Two Positions

In the following game my opponent out-played me, encouraging me to extend a shell of "Jerome pawns" which he then cracked like an egg. I'd like to look at a couple of interesting positions from the game, neither of which I "solved" correctly.

 perrypawnpusher - mconst
blitz, FICS, 2010

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

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

7.Qd5+ Kf8 8.Qxc5+ d6 9.Qe3 Ne5

This is the first position. Black is clearly being provocative, asking for the d-pawn or the f-pawn to kick the Knight to g4. I've not seen it before.

Instead, I've seen 9...Nf6 in perrypawnpusher - hogmaster, JG3 thematic, ChessWorld, 2008 (1-0, 37); perrypawnpusher - joejox, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1/2- 1/2, 27); perrypawnpusher - DysonLin, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 23); perrypawnpusher - Mences, blitz, FICS,  2009 (1-0, 38); perrypawnpusher - andrecoenen, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 25);  perrypawnpusher - SkypeFro, blitz, FICS 2010 (1-0, 39);   perrypawnpusher - BishopChris, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 22);

I've also faced 9...Be6 in perrypawnpusher - jamtaylo, blitz, ChessWorld Welcome JG, 2009 (1-0, 27).

10.0-0 Nf6 11.f4

Likely better is 11.d4, which would cause me to re-think my understanding of how to play this position. The attraction of the move is obvious: kicking the Knight on e5 and opening the c1-h6 diagonal for White's dark squared Bishop. It also means that White should then answer 11...Neg4 (not the best response) with 12.Qd3, giving up, at least for the moment, the idea of pinning Black's Knight along the f-file with either the Rook or Queen and then attacking it with e4-e5.

11...Neg4

This is probably not as solid as 11...Nc6 but it is much more annoying.

12.Qf3 Nh6

13.h3 Kf7 14.e5 Ne8 15.g4 Rf8 16.Qd5+ Be6 17.Qxb7 Qh4

Here's the second position of interest. The question is: Is Black bluffing?

He had the choice of the ordinary 17...dxe5 18.fxe5+ Kg8 19.Rxf8+ Kxf8 20.Qe4 Nf7 which is about equal.

Instead, he offers a Rook.

18.Qg2

I played this too quickly, but it is worth looking at 18.Qxa8 d5, locking the Queen out. The alternatives to the pawn move, 18...Qxh3, 18...Nf6 and 18...Nxg4, are all well met by 19.Qg2.

When White then covers his h-pawn with 19.Kg2, Black has 19...Nd6, exposing an attack on the Queen.

As Her Majesty runs back home, Black breaks through: 20.Qxa7 Ne4 21.Qa3, however I have not been able to find anything better for Black than either 21...Bxg4 or 21...Nxg4 each which yield nothing more than a draw through perpetual check after 22.hxg4.

18...Rb8 19.f5 Bc8 20.d4 Bb7 

The game is complicated, and my play from here on out is not good.

21.Qh2

White needed to shield himself from that Bishop with 21.d5 dxe5 22.c4, when Black might have a slight edge.

21...Kg8

Prudent, but there were good attacking chances with 21...Nxg4.

22.Nd2

White needed to get rid of that Knight with 22.Bxh6
22...Nxf5

Even more deadly was 22...Nxg4, but my game was collapsing fast.

23.gxf5 Qxd4+ 24.Rf2 Rxf5 25.Nb3 Qd1+ White resigned

Instant Victory Redux

I'm not sure how many people read this blog on a daily basis, but I certainly do. With the number of posts climbing toward 1,000 there is a lot of information on the Jerome Gambit and its relatives and I need to keep up.

For example, a few days ago I posted on the topic of "Instant Victory" in the Blackburne Shilling Gambit. There is a 6th move choice for Black that should give his opponent a very quick win, but in over 150 games in the New Year's Database, that had happened only 2/3 of the time. I wanted to help readers improve that success rate to 100%.

Today I played the following game.

perrypawnpusher - Raankh
blitz, FICS, 2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit.

I have a draw and a loss against Raankh in two Jerome Gambit games.

4.Bxf7+

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 6.Qh5+ Ke7

Uh oh. Its that move. Lucky for me I read this blog.

(Earlier this year Raankh played the stronger 6...g6 against me, and I won in 49 moves after a long and drawn-out battle.)

7.Qf7+ Kd6 8.Nc4+ Kc5 9.Qd5+ Kb4 10.c3+ Black resigned

Daves111 Tops ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic

Dominating the field like What's-His-Name in the picture on the left, Daves111 left his twelve opponents in the dust as he stormed to the top in the just-completed (or "just about" completed: the remaining game is a mate-in-two) double round robin ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament.

Daves111 scored 21 points out of 24 games, taking 10 out of 12 points available with the White pieces and 11 out of 12 points with the Black pieces.

He was followed by CheckmateKingTwo and Jerome Gambit veteran DREWBEAR 63, each with 17.5 points. My guess is that the tie break will go to CheckmateKingTwo, as he beat DREWBEAR 63 in their two games.

In fourth place, with 16 out of 24 points, was blackburne, the tournament organizer and long-time member of the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde.

TWODOGS and Crusader Rabbit achieved plus scores, with 13.5 and 13 points respectively.

shm19cs broke even with 12 points and eddie43 just missed that mark with 11.5 points.

There followed LukeWarm with 10 points, stampyshortlegs with 9 points, calchess10 with 8 points and Baron wd von Blanc, heart pirate with 7 points. anbeks finished with 0 points.

The top scorers with the Jerome Gambit were Daves111 (10 points), CheckmateKingTwo (8.5) and DREWBEAR 63 (7.5).

The top scorers against the Jerome Gambit were Daves111 (11 points), DREWBEAR 63 (10 points) and CheckmateKingTwo (9 points).

The greatest upset was calchess10 winning a game against an opponent with a rating 350 points higher.

The Jerome Gambit itself scored 46%, which is consistent with how well it has done in past thematic tournaments.

Incomplete

The following game allows me to point out that my assessment of a line in the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit has been incomplete. Quick! Let me add a bit more.

COMTIBoy - erickking
blitz, FICS, 2010

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit.

4.Bxf7+

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8

As I've written before

Seen most often is 5...Ke8, and after 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Nxg6, best play for both sides is 7...hxg6 8.Qxg6+ Ke7 9.Qg5+, when Black can go for the draw-by-repetition with 9...Ke8; or go for an unbalanced (but largely equal) position as acirce suggested above with 9...Nf6 10.Qc5+ d6 11.Qxd4 when White has four pawns for a piece and it is unclear if Black has an open King or open lines for development.

This doesn't address the question, though, What if White wants more than a draw?

6.Qh5+ g6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Qxg6+ Ke7 9.Qg5+ Ke8 10.Qe5+

Instead of repeating checks White decides to pick up the Knight at d4, going on his own for an "unbalanced (but largely equal) position."

10...Ne6

This move tilts the game in White's favor.

Stronger was10...Qe7, daring White to take the Rook: 11.Qxh8 Qxe4+ White resigned, avoiding checkmate, in jatapia - RVLY, FICS, 2008.

After the more sensible 11.Qxd4, Black has played 11...Rh6, GOH - Jorma, FICS, 2005 (1-0, 43); 11...Rh4, keeswillem - focus13, GameKnot, 2006 (0-1, 29); 11...Nf6, dic - zoranb, FICS, 2009 (0-1, 25); and 11...Bg7, GOH - boggus, FICS, 2005 (1-0, 28) and  perrypawnpusher - adamzzzz, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 39).

11.Qxh8

White has a Rook and four pawns for two pieces, and a safer King.

11...Qg5

This is an obvious improvement over the knee-jerk 11...Qf6  of Dragon Tail - Blitzcraig, FICS, 2008: 12.Qh5+ (12.Qxg8 was okay, too) Kd8 13.d3 Nd4 14.Bg5 Nxc2+ 15.Kd1 d6 16.Bxf6+ Nxf6 17.Qf7 Nxa1 18.Qxf8+ Kd7 19.Qxf6 Kc6 20.Na3 Black resigned, DragonTail - Blitzcraig, FICS, 2008.

12.0-0 Nf6

Stronger was the more direct 12...Nf4, when Black out-played his opponent: 13.g3 d6 14.d4 Ne2+ 15.Kh1 Nxc1 16.Nc3 Bg4 17.Raxc1 Bf3+ 18.Kg1 Kd7 19.Qh4 Qxh4 20.gxh4 Bh6 21.Rce1 Bd2 22.Rb1 Nf6 23.e5 Rg8 checkmate, Raju - risbo, FICS, 2002.

13.d4 Qg6 14.Nc3 d6 15.f4 Nxe4

A slip that costs a piece and the game.

16.f5 Qg7 17.Qh5+ Ke7 18.Nxe4 Qxd4+ 19.Nf2 Nd8 20.Re1+ Kd7 21.Qe8 checkmate

We're Number...Huh??

I just stumbled across a post on the Online Masters website that lists 50 Great Blogs to Improve Your Chess Game.

Imagine my extreme surprise and disappointment not to find this Jerome Gambit blog listed. (Actually, that would take a great imaginatioin.)

Still, it's an interesting list with sites well worth checking out.

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

I was doing a Google Books search for Jerome Gambit references, and came across the following one from a review in The British Chess Magazine, Volume 108, 1988




Lettisches Gambit by Dr. L. Orban, Verlag Das Schach Archiv, Hamburg x: 1987 L. 90pp. ₤ 7.12 overseas ₤7.32 US $13.50

100 games with light notes on 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 f5. Also four - numbered five - supplementary games, though one of these illogically opens 2.Bc4 f5 and another one: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 Bxf7+ - The Jerome Gambit! Many CC games of course.

The Gentleman or the Tireder?

Except for a few slips, my opponent consistently outplayed me in the following game, which is especially notable given that he used up much of his initial 2 minutes quickly and played the large majority of his remaining moves on each 12-second increment.

Just when he reached a "won" endgame, he offered me a draw. Was he simply tired from playing so long on the knife's edge of time? Or had he seen what was to come, but in a sporting way rewarded my resistance with a half-point?

 perrypawnpusher - dogofthesouth
blitz 2 12, FICS, 2010

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8

7.Qxe5 Bd6

This move is better than it looks at first glance, and forces White's Queen to abandon the center or abandon the board.

8.Qf5+

Also seen has been 8.Qc3, in perrypawnpusher - Lark, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 30); 8.Qa5, in billwall - firewine, Chess.com, 2010 (1-0, 53); and 8.Qh5 in blackburne - Whiterose, ChessWorld, 2004 (1-0, 11).

8...Qf6 9.Qxf6+ Nxf6 10.Nc3

I was not happy exchanging Queens, but sometimes it has to happen. I continued to play confidently and quickly, and a moment of uncertainty on behalf of my opponent (plus his use of time) was my reward.

Also played was 10.d3, in perrypawnpusher - LeiCar, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 34).

10...Be5 11.0-0 Bxc3 12.bxc3 d6

The pawn on e4 was free for the taking. I should have protected it with 11.d3. My opponent, however, was suspicious and gave me time to recover.

13.d3 h6

Louis Marin ground down his opponent after 13...Kf7, mrjoker - PhlebasP, ICC, 2008 (1-0, 34).

14.f4 Ke7 15.Ba3 Bd7 16.e5 Nd5 17.c4 Ne3 18.Rf2 Bc6

Black's last move (instead of 18...c5, blocking the a3-f8 diagonal) is part of his plan to put pressure on g2, but proves to be inaccurate and allows White to pull even.

19.Re1 Nxg2 20.Rxg2 Bxg2 21.exd6+ Kf7 22.Re7+ Kg6 23.Kxg2 cxd6

Black is up the exchange for a pawn (soon two), but with the proper follow-up White can now develop winning chances.

24.Re6+

This is not the right way, however. After 24.Bxd6, White's Rook can threaten Black's pawns at b7 and g7 (especially after Be5). When one of them falls, three pawns would be great compensation for the exchange.

24...Kf5 25.Rxd6 Rad8 26.Rxd8 Rxd8

Over the next 30 moves White's compensation falls, like autumn leaves from a tree. My opponent's play is not always the most accurate, but, given his time constraints, he did well; and certainly better than I did

27.Kf3 Rd7 28.Bb2 b6 29.Be5 Re7 30.c3 g5 31.d4 gxf4 32.Bxf4 h5 33.Be3 Re4 34.c5 bxc5 35.dxc5 a5

Black could have saved himself a lot of trouble by playing 25...Ra4 here. His a-pawn would then Queen, while my forward c-pawn would not.

36.Bd4 Rg4 37.c6 Rg8 38.c7 a4 39.a3 Re8 40.c4 Ke6 41.Kg3 Kf5 42.h4 Ke4 43.Bb6 Rc8

44.Ba5 Kd4 45.Kf4 Kxc4 46.Kg5 Kb3 47.Bb4

White had a clearer chance to play for the draw here with 47.Kf6: 47...Kxa3 48.Ke7 Kb3 49.Kd7 a3 50.Bb6 Rg8 51.c8/Q Rxc8 52.Kxc8 a2 53.Bd4 Kc4! Black can now run his King over to attack White's h-pawn, causing the Bishop to protect it; play ...a2-a1/Q, forcing the Bishop to capture the Queen and un-protect the h-pawn; and capture the h-pawn; but the Bishop will stop the final Black pawn from Queening.

I was thinking, instead, that getting another Black pawn off of the board was the key to my survival. It might have been, but not the way that I played it.

47...Rxc7 48.Kxh5 Kc4

It is possible that 48...Rb7 is stronger, as it implements the threat of capturing White's Bishop and thus freeing Black's a-pawn to advance and Queen. White would have to try something like 49.Bf8. I am not sure how much more Black could achieve by chasing the Bishop here and there.

49.Kg6 Kd5 50.h5 Rc6+ 51.Kg5 Ke6

White must now play 52.Kg6 to keep Black's King away from the h-pawn and maintain drawing chances.

52.h6 Kf7 53.Kh5 Kg8 54.Be7 Kh7

Now the h-pawn is doomed, and with it, quite probably, my game.

55.Bf8 Rc3 56.Kg5 Rf3 57.Bb4 Rg3+ 58.Kh5 Rh3+ 59.Kg5 Rg3+

At this point my opponent offered a Draw, and with a sense of relief I accepted.

The question in my mind was "Didn't Black have a win after 59...Rxh6"?

It turns out that the people who have created Rybka have a website (http://chessok.com/?page_id=361) where there is a 6-man Nalimov Endgame Tablebase which gives the answer: after 59...Rxh6 Black would have a mate in at most 48 more moves: 60.Kf5 Rh5+ 61.Ke4 Rh4+ 62.Kd3 Rg4 63.Bc5 Kg8 64.Bd6 Kf7 65.Bb4 Rh4 66.Bc5 Ke6 67.Bf8 Rh8 68.Bc5 Kd5 69.Bb4 Rh3+ 70.Kc2 Rg3 71.Be7 Rf3 72.Bb4 Kc4 73.Bd6 Rf2+ 74.Kb1 Kb3 75.Kc1 Rc2+ 76.Kd1 Rc8 77.Be7 Re8 78.Bb4 Kb2 79.Bc5 Rd8+ 80.Ke2 Kb3 81.Ke3 Rc8 82.Bb4 Rb8 83.Bc5 Kc4 84.Bd6 Re8+ 85.Kf2 Re6 86.Bb4 Rb6 87.Be7 Rb7 88.Bd6 Kd5 89.Bf4 Rb3 90.Bc1 Rc3 91.Bg5 Rxa3 92.Be7 Rd3 93.Bf6 a3 94.Ba1 Rd1 95.Bc3 Kc4 96.Bf6 a2 97.Ke3 Rd3+ 98.Ke4 Rc3 99.Bg7 a1Q 100.Bxc3 Qxc3 101.Kf5 Qd4 102.Kg6 Qe5 103.Kh7 Qg3 104.Kh8 Kd5 105.Kh7 Ke6 106.Kh8 Kf7 107.Kh7 Qh4#

Whew! That line is very complicated and possibly not worth the effort finding in a casual blitz game. In all fairness, though, White would be more likely to err and lose while Black would be risking very little.