Deep Thinks

Although the following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game was played at blitz speed (2 12), it contained two relatively long "deep thinks". With mine, I accidentally avoided an immediate destruction; with my opponent's, he immediately percipitated one.

perrypawnpusher - lorecai
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

10.0-0 Ng4

This is a multi-purpose move: attacking the Queen, preparing to attack the King (if White castles Kingside) and arranging to exchange Queens, if need be.

Our earlier game went 10...Rf8 11.f4 Ng4, perrypawnpusher - lorecai, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 47).

11.Qg3

This was my move choice after a pretty deep think, at least for a blitz time control. It seems like a prety obvious move, and I would bet that my opponent was wondering what was taking me so long to find it. What could I possibly be seeing in the position??

In part, I didn't like 11...Qh4 as a response, forcing the exchange of Queens, although things worked out well for tedhorst and Ghandy in their games with that move: tedhort - popasile, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 30) and Ghandy - julianaajedrez, FICS, 2009 (0-1, 26, a loss on time in an even game).

In my deliberations I eventually discarded 11.Qe2 – a move which, unbeknownst to me, quickly goes horribly wrong: 11...Qh4 12.h3 Nf4 13.Qf3 Ne5 14.Qc3 Ne2+ White resigned, mrjoker - weiran, ICC, 2008.

So, although I did not come up with anything spectacularly good with my "deep think" at least I did not come up with something spectaularly bad, like 11.Qe2 would have been. 

11...h6

I am not sure what to think about this move. It could have been a mouse-slip for an intended 11...h5, as I faced last year in perrypawnpusher - Riversider, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 18).

In any event, it un-protects  the Black Knight at g6, which makes my next move easy to see (although 12.f3 might have been a tiny bit better).

12.h3 N4e5

It might have been time to try the "fishing pole" move, 12...h5!?, although the placement of White's Queen allows him to take the Knight and survive, e.g. 13.hxg4 hxg4 14.f4!? followed by developing the rest of his pieces and attention to defense (of course).

13.d4

For concrete reasons, 13.f4, which accomplishes the same thing (attacking and either winning or chasing away the defender of the Knight on g6), was better.

After the text, Black now has 13...Qh4, and 14.dxe5 Qxg3 15.fxg3 Nxe5 would only give White a small edge. If White opts to exchange Queens himself after 13...Qh4 with 14.Qxh4, Black would have the annoying 14...Nf3+ which breaks up White's pawns, 15.gxf3 before recapturing the Queen with 15...Nxh4. As White would then be due to lose another pawn, his advantage, again, would be small.

My opponent went into a deep think now.

13...Qg5

Wow.

Was this another mouse-slip for an intended 13...Qh4 ? Or was he counting on seeing 14.dxe5 Qxg3 15.fxg3 Nxe5 ?

Either way, this was an unfortunate move.

14.Bxg5 Black resigned

Making It

While it often seems the case that "Good players are lucky," it would be more fair to say, instead, that "Good players make their own luck."

Take the following Jerome Gambit game, where White is able to fashion a whole point out of absolutely nothing.

axykk  - ElFuriozo
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

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

7.Qxc5 d6 8.Qd5+ Be6

White threatens a pawn grab, and Black decides to let him have it.

9.Qxb7

A calculated risk. Given that Rybka 3 says that the best move for Black now is 9...Nh4!? I think that axykk has guessed right that his opponent won't find or play the kind of move that this position requires.

9...Nf6 10.d3 Rf8

Consolidating by castling-by-hand.

This is very prudent, but, again, to squeeze the most out of the position, Black needed to try 10...Nh4. As it is, the game is moving toward "even".

11.f4 Nh5 12.f5

This can, however, be considered pushing his luck too far. For White there is a piece to be won, but also a King to be lost. (Castling first keeps the game about even.)

12...Qh4+

Of course. These kinds of things happen occasionally when you give "Jerome Gambit odds". There's nothing to do but ride them out and keep your eyes open for opportunities...

13.Kd2 Qf2+ 14.Kc3

If you sacrifice a piece in the opening for an attack and it is your opponent who ends up threatening checkmate within ten moves, then something has gone wrong. - IM Gary Lane

14...Qc5+ 15.Kd2 Kg8 16.fxe6

Brazen.

On the other hand, if White's King survives, he will have a surplus of material.

16...Rf2+ 17.Ke1 Raf8

 18.Qb3 Kh8 19.Qc3 Rxg2

Let him double Rooks on the 2nd rank, or get his Queen there, and Black will finish up with gusto.

20.Qxc5 dxc5

Getting the Queens off the board, however, was a major coup for White. Now, despite his horrible lack of development, the two extra pawns give him the better game!

21.Na3 Nhf4 22.Bxf4 Nxf4 23.e7 Re8 24.Rf1 g5 25.h4 h6

This is all so very troubling for Black. There is no win any more, just the worry: how will his fractured and outnumbered pawns hold up against White's connected, healthy ones?

He will simply be ground down.

26.Rc1 Rxe7 27.hxg5 hxg5 28.Rf2 Rg1+ 29.Kd2 Rxc1 30.Kxc1 Kg7

After all the excitement, it looks as if White had simply castled Queenside.

31.Nc4 Nh3 32.Rf5 Kg6 33.Rxc5 g4 34.Ne3 g3 35.Nf5 Re5 36.Rc6+  Black resigned

Say, what...?

While playing against an opponent who has a sense of what is going on in the Jerome Gambit is one thing (see, for example, "La la la la la..."), playing against an opponent who seems to be bamboozled can be quite another, as axykk demonstrates...


axykk - bromby
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

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

When Black makes this move it usually means that either he is new to the Jerome Gambit, and wants to hang on to the second piece, or that he has studied the Jerome Gambit and this is the defensive system that he is most comfortable with.

The Database indicates that bromby faced and defeated a "modern" Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d3) in 2006; and drew and won against Petasluk in 2009 in a couple of 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 games. So: not necessarily "new" to the Jerome Gambit, but is he prepared ?

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qf6

A solid defense, as we know from analysis dating back to Alonzo Wheeler Jerome and the April 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal. Over the years, Shinkman, Jaeger, Colburn and Charles beat the opening's "inventor" with it.

9.fxe5+ Qxe5 10.Qxe5+

This is a relatively new idea, as opposed to retreating the Queen to f3. The Database has games with this move by Louis Morin in each of 2001, 2002, and 2003, all wins.

I don't think that bromby was quite prepared for it.

10...Kxe5 11.b4

" 'Freedom' 's just another word for 'nothing left to lose' " as the song goes. Axykk can play freely with the White pieces, as he's already had a "lost" game since move 4. What is the worst thing that can happen now?

11...Bb6

Suspicious of White's motives, Black retreats.

It seems silly to point out that 11...Bd4 12.c3 Bb6 13.d4+ Kxe4 was better – not everyone wants to know what happens after 14.Nd2+ Kf5 15.0-0+, especially against a higher-rated player at blitz speed.

12.Bb2+ Kxe4

Befuddled. At a distance we can recommend the same notion as above, with 12...Bd4 13.c3 Bb6 14.d4+ and even after 14...Kxe4 Black will be better.

13.Bxg7

Black resigned

It might have been worth hanging around to try (wait for it...) 13...Bd4, as White would have to find 14.Nc3+ to keep his edge, i.e. 14...Bxc3 (nothing else comes close to working) 15.dxc3 Ne7 16.Bxh8 when White would be a solid exchange ahead, and his Kingside pawn majority would spell future trouble for Black.

La la la la la...

I have presented some of the "don't worry, be happy" Jerome Gambit games of Bill Wall, where he seems to be unconcernedly worse – until he is suddenly unarguably better.

Now I've run across some 2011 games by axykk at FICS with the same attitude; and I'd like to share a few.

axykk - gasparegg
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

There is enough of a difference in ratings between axykk and his opponent to believe that White is giving "Jerome Gambit odds."

Unlike many "odds" situations, however, here gasparegg knows a thing or two about the Jerome.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+

Oh, yeah! Black heads right toward one of the more complicated – if not well-known – refutations, the "Nibs" line.

The Database has 7, 664 Jerome Gambit games with 4...Bxf7+, 3,103 games with 5.Nxe5, and 263 games with 7.Qf5+. Only 43 games have the position in the diagram, and White has scored 52%.

This is about where I begin to get nervous in my games against the Nibs. (After a bad start of losing 3 out of 4 games, I've won the next dozen.) Somehow, I don't think that axykk was worrying yet.

9.g3 Nf3+

As the kids say in their game, "Getting warmer..."

10.Kf1 Nxh2+

Tempting, but not completely thought out. The move delivers a check, but the Knight pins itself to the Queen. Black can escape to an even game (see the note to the next move), but that's hardly the win that he had a move ago.

Like I said, the refutation is tricky.

11.Kg2 Qh6

Black resigned

Whoa, that was fast. (My opponent JTIV took more than 20 more moves to resign from the same position. On the other hand, intssed tried 11...Qe7 which received 12.Qd5#)

It is clear that in this position White will play 12.Qd5+ Ke7 13.Qxc5+ winning one piece back; and he still has Rxh2, winning the other piece back, in reserve. For example, 13...Qd6 14.Qxd6+ Kxd6 15.Rxh2 and White is a pawn up, with the better center (it is not clear if Black's King is "insecure" or "developed).

Black's escape hatch was 11...Qg4, unpinning his Queen and offering his Knight escape in case White wants to exchange Queens. Best play would seem to be 12.Qd5+ Ke7 13.Qxc5 d6 14.Qf2 (not 14.Qxc7+ Bd7 15.Rxh2 Qd2+) Nf6 15.Rxh2 Nxe4 when 16.Qe3 Qe6 looks even.

Don't drive like my brother

Tom and Ray Magliozzi host the "Car Talk" program at NPR radio. They dole out auto advice in a humorous style, and they close each time with the exchange

"Don't drive like my brother."
"Don't drive like my brother."

That about sums up my opinion of the following funny game, as platel and I can each say

"Don't play like my opponent."
"Don't play like my opponent."

perrypawnpusher - platel
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8

Declining the second piece is an acceptable strategy, but going back to e8 (where a follow-up Queen check by White is possible) has not been recommended.

6.Qh5+

At the time that I played this move, I knew that the "right" choice was 6.Nxc6, since either 6...dxc6 or 6...bxc6 would allow White to play 7.Qh5+ followed by capturing the Bishop; for example, as in perrypawnpusher - rodrigojalpa, blitz, FICS, 2008 (1-0, 25) and Wall,B - Qwerty, chess.com, 2010 (1-0, 9).

Looking at 6.Nxc6 now, I still think that it is best for White, but I wanted to point out two untested responses that might surprise the first player.

a) 6...Bxf2+ (as long as Black is going to lose this piece, he decides to get a pawn for it) 7.Kxf2 Qf6+ 8.Qf3 Qxc6 (avoiding doubled c-pawns) when White is a bit better. He has to be careful because of the loose pawn on c2 and the King and Queen being on the same file (vulnerable to ...Ne7 and ...Rf8).

analysis diagram








Black also has the untried counter-attacking

b) 6...Qh4, (which I mentioned about 3 years ago in this blog) may be better than the capture of the Knight at c6, as well. White's best response is 7.d4, and after 7...Qxe4+ 8.Qe2 Qxe2+ 9.Kxe2 Bb6 material is even, i.e. 10.Nb4 Bxd4.

analysis diagram









I think that White may have a tiny edge after 11.Nd5, and he may have better chances with his Kingside pawn majority as opposed to Black's Queenside pawn majority; but, in reality, Black's two Bishops probably balance all that out.

6...Kf8

In light of my two 6th move recommendations for Black, I have to say that this was the move that got Black into hot water, not 5...Ke8.

After the recommended 6...g6, White has the thematic 7.Nxg6, but, again, things are far from rosy for him – unless he is faced with 7...hxg6, when White plays 8.Qxh8 with advantage, as in Petasluk - Trasimene, FICS, 2007 (1-0, 18).

Black takes a step forward by interjecting 7...Nf6, so that after 6...g6 7.Nxg6 Nf6 8.Qxc5 he can then grab the Knight at g6 with 8...hxg6. White has three pawns for his sacrificed piece, but Fritz 8 is pretty stubborn about giving Black a slight edge.

The biggest challenge to White's 7th move Knight sac at g6, however, is 7...Bxf2+ – followed, in due course, by ...Nf6 and then the capture of the White Knight, e.g. 8.Kxf2 Nf6 (much better than the 8...Qf6+ of  Hultgren,R - Harrow, Campbell, CA 1960 and Blackstone - Dommeyer, skittles game, California, USA 1960 [1-0, 13] ) 9.Qh4 Rg8. White's Knight cannot retreat and will be lost (10.Nf4 Nxe4+).

It may be that White should refrain from sacrificing his Knight, and meet 6...g6 with 7.Nxc6 (anyhow), although after 7...gxh5 8.Nxd8 Kxd8 he has to hope that he can gather in one (or both) of the h-pawns in order to reach equality.

Which is a long way of saying that while 6.Nxc6 leads to "only" an even game, that's still  a better outcome than can be expected after 6.Qh5+.


By the way, the silly 6...Ke7 (in response to 6.Qh5+) got a workout in my games against a weak computer several years ago – see "One (or both) of us needs help" Part I and Part II.

7.Qf7 checkmate

I won the game, but I thought it would be fair to let my opponent "win" the analysis.

Distant Cousin, Twice Removed

I don't spend every waking minute on the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+). For example, the other day I was playing through some games in the very interesting, educational and entertaining The Alterman Gambit Guide by GM. Boris Alterman (whom I've mentioned before).

What especially caught my eye was the chapter on the Cochrane Gambit in the Petroff Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7!? – not surprisingly, a line where White sacrifices a piece for two pawns and an attack on Black's displaced King. (Where have we seen that idea before??)

You might think that such an attack would be perfect for a Jerome Gambit player*, and you would be right – at least as far as Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member Louis Morin is concerned (he has shown up on this blog numerous times as "mrjoker").

The Alterman Gambit Guide includes an exciting Cochrane Gambit game played by Louis. You can see the game, without most of the notes, at GM Alterman's site. (I've mentioned it before, but now it has made it from the website into the book in expanded form.)

Nice work, mrjoker!

(* At least one who didn't want to try to transpose to the Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Bxf7+, etc.)

Take the Draw??

In the following position (from a Semi-Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit), White is ahead the exchange and a pawn. Black, to move, could choose to force a draw by repeatedly checking White's King. On the other hand, Black is rated 350 points higher than White, so that might give him second thoughts...

neni - radup, blitz, FICS, 2011

26...Qe4+

Going for the draw?

27.Kg1 Bxf6

No, winning the pawn.

Unfortunately, this leads to a sparkling finish for White.

28.Qc8+ Ke7 29.Bg5+ Kf7 30.Rxf5+ Kg6

31.Qe6+

A wry move, causing Black to resign.

Playing it out 31...Qxe6 32.dxe6 Kxf5 (What else??) 33.e7 Rh8 34.Rf1+ Kxg5 (might as well) 35.Rf8 and the e-pawn will Queen, whether or not Black exchanges Rooks.