Gathering in all that we have covered in the last week and a half on the Jerome Gambit line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.Na3 – see "An Intriguing Letter" Parts 1, 2 and 3; "Some History of the Jerome Gambit" Parts 1, 2 and 3; and "Jerome Gambit: Early Opening Tomes" Parts 1 and 2 – we see that Alonzo Wheeler Jerome considered 3 responses in his analysis: 9...Ne7, 9...Qf6 and 9...Ke7.
It is time to pause and make an important addition – not from an opening tome, but from a chess magazine.
There was one singular event after Jerome's Dubuque Chess Journal articles were published that gave the gambit incredible exposure, and carried its analysis to those who would later include the attack in their opening books.
The editor of the Dubuque Chess Journal was in the habit of exchanging issues with different chess magazines around the world, and this led to the publication, in the May 1877 issue of Nordisk Skaktidende, a Danish chess magazine, of Lt. Sorensen's column "Skaktheori for Segyndere" ("Chess Theory for Beginners") covering the Jerome Gambit.
The article was translated into (at least) English, Spanish, French and Italian and appeared in chess magazines around the world.
Here is the article, from the English translation in The Chess Player's Chronicle of August 1, 1877 (I have substituted algebraic notation for descriptive.)
Chess Theory for Beginners
by Lieut. Sorensen
(translated from the Nordick Tidende for May.)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5
With this answering move of the Bishop we have the fundamental position for that good old game which the Italians, hundreds of years ago, when they were masters of the Chess board, called "Giuoco Piano," even game, but the later age, for generality of explanation, the "Italian game." On this basis the usual continuation is 4.c3, whereby the d-pawn at the next move threatens to advance, and the White middle Pawns to occupy the centre.
In the next articles we will make mention of that regular fight for the maintenance or destruction of the centre, which is the essential point of the Italian game; in this, on the contrary, we will occupy ourselves with a Bashi-Bazouk attack, over which the learned Italians would have crossed themselves had they known it came under the idea of piano, but which is in reality of very recent date – 1874, and takes it origin from an American, A.W. Jerome.
It consists in the sacrifice of a piece by 4.Bxf7+.
Naturally we immediately remark that it is unsound, and that Black must obtain the advantage; but the attack is pretty sharp, and Black must take exact care, if he does not wish to go quickly to the dogs. A little analysis of it will, therefore, be highly instructive, not to say necessary, for less practised players, and will be in its right place in our Theory, especially since it is not found in any handbook.
The Americans call the game "Jerome's double opening," an allusion, probably, to the fresh sacrifice of a piece which follows at the next move, but we shall prefer to use the short and sufficiently clear designation, Jerome Gambit.
4.Bxf7+ Kxf7
That the King must take is evident, otherwise the Bishop without any hindrance can retire with his booty.
5.Nxe5+
Once must confess that this is a forcible invention, and difficulties begin now already for Black. There is clearly a choice between two things; between taking, and so maintaining further the preponderance of two pieces, or going with the King, for example, to f8, and being content with the one piece, which, however, has cost two pawns. We will treat these contingencies separately under First and Second Defence.
First Defence
5...Nxe5
White's best move is now 6.d4 or 6.Qh5+. By the first move he wins back one piece quite easily, but when there follows 6...Bxd4, he only receives the scanty recompense of one pawn for the other; by the second move exposes himself to the evil of gaining no piece back, inasmuch as Black can protect himself by 6...Ke6.
According to our conviction, the check with the Queen gives the best chances, and we therefore carry out this, while we point out the result of 6.d4 in the Specimen Game No. 1.
6.Qh5+ Ke6
Black now essays to keep both the pieces, and this must, after the defence adopted, 5...Nxe5, be regarded as consequently the most correct. For if he prefers to interpose the Kt at g6, White plays 7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5, and one of the pieces falls under far more unfavorable conditions than if the King had immediatley retreated on the 5th move (Second Defence).
In Specimen Game No. 2 we shall see unfolded some of the inconveniences which the move treated of, 6...Ng6, brings with it.
7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4
It is impossible to decide whether this attacking move is stronger than a multitude of others which offer themselves in this interesting position, and of which we expecially 8.f4 and 8.Na3, but it seems clear every case into what abysses Black is plunging.
8...Bxd4 9.Na3 c6
With this move Black escapes; under (a) and (b) are seen less favourable modes of play. (a) 9...Qf6 10.Nb5+ Kc5 11.Nxd4 Qxf5 12.Nxf5 g6 13.Be3+ Kc6 14.Nd4+ Kd6 15.0-0-0 Ke7 16.Nb5 and White has the best position; (b) 9...Ne7 10.Qh3 Qf8 11.Nb5+ Kc5 12.Nxd4 Kxd4 13.Bg5 and White must win.
10.c3 Qf6 11.cxd4 Qxf5 12.exf5 Nf7 13.Bf4+ Ke7
Black must now, though not completely out of danger, be able to make his superiority of a piece and a pawn prevail.
Second Defence
5...Kf8 (best)
Althought the first defence was not thus to be abandoned, we shall still recommend this as more solid, and easier to manage.
6.Nxc6 dxc6 (best)
If 6...bxc6 7.d4 follows, and the Bishop becomes shut out from the game. It is also here of importance to have the open Queen's file.
7.0-0 Nf6 8.Qf3
Upon 8.d4 follows 8...Bg4 9.Qe1 Kf7 and Black is completely extricated, and has the advantage.
8...Qd4 9.d3 Bg4 10.Qg3 Bd6 11.Bf4 g5
This move, which costs a pawn, is not absolutely necessary, but it promotes and energetic liberation of Black's game, which is important in such positions to have in view.
12.Bxd6+ cxd6 13.h3 Be6 14.Qxg5 Rg8 15.Qh6+ Ke7 16.Nc3
The best move to preserve the b-pawn, which is necessary.
16...Rg6 and Black's attack becomes irresistable.
Specimen Game No. 1
6.d4
See the remark upon this under First Defence
6...Bxd4 7.Qxd4 d6 8.0-0 Nf6 9.f4 c5
This move, and the development of the Queen's wing standing in connection with it, we cannot regard as right, at any rate not until all was in order on the King's side. 9...Nc6 eventually followed by ...Re8, would have been the proper continuation, and must have left few favourable chances remaining for White.
10.Qc3 Neg4 11.Nd2 b5 12.h3 h5
Black must now prepare to sacrifice a little, because he did not protect himself in time.
13.e5 (best).
To have taken immediately would not have been near so good; the situation now requires thoroughly attentive play.
13...b4 14.Qf3 Ba6 15.exf6 Bxf1 16.Qb7+
Here 16.hxg4 would also have been good; White, however, plays to drive Black into a mating position.
16...Kxf6 17.Ne4+ Kg6 18.f5+ Kxf5 19.hxg4+ Kg6
With any other move Black is mated in a few moves, or loses the Queen.
20.Ng5
To the sufficiently threatening move 20.Bg5 Black has a good reply in 20...Qb6.
20...Qe8 21.Bd2 (best) Rf8 22.gxh5+ Kxh5 23.Qxg7 Bxg2
In order to avoid the mate threatened in two moves by Qh7 and Qh3.
24.Qh7+ Kg4 25.Re1 and White wins.
Specimen Game No. 2
6...Ng6
See the note to Black's 6th move in First Defense. The reader is now requested to observe for himself the difficulties which we mentioned that this mode of play entails, as we can spare with the subjoined game no space for further notes.
7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qc3 Nf6 10.d3 c6 11.0-0 Kd7 12.f4 Qb6+ 13.Kh1 Kc7 14.Qe1 Re8 15.b3 Nd5 16.Qg3 Nb4 17.Na3 Bd7 18.c3 Nxa2 19.f5 Ne5 20.d4 Qxb3 21.dxe5 dxe5 22.Rb1 Qxc3 23.Rf3 Qa5 24.Rfb3 b5 25.Rxb5 cxb5 26.Nxb5+ Kc8 27.Nd6+ Kc7 28.Rb7+ Kxd6 29.Qd3+ and White wins
In 1891, reflecting the chess world's ambivalence about the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), G.H.D. Gossip's Chess Player's Vade Mecum and Pocket Guide to the Openings Gossip had analysis of the Jerome, while his Theory of Chess Openings did not. The Handbuch was silent as well.
By 1900 a reader could still find references, but they might be delegated to instruction for novices. Chess Openings for Beginners, by Edward Ernest Cunnington, for example, exhausts itself with "Here we may mention, with a caution, as being quite unsound, the Jerome Gambit." The following year, Cunnington's The Modern Chess Primer mentions the first 6 moves of the named gambit.
In 1902, William Cook's (of Synopsis) The Chess Player's Compendium had no mention of the Jerome Gambit. For that matter, neither did his 1906 The Evolution of the Chess Openings.
Perhaps the 1904 The Complete Chess Guide, by G.H.D Gossip F.J. Lee, showed the Jerome Gambit's hanger-on status best. At the start of the book the authors proclaim
We have therefore eliminated obsolete openings and confined ourselves merely to a brief examination of a dozen of the leading debuts...; omitting those openings in which the defense is declared by the most competent theorists to be weak or inferior, as for example Philidor's and Petroff's Defenses to the Kings Knight's opening; the Sicilian; the Greco Counter Gambit; Center Counter Gambit; Fianchettoes, Blackwar [sic] and Jerome Gambit, etc.
HOWEVER, Part III of the book, "Guide to the Openings," contained Jerome Gambit analysis!
It was left up to the March 1906 edition of Lasker's Chess Magazine to pronounce
"Our Question Box"
Ichabodf: - No; the Jerome gambit is not named after St. Jerome. His penances, if he did any, were in atonement of rather minor transgressions compared with the gambit.
Recently, Dr. Tim Harding wrote in his "The Kibitzer" column at ChessCafe.com,
In the half century between 1862 and 1912, chess made huge advances in terms of the technical standard of play. The rise of professionalism and annual master tournaments and the growth of chess literature raised the bar in terms of opening knowledge, and positional ideas unknown to the experts of fifty years previously were available to a new generation of players through the example of Steinitz and Lasker and the teachings of Tarrasch.
The "growth of chess literature... in terms of opening knowledge" was apparent during the life of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome (1834 - 1904), and it is no surprise that it overlapped the development of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+).
[The following review is limited mostly to English-language opening books. - Rick]
In 1874, the year that Jerome's analysis of his gambit was first published in the Dubuque Chess Journal, Synopsis of the Chess Openings by William Cook, Handbuch des Schachspiels (5th edition) by Von der Lasa, and Chess Openings (2nd edition) by Frederick William Longman, all appeared. None contained analysis of the Jerome Gambit.
In 1875, The Chess Openings, by Robert B. Wormald, was equally negligent, as was 1876's Synopsis of the Chess Openings (2nd edition).
Henry Bird's The Chess Openings Considered, Critically and Practically in 1878 also overlooked the American invention.
In 1879, the gambit started to get notice in books, as it was covered in Theory of the Chess Openings by George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip.
The third edition of Cook's Synopsis of the Chess Openings was published in 1882, and it contained analysis as well.
Curiously, at least for those with a modern sense of "intellectual property" and copyright law, in 1884 an American publisher, J.W. Miller, reprinted Cook's Synopsis (originally printed in London) and added an "American Supplement" to create Cook's Synopsis of Chess Openings A Tabular Analysis by William Cook, With American Inventions in the Openings and Fresh Analysis since 1882, by J. W. Miller. Both parts of the book contained Jerome Gambit analysis.
Quoted the New Orleans Times-Democrat in a review
...The "brilliant but unsound" (why, may we ask, is this antithesis so common that one would almost infer it to be necessary?) Jerome Gambit, invented by Mr. Jerome, of Paxton, Ill., about a decade ago, constitutes the next of the Americana, and concerning the analysis given by Mr. S. A. Charles we can only venture to say that it seems to combine much careful original work with variations compiled from such investigations as have been published upon this hazardous attack. The principal basis for most of these has been, we believe, Sorenson's article in the May, 1877, number of the Nordisk Skaktidende, and which as translated in Gossip's Theory, pp.37-39, furnishes the only two variations upon the opening given in the Synopsis proper (ccf. p.49, cols 11 and 12). We note, however, that Mr. Charles differs from this authority in some important particulars.
Miller was the publisher of the Cincinnati Journal Gazette, which had previously employed S.A. Charles to write their chess column, and who had been presenting opening analysis – something he continued to do for the Pittsburgh Telegraph, where his Jerome Gambit analysis appeared. (Skipping ahead, this explains Freeborough and Rankin's comment in their Chess Openings, Ancient and Modern, "Mr. S. A. Charles of Cincinnati, Ohio is named in the American Supplement as the chief analyst of this opening.")
In 1888, the 4th edition of Cook's Synopsis of the Chess Openings contained Jerome Gambit analysis, with a note of thanks to "Mr. Freeborough of Hull, and Rev. C.E. Ranken, of Malven, for material assistance in the compilation of the tables, original variations in the openings, and help in the examination of proof"; so it is not surprising that Freeborough and Rankin's 1889 Chess Openings Ancient and Modern also covered the gambit.
Although the Jerome Gambit would appear in further editions of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern – 2nd, 1893; 3rd, 1896; 4th, 1910 – the closing of the 1880s seems to mark its high water mark in inclusion in general opening books.
With five games left in the ChessWorld Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament, the leaders have been decided, but battles still rage up and down the finish line.
AsceticKingK9 has taken first place with 27 points out of 28 games, mckenna215 has taken second with 23.5 points out of 28 games, and braken has taken third with 19.5 points out of 28 games.
However, with a recent win Rikiki00 has lept to a tie with Knight32 for fourth place with 18.5 points, and with one game still in play he could, with another win, move into a tie for third.
Down the ladder, Luke Warm is holding onto eleventh place with 8 points, but, with a final win, pixifrufru could leap over him to 9 points out of 28 games. Both could be bypassed by Baron wd von Blanc, heart pirate, who has 7.5 points with two games to complete.
Even martind1991, holding down last place with 2 points out of 23 games, can vault over his nearest rival, klonka59, if he finishes strongly.
A bit more history, following yesterday and the day before...
After his March and July 1874 articles in the Dubuque Chess Journal, Alonzo Wheeler Jerome published a third bit of analysis on the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) in the January 1875 issue.
Note that the line introduced in "An Intriguing Letter (Part 1)", including the move 9.Na3, is seen here. In future posts we will follow its progress toward its appearance in Freeborough and Ranken's Chess Openings Ancient and Modern.
Dubuque Chess Journal
January 1875 p.38
"Queen's Gambit in Jerome's Double Opening"
Analysis by A.W. Jerome 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.Na3 Ne7 [9...Qf6 10.Nb5+ Kc5 11.Nxd4 Kd6 (11...Qxf5 12.Nxf5 g6 13.Be3+ Kc6 14.Nd4+ Kd6 15.0-0-0 Ke7 16.Nb5 Kd8 17.Bf4) 12.Nb5+ Kc5 13.Qh3 Kxb5 14.Qb3+; 9...Ke7 10.Qh3 d6 11.Qh4+ Ke8 12.Bg5 Nf6 13.0-0-0 Bb6 14.f4 Ng6 15.Qg3 Nh5 16.Qf3 Qd7 17.f5 Nf6 18.fxg6] 10.Qh3 Qf8 11.0-0 Kc6 [11...a6 12.c3 Bb6 13.Qg3 Qf7 14.Bf4] 12.Nb5 Kxb5 13.Qb3+ Kc6 14.Bg5
Continuing with some history, started yesterday...
Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's analysis of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) was first published in the March 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal. He followed this with further analysis in the July 1874 issue.
Dubuque Chess Journal
July 1874 Vol. VII, No. 53
Jerome's Double Opening
Third Variation (see Journal No.50, p358) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ [The following is a possibility of the game 6.d4 Bb6 7.Qh5+ Ke6 8.Qf5+ Kd6 9.Qxe5+ Kc6 10.Qd5#] 6...Kf8 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qf4+ Nf6 9.c3 Kf7 10.d4 Bb6 11.e5 dxe5 12.dxe5 Re8 13.0-0 Kg8 14.exf6 Qxf6 15.Qxf6 gxf6 16.Bh6 and White has a pawn ahead
Note: It should be understood that Mr. Jerome claims in this New Opening "only a pleasant variation of the Giuoco Piano, which may win or lose according to the skill of the players, but which is capable of affording many new positions and opportunities for heavy blows unexpectedly."
I was a bit surprised how much I had to hunt in the posts of this blog for examples of the line that we have been discussing, at the behest of Филидор1792, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.Na3 – see "An Intriguing Letter" Parts 1, 2 and 3 – especially since the line has a long and interesting history in the story of the Jerome Gambit.
The Database has only 3 games with the line – or 5, if you count the pair recently contributed by Филидор1792. One, Jerome - Norton, correspondence, 1887, was presented with light commentary; another, perrypawnpusher - BronxBoyII, blitz, FICS, 2008, appeared without notes as an aside in another game; and the third, alechinez - marcinho, standard, FICS, 2009, has yet to appear.
Even if we back up a move, leaving off White's 9th, The Database has less than a couple dozen game examples, only two (excluding the ones named above) appearing in this blog: Tonetti - Ruggieri, Rome, 1863 (without notes) and Vazquez - Giraudy, Mexico, 1876 (without notes and without White's Queen Rook).
Clearly, I have some work to do!
