I tell ya, I don't get no respect...

The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is the Rodney Dangerfield of chess, always ready to complain "I tell ya, I don't get no respect."
In the following game, Black defends in the opening as if any old move would do. It's not surprising that he ends up on the wrong end of a miniature.

Wall,B - Dani
Chess.com, 2010

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

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

7.f4 Nf6

If your opponent attacks your piece, don't move it away; attack something more valuable of his. (To be fair to Dani, Black has scored a surprising 43% with this move in The Database.)

8.Qxe5+ Kf7 9.Qxc5

White has recovered his two sacrificed pieces, but his opponent sees a chance to grab back a pawn.

9...Nxe4 10.Qd5+

Here Black resigned in Wall - Meinherr, Chess.com, 2010.

10...Kf8 11.Qxe4

11...d5

So far the game has followed the early gobo-breaker, ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic, 2005, where, after four more moves, both players timed out, for a double forfeit.

12.Qd4 Qe7+ 13.Kf2 Bg4 14.Qxd5

This "pawn grab", on the other hand, allows only a harmless "attack" on White's King.

14...Qe2+ 15.Kg3 h5 16.h4 Re8 17.Nc3 Qa6 18.d3 Qg6 19.Bd2 Be6+

One last try.

20.Qg5 Black resigned

Exchanging Queens simply leaves Black a piece down, with worse development.

Hunker Down

When I think of "Jerome Pawns" I think of two (or more) center pawns advancing upon Black's position, spearheading an attack, opening lines, or forcing the defender to return White's sacrificed piece. The following game, recently acquired, turns that notion on its head. Bill Wall creates a pawn wall, and hunkers down behind it.


Wall,B - MYRX
FICS, 2010

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

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

7.Qxc5

White forgoes the "nudge" 7.Qd5+.

7...Qe7 8.Qc4+ Qe6 9.Qxe6+ dxe6

White has two pawns for his Knight. By swapping Queens, he can highlight this imbalance, instead of playing for a "Bashi-Bazouk attack".

10.d3 Nf6 11.Nc3 Bd7 12.f3 Bc6 13.Kf2 Rhd8

14.b3 a5 15.a4 b6 16.Ne2 Nd7 17.h4 Ne7 18.h5 h6 19.g4 e5

White's Bishop is about as "good" as it can get.

Also, the resemblance of its pawns to the letter "W" (for "Wall") is likely a coincidence.

Now, lines begin opening.

20.Rg1 b5 21.axb5 Bxb5 22.g5 hxg5 23.Rxg5 Rh8 24.f4 Kf6

The King wants to protect the e-pawn a second time, while still keeping touch with his g-pawn, but the move does not work.

Better was 24...Bc6, using his extra piece to resist White's invasion, as Fritz8 suggests in a long variation: 25.Ba3 Rh7 26.Rag1 Rg8 27.Ke3 exf4+ 28.Nxf4 a4 29.Rf1 Ke8 30.Ne6 Nf6 31.Nxc7+ Kd7 32.Bxe7 Kxe7 33.Rxf6 Kxf6 34.Rg6+ Ke7 35.Rxc6 Kd7 36.Rc4 Rc8 37.Nb5 axb3 38.cxb3 Rxh5 39.Rxc8 Kxc8 40.Nd4 Kd7 when it is not clear that White's two pawns for the exhange is enough to win.

Alternative endings are possible, including Black expeditiously exchanging Rooks, returning his Knight for some pawns, and playing for the drawish Bishops-of-opposite-colors endgame.

In any case, the game would have lasted a good bit longer than after the text.

25.fxe5+ Nxe5 26.d4 Bxe2 27.dxe5+ Ke6 28.Kxe2 Black resigned

Black has the "Jerome pawns" blockaded, but his own pawns are weak and his pieces are tied down protecting them. There is little that he can do to stall the loss of material or the invasion of White's pieces.

Fun!

Rich,


I finally got a chance to send you a game with the Jerome. I played this on FICS and it further gives me the courage to play this in one of the upcoming G/30 events we will soon be having. Of course, if you put this in Rybka or Fritz, it will more than likely show you a million mistakes I played. Either way, it was fun :). Take care...


Quentin a.k.a- "Knaaky" or "Quickturtle"
Knaaky on FICS.


knaaky - Demidjinn
blitz. FICS, 2011

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

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

A practical defensive line named after Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, who mentioned it in his 1874 analysis, and who played it in two correspondence games against Daniel Jaeger in 1880.

7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qg3 Nf6 9.Nc3 Qe7 10.d3 h5

Black, the higher rated player, is not intimidated by the Jerome Gambit. He has returned one of the two sacrificed pieces, and now considers using his Rook at h8 as an attacking piece.

Knaaky quickly realizes that the move further weakens the dark squares in Black's position, loosens things up around the Black King, and suggests Queenside castling, with an attack.

11.Bg5 Bg4 12.h3 Be6 13.f4 Kf7

Perhaps hoping to castle-by-hand toward the Queenside, but things develop too quickly to permit that.

14.e5 dxe5 15.fxe5 Bf5 16.0-0-0

As happens more often than one might expect, Black has not made any glaring errors, yet the game has turned in White's favor. Demidjinn tries to mix things up a bit.

16...Ba3 17.exf6 Bxb2+ 18.Kxb2 Qb4+ 19.Kc1 Qxc3 20.fxg7 Rhe8

21.Rhf1

I once read a humorous article about the art of annotating that suggested that in any position where either Rook could be played to a square, the annotator could feel safe commenting "wrong Rook" regardless of which one moved. In this case, although neither player noticed, the better move was 21.Rdf1.

21...Re2

Continuing to attack, overlooking the opportunity to force a draw with 21...Qa3+ 22.Kb1 Qb4+ etc.

22.Rxf5+ Kg8 23.Rf8+ Rxf8 24.gxf8Q+ Kxf8 25.Qf3+ Black resigned

Smile

Justmegeo - djoaltay, standard, FICS, 2011

After 64 moves of a Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit, White, to move, can finally smile.

A WhyDunnit

Sometimes a mystery story is referred to as a "whodunnit", as the tale is about the discovery of who "done" the crime at hand.

More recently, the word "howdunnit" has been used for those telling where the reader knows, often from the beginning, who has committed the crime – but has to figure out "how" the authorities are going to solve the mystery or catch the criminal.

I don't know if the word has been coined yet, but the position below, from the game MyGameUMove - BanditMan, blitz, FICS, 2011 (a Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit), seems to be an example of a "whydunnit".

The game has just seen 21.c4+ Kd4, and at that point Black, rated about 650 points higher than his opponent, disconnected, forfeiting the game.

Why?

Black has two pieces for White's three extra pawns, which seems like an advantage. His King is remarkably safe, despite all appearances. Perhaps time was an issue. Perhaps he received an important phone call. 

Oooops!

Despite my best efforts, the 2012 version of The Database will be delayed at least a week. I have yet to add all of the games from the current ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic tournament. I would like to also add all of the relevant games played at the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) through the end of the year.

The Database is a free PGN collection of (soon to be) over 26,000 Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Bxf7+), and Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.0-0/4.Nc3/4.d3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+) games; as well as games following the so-far-unnamed order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 4.Bxf7+.

A good number of the games in The Database are either Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambits (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+) or Semi-Italian Four Knight Jerome Gambits (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.0-0/4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nc3 / 5.0-0 Bc5 6.Bxf7+).

Happy New Year

The moves are all there, waiting to be made...

(Why not a Jerome Gambit?)