80.Kh7 Rh3+ 81.Kg6 Rg3+

Just in time White realizes that if he now blocks the check with 82.Rg5, as planned, Black has 82.Rxg5+ Kxg5 83.Kf7 Kh6 84.Kg8 Kg6 stalemate!
82.Kf6 Rg4

Dropping further back, to g2 or g1 was better, although it might not matter in the end.

83.Re5+ Kd7

Great! Now White has 84.Rg5, at last.

84.Re7+

Luckily, this is part of a plan that will work.

84...Kd8 85.Ra7

85...Rf4+ 86.Kg5 Rf1 87.g8Q+ Rf8 88.Qxf8 checkmate

Were they talking about the Jerome Gambit again?

It's time for another collection of quotations...

Adequate compensation for a sacrifice is having a sound combination leading to a winning position: adequate compensation for a blunder is having your opponent snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - Bruce A. Moon


Careful. We don't want to learn from this. - Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes)


Short of actual blunders, lack of faith in one's position is the chief cause of defeat. To be sure, it is easy to recommend faith and not so easy to practice it. - Fred Reinfeld



Half this game is ninety percent mental - Danny Ozark, Philadelphia Phillies manager



"There are only two kinds of moves in the opening," Tartakower once remarked. "Moves which are wrong and moves which could be wrong."



Like every great chess player, Franklin K. Young was well aware of the superiority of certain opening moves. "Always deploy," Young once advised, "so that the right oblique can be readily established in case the objective plane remains open or becomes permanently located on the centre or on the King's wing, or that the crochet aligned may readily be established if the objective plane becomes permanently located otherwise than at the extremity of the strategic front." Young later clarified the passage as follows: "The best initial move for white is 1. P-K4."


Cardinal Borromeo was once censured for the inordinate time he spent playing and practicing the game of chess. "What would you do if you were busy playing and the world came to an end?" he was asked one day. "Continue playing," he simply replied.



Any opening is good enough, if its reputation is bad enough. - Tartakower



The judicious violation of general principles marks the master-mind. - Löwenthal



I keep on fighting as long as my opponent can make a mistake.– Emanuel Lasker



I make errors, therefore I am!– Saviely Tartakower



My problem with chess was that all my pieces wanted to end the game as soon as possible. - Dave Barry


A chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third... when you know you're going to lose!- Tartakower


Chess is thirty to forty percent psychology. You don't have this when you play a computer. I can't confuse it.- Judith Polgar


I don't want to make the wrong mistake. - Unknown


In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. - Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut


To all other chessplayers, the mistake, not the pawn, is the soul of chess. Without mistakes no wins. Long live the blunder! What would chess be without all the hung pieces, the mates in one, the blindness, the Fingerfehler, the mix-ups of move-order, the Nf5xd6 of Amsterdam 1956 or the d4-d3 of Havana 1965? - Tim Krabbé


Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. - Napoleon Bonaparte


Less than fifteen per cent of the people do any original thinking on any subject.... The greatest torture in the world for most people is to think. - Luther Burbank


There are only two ways by which to rise in this world, either by one's own industry or by the stupidity of others. - Jean de la Bruyere


If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.- Lewis Carroll


If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks, and that means you're not going anywhere. The key is to make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more chances to learn and win. - John W. Holt, Jr.



The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come. - C.S. Lewis






(These are just a few of the humorous chess quotes at Got Chess Quotes? at Stan's NetChess Message Board. Check them all out!)

Photo Finish?

It's beginning to look like the 15-player, double-round robin Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) Thematic Tournament at ChessWorld will go down to the wire before a winner is determined.

Currently, stampyshortlegs holds the lead, with 20.5 points out of 26 games completed. He has leap-frogged over Piratepaul, who has 20 points out of 25 games completed.

Sir Osis of the Liver (19 points out of 28 games completed), is secure in third place.

Fourth place is occupied by DREWBEAR 63 (17 points out of 28 games); although he could be joined there by GladtoMateYou (16 points out of 27 games) or Haroldlee123 (14 points out of 25 games) – but not both, as they are playing a game against each other.

Luke Warm is sitting still with 15 points out of 28 games, as is Eddie43 with 14.5 points out of 28 games.

The Jerome Gambit has kept its score of 39%. stampyshortlegs has gained 9.5 points with the gambit, while PiratePaul and Sir Osis of the Liver have gained 9 points.

That Strange Move Again

Playing through a new (to me) Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game, I encountered an unusual line, with a strange improvement/recommendation that I'd seen sometime before...

UNPREDICTABLE - Sanomis

blitz FICS, 2009

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8

This is not one of the usual Jerome Gambit refutations, and a pretty rare choice of move, although it's been touched upon in "You, too, can add to Jerome Gambit theory!" and "Ooops..."

6.Nxc6

Of course, this is White's best move.

Black has a strange response here that is both thematic and counter-intuitive (you gotta love the Jerome Gambit!): 6...Qh4!?

analysis diagram

Best play now seems to be 7.d4 Qxe4+ 8.Qe2 Qxe2+ 9.Kxe2 when, after a dance of the pieces, 9...Bb6 10.Nb4 Bxd4 11.Nd5 Kd8 the position is equal.

analysis diagram

This is not the thunder-and-lightning play of Whistler's Defense, which is clearly better for Black, but it's probably not the kind of position that White was hoping for when he sacrificed his Bishop.

Instead, Black simply captures the Knight on c6, and then realizes that he will be two pawns down with an uncastled King and no counterplay.

6...dxc6 7.Qh5+ Black resigned