The following game is over in an eyeblink.
For much of the game Black is doing well, and when he slips, it is only to "fall" to an even game.
Then he loses heart...
perrypawnpusher - Urumpel
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8
Given by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome in his published analysis in the July 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal; and played successfully by him in two correspondence games against Daniel Jaeger in 1880.
7.Qxe5 Bb6
Strangely enough, The Database, with 23,645 Jerome Gambit and related games, does not have this reasonable move.
8.d3 Qf6 9.Qg3 d6 10.Nc3 Nh6
Planning to target White's f2 square.
11.0-0 Ng4 12.Be3
Encouraging Black to follow through with his plan, i.e. 12.h3 Bxf2+ 13.Rxf2 Qxf2+ 14.Qxf2+ Nxf2 15.Kxf2, while "objectively" a little bit better than the text, would have left White with a pawn for the exchange, when Black would have an edge.
My move makes Urumpel nervous about his King and Queen being on the same file as my Rook.
12...Kg8 13.Bxb6 axb6 14.f4
14...Ra5 15.h3 Qd4+ 16.Kh1 Ne3
This invasion looks dangerous, but only leads to an even game. Black should have considered developing his other Rook with the Fishing Pole-style 16...h5!?
17.Rfc1 h5
Not nearly as powerful a move now.
18.Ne2 Nxg2
Yielding too quickly to despair.
Black sees his Knight going, and uses it as a desperado, forgetting that his Queen is en prise. He could have used the same idea to find 18...Nf5, when 19.exf5 Qxb2 20.Qe3 Kf7 21.Ng3 Re8 22.Qf3 Bxf5 23.Qxh5+ g6 24.Qf3 Be6 would have left White only slightly better, according to Rybka 3.
19.Nxd4 Nxf4 20.Qxf4 g5 21.Qf6 h4 22.Rf1 g4 23.Qf7 checkmate
As a contrast to yesterday's column full of Sturm und Drang, I thought I would share a recent game by Bill Wall. You can almost hear him humming a little tune as he plays his moves. You say that the Jerome Gambit goes well with a nice merlot?
Wall,B - Kamy
Chess.com, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6
The Semi-Italian Opening.
4.0-0 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.a4
Still waiting for ...Bc5, then Bxf7, writes Bill.
6...Bd6
Oh, well, sac anyway.
7.Bxf7+ Kxf7
What does White have for his piece? Objectively, very little, just a collection of interesting possibilities: Black's unsafe King, the a2-g8 diagonal, the e8-h5 diagonal, a possible weakness at f6, the possibility of opening the f-file against Black's King... Nothing to get upset about.
8.Qe2 Re8 9.Qc4+ Kf8 10.Nh4
"Doctor" Wall diagnoses a certain leukopenia (weakness of the light squares, used by Hans Kmoch in his Pawn Power in Chess) in his opponent's position.
10...Ne7 11.d3
Black's move covers d5, f5 and g6, treating the leukopenia, but this in turn exacerbates possible problems along the f-file, including a potentially weak Knight on f6, which now lack's the Queen's support.
11...b6 12.f4 a5 13.fxe5 Bxe5
Voila! An open file targetting the Knight on f6.
Is Black still better? Feed the position to any computer and it will say "yes". Still, White continues to work on his attack-the-King ideas, because they just might turn into something useful...
14.d4 d5 15.exd5 Bd6 16.Bxh6
Grabbing a pawn.
Is Black still better? Feed the position to any computer and it will say "yes". Still, White continues to work on his attack-the-King ideas, because they just might turn into something useful...
[Oh, I guess I wrote that already.]
16...gxh6
Black still had the better choices of 16...Ba6 17.Nb5 Nexd5 18.Bg5 or 16...Kg8 17.Bg5 Ba6 18.Nb5 Nfxe5, in each case with a roughly even game.
17.Rxf6+ Kg7 18.Raf1 Ba6
This is the counterplay that Black has been counting on. It fails, which seems a bit unfair. How can Black be better for so long, and suddenly be worse?
The most straight-forward answer to that question is "the power of a bad move," but perhaps the following line would make defenders feel better: 18...Nf5 (giving back the piece) 19.Nxf5+ Bxf5 20.R6xf5 Qh4 (White's King has safety issues, too) 21.h3 Qg3 22.Qd3 Qh2+ (calling the tune for a few moves) 23.Kf2 Rf8 24.Ke1 Qxg2 25.Rxf8 Rxf8 26.Rxf8 Bxf8 (White could afford to give up a pawn to get the Rooks off of the board) 27.Qf5 Qg1+ 28.Ke2 Qxd4 29.Qg4+ Qxg4 30.hxg4 and Black is "only" down one pawn, with a Bishop vs White's Knight. However, he will still lose.
19.Nb5 Be5
This hastens the end, but Black's King was too unsafe to survive, in any event.
20.dxe5 Qxd5 21.Qg4+ Kh7 22.Rf7+ Kh8 23.Qg7 checkmate
"I don't believe in psychology," Bobby Fischer supposedly said. "I believe in strong moves."
Then, again, Bobby probably never played the Jerome Gambit. If he had, he would have known the power of psychology (causing surprise, confusion, doubt and fear in the opponent) to make up for shortcomings, in an otherwise busted chess opening.
In the following game my opponent totally out-psychs me, though,and then adds some strong moves, too, for a well-deserved (for him) and painful (for me) victory.
perrypawnpusher - Olito
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6
The Semi-Italian Opening.
4.0-0 Nf6
With 4...a6 the game would transpose to perrypawnpusher - angelosgoulianos, blitz, FICS, 2007 (1-0, 40).
The whole Rook-pawns idea should not have been unsettling to me, but the fact that my opponent was playing his moves quickly sort of cued the ominous violin music to start playing in the background... See "If I write all this and someone reads it...".
5.Nc3 a6 6.a3
Temporizing. Last year I had tried a similar time-wasting idea, d2-d3-d4, in perrypawnpusher - tschup, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 18).
Of course, there certainly was nothing wrong with 6.d4 and a small advantage. I was still hoping for a Jerome Gambit-style game.
6...Bc5 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Nxe5+ Nxe5 9.d4 Nf3+
This hit me like a ton of bricks.
Not just the move – I had seen it in my game against AirmanLeonidas – but the ideas behind it.
My game with Olito was taking place later on in the same day that I had posted my ICC game against HenryV . In the notes to HenryV I had pointed out that White could capture the Black Knight on f3 with his Queen, because if Black retaliated with with ...Bxd4, White had a neat maneuver starting with Nc3-b5.
Of course, my opponent had just prevented Nc3-b5 with his a-pawn move.
Apparently, Olito was familiar with my blog post and had planned accordingly. Panic ran screaming down the hallways of my brain – which is reason #253 as to why I will never be a good chess player...
For the record, the text move is better than 9...Qe7 as in perrypawnpusher - cinamon, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 28).
10.Qxf3
I decided to go along with a modification of my original plan, anyhow.
Next time I will take a look at 10.gxf3, breaking up my Kingside pawns, but giving me a chance to scatter Black's pieces after 10...Ba7 11.e5 Nh7. Both Rybka 3 and Fritz 8 then suggest marching White's d-pawn to d6: 12.d5 Qh4 13.d6 c6 14.Qd3 Qh5 15.f4 when the "Jerome pawns" could still cause some grief.
10...Bxd4 11.Ne2 Be5 12.Qb3+
I was playing quickly, too, but more with a sense of desperation: I didn't like being out-prepared in my own, favorite opening!
Now Black has 12...d5 when 13.f4 Bd6 14.e5 forks two pieces, but there is escape with either 14...Bc5+ or 14...Re8.
12...Kg6
A mistake, or more psychological warfare?
13.f4 Bd6 14.f5+
Going after the King! To punish it! To checkmate it!
Yes, I had kind of lost my head by this point.
Sticking with the obvious, instead, would have given White at lease an even game, and perhaps a small edge: 14.e5 (the fork) Bc5+ (one piece escapes) 15.Be3 Ne4 (the other piece escapes) 16.Bxc5 Nxc5 17.Qc4 (chasing off the defender) d6 18.b4 Na4 19.e6 Qf6 20.f5+ Kh7 21.Qxc7
analysis diagram
But, back to the real world.
14...Kh7
15.Bf4 Bc5+ 16.Kh1 Nxe4
White is mostly just a piece down now. Still, I thought it was worth taking a swipe at the enemy King.
17.Qf3 d5 18.g4 Qh4 19.Ng3 Nxg3+ 20.Bxg3 Qg5 21.h4
White has, as my Dad would say, "a whole lot of nothing", but Jerome Gambiteers have gotten out of worse messes than this one.
21...Qf6 22.Qxd5 Bd6 23.Bxd6 Qxh4+
Somewhere out there, Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member Pete Banks ("blackburne") is saying "I told you so!" I've seen Pete hang on and survive some pretty desperate positions – the Jerome Gambit is complicated for Black, as well as White.
24.Bh2 Qxg4
25.Rg1
After the game, Rybka 3 liked White's position enough to suggest: 25.Rf4 Qh5 26.Rg1 Rg8 27.Rg2 Re8 28.Rg1 Rg8 29.Rg2 Re8 30.Rg1 Rg8 31.Rg2 Re8 32.Rg1 Rg8 33.Rg2 Re8 34.Rg1 Rg8 35.Rg2 Re8 36.Rg1 Rg8 37.Rg2 Re8 38.Rg1 Rg8 39.Rg2 Re8 40.Rg1– that's right, White repeats the position and Black goes along with him: a draw.
Of course, my line of play gives up a pawn, and my opponent's generosity (giving back the piece) is all for naught.
25...Qxf5 26.Rad1 c6 27.Qg2 Rg8 28.Rgf1 Qh3 29.Qxh3 Bxh3 30.Rf7 b5 31.Rg1
The idea of active Rooks trying to win a pawn before transitioning into a hopefully-drawable Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame is an attractive one, but it needs to be executed properly. My move overlooks a nice response by Black.
31...Be6 32.Re7 Bd5+ 33.Rg2 Bxg2+ 34.Kxg2 Rad8 35.Be5 Rd2+ White resigned
What a mess...
Hat off to my opponent Olito, who seriously schooled me in this game.
With about 225 games in The Database, GOH (at FICS) is no slacker when it comes to the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) and its related openings. He did not quite make the list in yesterday's "Still King of the Hill", so I thought I'd point out his latest theoretical battle.
GOH - VasyaP
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4
The Blackburne Shilling Gambit.
4.Bxf7+
The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.
GOH is a specialist in this line: The Database has over 200 of his games with this move, going back to 2000.
All of the games mentioned in this post can be found in The Database.
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kf6
Usually the Black King goes to e6 or e8. See "BSG: Later on in the Discussion".
6.c3
This aims to move the game back into familiar territory, as 6...Kxe5 now would transpose into 5...Ke6 6.c3 Kxe5. See "Whose Territory Are We Fighting On?"
6...Ne6
An untried alternative is 6...Nc2+!?
GOH was successful against 6...d6 in GOH - dauerschach, FICS, 2003 (1-0, 20).
The indicated 6...Kxe5 led to a complex position that is roughly even, and which appeared in 32 of GOH's games. He scored 48%.
7.d4
Previously GOH had played 7.Qf3+ successfully in GOH - VictorOK, FICS, 2006 (1-0, 17).
The text move is deceptively simple, protecting White's Knight on e5. It had been played successfully previously in GOH - VictorOK, FICS, 2007 (1-0, 36).
7...d6
And that is that, as they say...
Instead, Black needed to move his King or Queen.
8.Qf3+ Nf4 9.Qxf4+ Bf5 10.Qxf5+ Ke7 11.Qf7 checkmate
Way to GOH!
graphic by the Wizard of Draws
About a year ago (see "King of the Hill") I took a look into The Database to see which player had the most games in there – Jerome Gambits, Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambits, Semi-Italian Jerome Gambits, etc.
The leader, by far, was DragonTail.
This year, as my total approached 350 games, I see that I am only about 35 games behind Darrenshome. I would need about 200 more games to catch yorgos, though.
kingmaple has not added a lot of games, but I would still need about 270 more games to catch him.
Of course, the past, present, and future King of the Hill, DragonTail, is over 1,000 games ahead of me!
(He would be even further ahead, if the database contained 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7 4.Bxf7+ games, too.)
Making sense of Jerome Gambit middlegames can be a challenge. To write the notes for this blog I make use of my friends Rybka 3, Fritz 10 and Fritz 8. Sometimes I tell them "I saw that!" and sometimes I don't...
perrypawnpusher - parlance
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6
7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6
I've been here 30 times, and scored 82%. That's not due to the strength of White's position, mind you, but because I am familiar with the tricks and traps of the opening.
After the game, Fritz 8 suggested 10...d5!? which follows the idea that if you are ahead in development you should open up the game: 11.exd5+ Kf7 12.Nc3 (Hanging on to the d-pawn with 12.c4 wastes time that needs to be spent by White on development, e.g. 12...Re8 13.Qg3 c6 14.dxc6 bxc6 15.d3 Bf5) 12...Re8 13.Qc5 Ne7 14.d4 Nexd5 15.Nxd5 Qxd5 and Black survives the discovered check and his misplaced King to maintain his advantage.
If I face 10...d5, in the future, I am likely to try the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit-ish 11.d4 dxe4 12.f3!?
11.f4 Qe7 12.Nc3 c6
Keeping the White Knight off of d5.
A bit better might be 12...Kf7, continuing to castle-by-hand.
12...Ng4 worked out better than it should have in last year's perrypawnpusher - MRBarupal, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 31).
13.f5 Ne5 14.d4 Nc4
You have to wonder if, just once, ...Ned7 was the right idea, with castling-by-hand still on the menu.
15.Qd3 b5
I've seen this kind of maneuver in my game against Saltos and both games against VGxdys. I think Black does best, instead, simply to retreat his Knight with 15...Nb6.
After all the travelling that the piece has done (...Nb8-c6-e5-g6-e5-c4) perhaps my opponent was unwilling to invest one more move – although that soon changes.
16.Bg5
I thought this was a pretty interesting idea at the time.
After the game, Rybka 3 preferred 16.a4.
16...h6
Taking the pawn right away was possible: 16...Nxb2 17.Qg3 Nc4 18.Rae1 Qc7 19.e5 dxe5 20.dxe5 Nd5 21.Nxd5 cxd5 22.Qg4 with a slight edge to Black, but I would be okay with White's position.
17.Bh4
Simpler was 17.Bxf6 Rxf6 18.b3 Nb6 19.Rae1 but I was okay with some complications of the text.
17...Nxb2
Taking the pawn shifts the edge to White.
18.Qf3
It would have been stronger to try 18.Qg3, as in 18...Qd7 19.e5 dxe5 20.dxe5 Qd4+
18...Nc4 19.e5 Nd2
Enticed by the chance to fork my Queen and Rook.
Black needed to bite the bullet, give up some material and move his King to a safer place with 19...Kf7. The resulting position would be quite complicated.
If White captures the Knight on f6, Black can force the exchange of Queens, i.e. 20.exf6 Qe3+ 21.Qxe3 Nxe3, when some simplification leads to 22.Ne4 Nxf5 23.Rxf5 Bxf5 24.Nxd6+ Ke6 25.fxg7 Kxd6 26.gxf8/Q+ Rxf8 where White is a pawn up, but the game is close to a drawish Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame.
White can capture on c6, instead, and enter a somewhat better Queenless middlegame, i.e. 20.Qxc6 Qb7 21.Qxb7 Bxb7 22.exf6 gxf6 23.Nxb5 a6 24.Nc3 Rae8.
Rybka's preference, though, is to pursue the attack on the Kingside with 20.Bxf6 gxf6 21.Qh5+ Kg8 22.e6 in order to force Black to liquidate, when an exchange sacrifice by White will give him the edge: 22...Bxe6 23.fxe6 f5 24.Qxh6 Rf6 25.Qg5+ Qg7 26.Qxg7+ Kxg7 27.d5 Ne3 28.dxc6 Nxf1 29.Rxf1 Rxe6 30.Nxb5 Kf6 31.g4 Ke7 32.gxf5 Rg8+ 33.Kh1 Rf8 34.Nd4.
Like I said: "Quite complicated."
20.Qxc6+ Black resigned
White's Queen is very active, and the next few moves are easy to see: 20...Kf7 21.exf6 Qb7 22.Qxd6 (possible because the Black Knight no longer protects the pawn) Nxf1 23.Rxf1 and now 23...Qd7 24.Nxb5 shows that White has plenty for his sacrificed exchange.
The website of GM Csaba Balogh of Hungary contains a list of links to different chess websites – including this one.
Wonder how that happened??
