Jerome Gambit Quiz #4

This is the fourth in a series of quizzes to test the reader's understanding of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and related openings.The answer to each quiz can be found at the end of the following day's post.

Black is not interested in allowing the Jerome Gambit: instead, he initiates an attack on White's Bishop immediately.

What do you think? What are some of the benefits of this line? What are some of the difficulties that it creates?

Answer to Quiz #3:
After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7,

White has a pawn for his sacrificed piece, and although Black's King can no longer castle, a follow-up is difficult: 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 leaves White with very little to work with.

This new line is not an improvement upon the Jerome Gambit.

Jerome Gambit Quiz #3

 This is the third in a series of quizzes to test the reader's understanding of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and related openings.The answer to each quiz can be found at the end of the following day's post.

Here Black has not followed the Jerome Gambit line, but instead has played his King's Bishop to e7: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7. White wants to start an attack anyhow, and plays 4.Bxf7+, as in the Jerome Gambit proper.

What do you think? What are some of the benefits of this line? What are some of the difficulties that it creates?

Answer to Quiz #2:

Clearly White's plan is to attack: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Ng5 Nh6 5.Nxf7 Nxf7 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7.

White has a pawn for his sacrificed piece, and Black's King, having moved, can no longer castle. However, the usual initiative that comes with the Jerome Gambit (threats: Qh5+, d2-d4) is not apparent here.

This new line is not an improvement upon the Jerome Gambit.

Jerome Gambit Quiz #2

This is the second in a series of quizzes to test the reader's understanding of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and related openings.The answer to each quiz can be found at the end of the following day's post.

Here we see that White has decided to play something new, and Black has responded with a defensive move: after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 White moved 4.Ng5 (instead of the sacrifice 4.Bxf7+) and Black played 4...Nh6.

What do you think? What are some of the benefits of this line? What are some of the difficulties that it creates?

Answer to Quiz #1:

By reversing his 4th and 5th moves, White makes his opponent's defense much easier: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.Bxf7+ Nxf7.

White has two pawns for his two sacrificed pieces, but he has little chance to recover any more material, as a Queen check at h5 or the pawn strike d2-d4 are both ineffective, since they are not forks. In addition, Black's King has not been forced to move, and can eventually castle to safety.

This new line is not an improvement upon the Jerome Gambit.

Jerome Gambit Quiz #1

This is the first in a series of quizzes to test the reader's understanding of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and related openings.The answer to each quiz can be found at the end of the following day's post.

Here we see that White, who is used to "throwing around pieces" in the Jerome Gambit, has decided to switch his fourth and fifth moves, playing 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Nxe5, instead of the usual 4.Bxf7+ and then 5.Nxe5.

What do you think? What are some of the benefits of this line? What are some of the difficulties it creates?

Better isn't good enough

White starts out in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) with what can objectively be called "a lost game."

Fortunately, most club level chess games hardly proceed along "objective" lines.

Still, my opponent's sudden resignation – when I figured that he had solved the opening and was looking forward to some decent counter-play – came as a bit of a mystery to me.

Perhaps Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member Pete Banks was playing the wise detective when he suggested that some defenders never quite get over the "shock and awe" of the Jerome Gambit!

perrypawnpusher - GabrielChime
blitz 12 0, FICS, 2009

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6

A good defense, one of a number of refutations to the Jerome Gambit.

7.Qd5+

The "nudge".

7...Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3

So far we are moving along well-travelled lines – I have over 70 games with this position in my database, starting with Charlick - Mann, correspondence, 1881: 9...Nf6 10.d4 Qe7 11.0-0 Ng4 12.Qe2 Qh4 13.h3 Nf6 14.f4 Nh5 15.Qf2 Qxf2+ 16.Rxf2 Rf8 17.f5 Ne7 18.c4 c6 19.g4 Nf6 20.Nc3 d5 21.e5 Nd7 22.cxd5 Nxd5 23.Ne4 N7b6 24.b3 a5 25.e6 h6 26.Bb2 Ke7 27.Re1 Ra7 28.Nc5 Na8 29.Nd3 b5 30.Ne5 Kd6 31.Rc1 Ra6 32.Rc5 Bb7 33.Rfc2 Rc8 34.Bc1 a4 35.b4 a3 36.Bd2 Nab6 37.Be1 Na4 38.Bg3 Ke7 39.Nd7 Nxc5 40.dxc5 Rg8 41.Bd6+ Ke8 42.Rd2 Ra4 43.Rxd5 cxd5 44.f6 gxf6 45.Nxf6+ Kd8 46.e7+ Kc8 47.Nxg8 Bc6 48.Nf6 Rxb4 49.e8Q+ Bxe8 50.Nxe8 Rb1+ 51.Kf2 Rb2+ 52.Kf3 Rxa2 53.Nc7 b4 54.Nxd5 b3 55.c6 Rc2 56.Bxa3 Ra2 57.Bd6 Rc2 58.Be5 b2 59.Nb6+ Kd8 60.c7+ Rxc7 61.Bxb2 Rc5 62.Bd4 Rb5 63.Nc4 Ke7 64.h4 Ke6 65.Ke4 Rb1 66.Ne3 Kf7 67.h5 Kg8 68.Nf5 Kh7 69.Be3 Re1 70.Nxh6 Rxe3+ 71.Kxe3 Kxh6 72.Kf4 Black resigned

9...Ne5 

This is new to me. Maybe Black is trying to provoke my pawns?

10.f4

A little bit better might have been 10.d4.

10...Ng4 11.Qg3

I've had problems with "Wild Horses" a number of times in the past.

11...g6 12.d4

If those "Jerome pawns" look eggshell-brittle, I agree. The simple 12.0-0 was better.  

12...Qe7

Black begins to pressure the center, although 12...N8f6 might have been a better start. 

13.Nc3 Bd7 14.0-0 N4f6

I think that Black is holding his own (in part because he has not been developed enough to benefit from advancing his pawns), although after the game Rybka surprisingly suggested that Black should castle-by-hand on the Queenside: 14...Kd8 15.h3 N4f6 16.e5 Nh5 17.Qd3 Kc8 18.Bd2 Kb8 with a small edge to White.

15.e5 Nh5 16.Qf2

Better was16.Qf3. That "horse" was really throwing me. 

16...Bf5 17.exd6

This cannot be right: White throws away his large pawn center for a chance to make a check along the e-file. Rybka rates the resulting position as roughly even, but the "Jerome pawns" are much more effective as a unit, not split to make pawn majorities on each side.

17...Qxd6

18.Be3 Kd7 19.Rae1 Rd8 20.h3 Ngf6

Stronger was the move that Black probably originally intended, 20...Kc8.

21.g4 Black resigned

Yes, Black will have to return his extra piece, but in doing so he will probably receive open lines to attack White's King. At the end of the game, Black still has an edge, so my opponent's resignation surprised me.

Is this the new face of the Jerome Gambit??

Chuck Norris doesn't checkmate his opponent's King – one look, and the enemy monarch dives off of the board...

I don't know what it is, but lately I've played a number of short Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and Jerome Gambit-ish games (see "Notes Longer Than the Game" and "A Game Shorter Than the Notes").

I don't think it's a case of my opponents runing from their keyboards shrieking "The horror! The horror!" Maybe the opening is just getting a little respect.

Now that would really be scary.

perrypawnpusher - ronnn
blitz 10 0, FICS, 2009

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6

It's always fun to stick a pawn in the face of an attacking piece.

7.Qxe5

Followed by "the pause."

Maybe my opponent overlooked the capture of the Knight. Maybe he wanted to give back a piece, but overlooked that now the Rook is en prise. Maybe he was trying to remember that old Blackburne game...

7...Bxf2+

For thoughts on this idea, both kind and not-so, see "Jerome Gambit Strikes in Denmark!"

8.Kxf2 Qf6+

Black forces the Queens off of the board.

9.Qxf6+ Kxf6

Black resigned

Black is a pawn down in a Queenless middle game (or endgame), certainly a playable situation at the club level, especially in blitz. Apparently he had had enough for one game.

The Worst Chess Opening Ever

I just submitted an article on the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) titled "The Worst Chess Opening Ever" to Chess Life for Kids, which runs my regular "Arabian Knights" stories.

If the editor doesn't die laughing, I'll let you know if he accepts it for publication.

graphic by Jeff Bucchino, the Wizard of Draws