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This column was inspired by several recent Jerome Gambit games where White won, although he could have made use of a shortcut to win even faster. With a dicey opening like the Jerome, you grab what you can, when you can! 

Because of lessons learned last year, as we will see, this post could also be titled "What jfhumprey learned".

Teterow  - Neca
lightning, FICS, 2011

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4

6...Bd6

Black does better with 6...Bxd4 and best with 6...Qh5.

7.dxe5 Bxe5

Despite my previous championing of 8.Qh5+, I think that 8.Qd5+ is simplest and strongest, winning back the piece and leaving White a pawn up, with a safer King.

The current game continued 8.0-0 and White won in 30 moves. A similar game between the same players, the same day, also continued 8.0-0 and White won in 35 moves.

By comparison, HauntedKnight - oldway, blitz, FICS, 2011 continued 8.Qh5+ (1-0, 19), as did HauntedKnight - evgehy, blitz game FICS, 2011 (1-0, 64) and HauntedKnight - sarahdaniel, blitz, FICS, 2011, (1-0, 9; hard to beat that). Again, all games were wins, but 8.Qd5+ might have led to a quicker conclusion in 67% of them.

In light of the above, it is educational to play over jfhumphrey - Cibola, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 28) and jfhumphrey - biryuk, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 65) – again, each having reached the third diagram, above – if only to appreciate the later jfhumphrey - stefanomnn, blitz, FICS, 2010 where White discovered 8.Qd5+ and was rewarded with 8...Resigns.

Adjudicated Win

Take a look at the following diagram, from an Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit game (rated, standard, played at FICS) that was adjudicated a win for Black just before his 73rd move. It is to be noted that 5 of Black's 6 pieces are promoted.

RunDem - PoeticFuture, standard, FICS, 2011

Clearly White has defended long, long after many other members of the Jerome Gambit Gemeinde would have conceded.

I would be inclined, were I judging the position, to puckishly ask Black for his intended next move, before ruling. True, he has six moves that would deliver checkmate, but he has twenty-five moves that would allow stalemate!

Folie à deux

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+) is one of the "modern" Jerome Gambit lines where White obtains one pawn in exchange for his sacrificed piece.

In a recent game, after much ado, having gained nothing more and lost nothing more, I arrived at the following endgame position.


perrypawnpusher - OudeKwakkelaar, blitz, FICS, 2011

I had the delusional notion that the game could be draw by moving the White King to the Queenside and eliminating Black's pawns.

The funny thing was, my opponent had the same idea.

43.Kf5 Nd3 44.Ke6 Nc1 45.Kd6 Nxa2 46.Kc6 Nb4+ 47.Kb7 Nd3 48.Kxa7 Nc1 49.Kxb6 Nxb3 50.Kb5 Kh6

Black's King can not help on the Queenside until he takes care of the White h-pawn.

51.Ka4 Nd2 52.Kb5 Nb3 53.Ka4 Nd2 54.Kb5

I was happy with a repetition of position.

54...Ne4 55.Kc6 Kh5 56.Kd5 Nc3+ 57.Kxc5 Kh4 58.Kd6 Kxh3 59.c5 Nb5+ 60.Kd7 Kg4 61.c6 Kf5 62.c7 Nxc7

drawn, as neither player has mating material

But, wait a minute! Let's go back to Black's move 51 (or 53) and try 51...Nd4 instead:

 
analysis diagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now Black's Knight and pawn cooperate perfectly, and White's King can only race around foolishly, taking a stab at the pawn, then the Knight, then the pawn...
 
Eventually Black's King joins the dance and the game is over: 51...Nd4 52.Ka5 (going after the pawn) Kh5 (Black has time to head toward the h-pawn) 53.Kb6 Nb3 54.Kc6 Kh4 55.Kb5 (might as well go after the Knight again) Kxh3 56.Ka4 Nd4 57.Ka5 (back to the pawn) Kg4 58.Kb6 Nb3 59.Kb5 Kf4 60.Ka4 (attacking the Knight) Nd4 61.Ka5 Ke5 62.Kb6 Nb3 63.Kb5 Kd4 64.Ka4 Kxc4. Black will simply escort his pawn to its Queening square.
 
The final irony is that while the leap of the Black Knight to d4 was a winner on move 51 and move 53, even if the second player had finally discovered the idea it would not be so on move 55: Black would need to play 54...Nb3, and that would allow 55.Ka4, repeating the position for the third time and allowing a draw, anyway...

Such things are bound to happen in blitz play.

Flounder

I have slowly been increasing the rating of the players I try the Jerome Gambit on, and this has had a marked impact on my games. While once I could play my "regular" game, and pounce on my opponent's big errors, now I have to try to make something out of much lesser errors... This will continually push me to improve my game, or more results like the following will occur.

perrypawnpusher - truuf
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

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

The Jerome Variation of the Jerome Gambit, played by Alonzo Wheeler Jerome against David Jaeger in correspondence, 1880.

7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qg3 Nf6

Pete Banks ("blackburne") faced 8...Qe7 over-the-board in Banks -Dunne, Worcestershire vs Derbyshire, 2010, (1-0,35);


Bill Wall has seen both 8...Qf6 (Wall,B - GoldCoinCollector, Chess.com, 2010 [1-0,17]) and 8...h5 (Wall,B -Thieveyen, Chess.com, 2010 [1-0,61]).

9.Nc3

A tiny bit better might be 9.d3, although transposition is likely.

9...Kf7 10.d3 Rf8 11.0-0 Kg8

Black has castled-by-hand and is simply better. His Bishop at c5 holds back the f-pawn, causing a change in White's strategy.

12.Bg5 Nh5

Better was 12...Be6, but who can resist attacking the Queen? 

13.Qh4 Qe8 14.Nd5 Qf7

15.c3 Be6

A reasonable move, but it has a tactical hole, so better was 15...h6.

16.Ne3

Missing a chance to grab a pawn with 16.Nxc7 Qxc7 17.Qxh5 and allowing Black to correct his last move.
16...h6 17.Bxh6 gxh6 18.g4

From here on out, my moves become more and more desperate. 

18...Qg6

An inaccuracy, although giving back a piece (he has two to spare) to exchange Queens pretty much seals my fate.

19.Qxh5 Qxh5 20.gxh5 Bh3 21.Rfe1 Kh7 22.Kh1 Rxf2 23.d4 Bb6 24.Rab1 Raf8

25.a4 R8f3 26.b4 a6 27.a5 Ba7 28.Rbc1 Rd2 29.Nd1 c5 30.dxc5 dxc5 31.e5 cxb4 32.e6 Bg2 checkmate

It is worth checking out the game references, above (all are in The Database), but this outing was not one of my better ones. 

Paint-by-Number Defense

While the Jerome Gambit has different refutations and strategies for Black to use in confronting it, it would be a mistake to consider such knowledge to be similar to a paint-by-number set. The defender needs to do more than just dab a bit of color here and dribble a bit of color there...

jfhumphrey - PlatinumSurfer
blitz, FICS, 2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 5.Bxf7+

A delayed Jerome Gambit, or a transposition to a "modern" variation.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 d6

Black understands that returning one of the two sacrificed pieces is a sound way to turn back the Jerome Gambit.

8.dxe5 dxe5 9.Qe2 Rf8

Wise, too, is finding shelter for Black's King, as in castling-by-hand.

10.Qc4+ Be6 11.Qxc5

Not quite as the second player planned it. But attacking White's wayward Queen is frequently a good idea for the defender, so...

11...Nxe4 12.Qxe5

White is not playing along.

12...Nf6 13.Bg5 Kg8

Safe at last!

14.Qxe6+

Not another one... Black resigned.

I wonder how that happened...

Sunday Book Reviews

Long-time readers are no-doubt aware that over the last few years I have written 125 - 150 chess reviews, posted at the Chessville.com site. That is also the location for my short story fiction, from Sherlock Holmes to Perry the PawnPusher to The Kennedy Kids.

Unfortunately, Chessville has not posted new material in the last 5 months, and I am unsure when it will become active again. Therefore, I have decided to start posting reviews here, in "Sunday Book Reviews".

For the most part I will cover unorthodox or aggressive chess openings, as I did at Chessville, which should be of interest to many readers. For example, I have reviewed a number of books in the Secrets of Opening Surprises series (#4, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12), and it seems reasonable to give a look at #13.

I have reviewed books about openings less travelled (examples: Starting Out: d-pawn Attacks - the Colle-Zukertort, Barry and 150 Attacks by IM Richard Palliser; Starting Out: The Dutch Defense by Neil McDonald; and The Trompowsky by Nigel Davies), openings off of the beaten path (examples: Tango!  A Dynamic Answer to 1.d4 by Richard Palliser; Tiger's Modern by Tiger Hillarp Persson; and Chess On the Edge Volume 1, 2 and 3 - 100 Selected Games of Canadian Grandmaster Duncan Suttles, by FM Bruce Harper, GM Yasser Seirawan, with contributions by IM Gerard Welling,) and openings to which there is hardly a path at all (examples: Two Books by Richard Moody Jr. - Magic: Black to Move and Win! and Universal Chess: The Search For Truth And Beauty; Winning with the Krazy Kat and Old Hippo, by Gary K. Gifford, Davide Rozzoni and Bill Wall; and Challenging the Sicilian with 2.a3!? by Alexei Bezgodov).

I have even reviewed books on openings that challenge the Jerome Gambit in outrageousness, and which have inspired me to write my own tome on that duckbilled platypus of chess openings (Unorthodox Chess by Some Loser and In Your Face Chess Novelties by Andrew Tocher).

Please take a minute to let me know what you think about this idea.

Coming next Sunday Book Review: Captain Jack Sparrow!

Fish

I was going to just quietly add the following sad Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit game to The Database, but then I decided that it had a worthwhile point or two. Also, sharing it on the blog would give my opponent (and others) a chance for a good laugh at my expense. Fair is fair.

perrypawnpusher  - pblond
blitz, FICS,2011

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6

The Semi-Italian Opening.

By the way, it turns out that I had played my opponent a few months before, and I didn't remember it at the time of this game.

4.0-0 Bc5 5.Bxf7+

The Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit.

Apparently I had played this against pblond before, and didn't remember that, either.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.Qh5+ Ke6

There is a lot that I could write about this line, but it turns out that I have already written much of it in my coverage of perrypawnpusher - pblond, blitz, FICS, 2011. I wish that I had remembered it. So much for being prepared or booked-up!

8.Qf5+ Kd6 9.d4 Bxd4 10.Rd1 c5

At first glance, the addition of ...h6 for Black and 0-0 for White seems to be in the first player's favor in the Semi-Italian variation of the Jerome Gambit. In the 7...Ke6 line, however, the presence of Black's Bishop on c5 means that White cannot play f2-f4, so he must, instead, fumble around with d2-d4.

Perhaps it is time to look into 9.b4!? (I almost wrote "I am sure that Bill Wall could play 9.Kh1 followed by f2-f4 and get away with it," but I think 9...Qf6 would be a very good, disruptive answer for Black.)

11.c3 Ne7 12.Qh3 Kc7

In this way Black gets out of the pin along the d-file and finds some shelter for his King, at the cost of returning one of his two extra pieces.

13.cxd4 d6

Giving me a chance.

Not quite as strong as 13...cxd4, from our earlier encounter, which continued 14.Rxd4 d6 15.Qc3+ N7c6 16.Bf4 Qf6 17.Bxe5 Qxe5 18.Rc4 Be6 19.Qxe5 dxe5 20.Rc1 Rac8 21.b4 Kb8 22.Nd2 Nd4 23.a4 Ne2+ White resigned, perrypawnpusher - pblond, blitz, FICS, 2011.

Now 14.Qc3 Nd7 15.dxc5 Nxc5 16.Bf4 b6 17.b4 Kc6 was perrypawnpusher - tuffmom, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 17), but 14...Nf7 would be a bit of an improvement: after 15.dxc5 Nc6 16.cxd6+ Kb8 White's pawns balance out Black's extra piece.

Nine wins and two draws from the position in the third diagram. You would think that I would remember the one loss, and who I lost to. Nope. As Forrest Gump said, Stupid is as stupid does.

14.dxe5 Bxh3

Ooooops...

Oh, well, that's the story of the Jerome Gambit: live by the blunder, die by the blunder.

White resigned