Public Service Announcement

Every once in a while I have to post some games, to caution those who experiment with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) that a certain line just is not playable.*



Kaarvek  - LuigiBot
standard, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ White resigned


burraburra - chintoo
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.d4 Qxg2 White resigned


darumsdad - MRKumar
standard, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.d3 Qxg2 White resigned


FURST - cubs
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.Qf3+ Qf6 7.Qxf6+ Nxf6 White resigned


roadcyclist - roomys
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Qxg5 6.Qf3+ Nf6 7.0-0 Nd4 8.Qc3 Ne2+ White resigned


Why do players continue to try an early Nf3-g5+ ? Perhaps because of games like the following

drumme - jherman
blitz, FICS, 2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d4 exd4 6.Ng5+ Ke8 7.Qf3 h6 8.Qf7 checkmate











(*-The Database has 379 games with the 5.Ng5+ line, including 81 wins and 10 draws for White, scoring 23%, so I guess that it is not completely unplayable.)

The First Thing

It sounds a bit obvious, but the first thing to do on the way to winning a chess game is to try very hard not to lose. The following game illustrates this point – play along, it is not a "gamelet", but the end is well worth waiting for.

Wall,B - BarAbbas
Playchess.com, 2012


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+

The Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit.

5...Kxf7 6.d3

Sang froid. White is down a piece for a pawn, but he will simply develop his game and see what happens.

6...Rf8 7.Bg5 Kg8 8.Nd5 Be7 9.Nxe7+ Qxe7 10.0-0 d6

11.c3 Bg4 12.h3 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 Qe8 14.Qd1 Nh5 15.Qb3+ Kh8 16.Qxb7 Qd7

In ten moves White has created no new weaknesses and has grabbed a second pawn as compensation for his sacrificed piece.

17.Qa6 Nf4 18.Rae1 Ne7 19.d4 Neg6 20.d5 h6 21.Bxf4 Nxf4 22.Re3 Nh5 23.Qe2 Qf7

Black is attacking, White is defending. The first player has not made things any more difficult for himself. He can play on a bit more.

24.Qg4 Nf6 25.Qh4 Qh5 26.Qxh5 Nxh5

All according to Black's plan: exchange pieces and play a favorable endgame.

27.b4 a5 28.a3 axb4 29.cxb4 Ra4

Black hastens to deal with the enemy passed pawn. Why not? It allows him to exchange more.

30.Rc1 Rfa8 31.Rxc7 Rxa3 32.Rxa3 Rxa3 33.b5 Rb3

Objectively, Black is still better, but he has to have begun wondering (this was a 10 minute game) if White's two pawns were beginning to measure up to his piece.

34.Rb7 Nf4 35.Rb6 Kh7 36.Kh2 Rb2 37.Kg3 g5 38.Rxd6 Rxb5

Each time White gives up a passer, he quickly gains another.

39.Rd7+ Kg6 40.Rd6+ Kh5

Black declines the draw that might have been available after 40...Kh7.

41.Kh2 Ng6

In club level blitz play, it was difficult to find what computers suggest later: 41...g4 42.hxg4+ Kg5. The win, if there were one, would still be a very long ways off, however.

Now, Black has stumbled into a forced checkmate.

42.g4+ Kh4 43.Rxg6 h5

This reminds me of the animated Roadrunner's eternal enemy, Wile E. Coyote, when he suddenly discovers that the boulder he has launched is going to land –  on himself.

44.Rh6 Rxd5 45.Rxh5 checkmate

Like I suggested: if you can avoid losing long enough, you just might win...

For Blackburne

Statistics can be tricky things.

As soon as I had updated The Database, I began to wonder, how successful is the [long-time refuted]Jerome Gambit?

It didn't seem right to just ask ChessBase 8 to search for the starting position of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) in The Database and see how well White did – after all, in my research I was collecting published games (and including games sent to me) and those tend to favor wins by White.

(Still, I checked: White scored 44% overall in the main line in The Database.)

So, I decided instead to just look at the FICS (Free Internet Chess Service) games, as I have been collecting them, en masse, and have almost all of the Jerome Gambit games played there since 1999.

Of 6,764 FICS games, White won 2,700 and drew 186, for a score of 41%.

The numbers for the Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+, (there is some overlap with the main line Jerome) are 1,528 FICS games, with White winning 554 and drawing 34, for a score  of 37%.

As anyone who has played the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Ne4 4.Bxf7+) might suspect, the line is more robust for White; of 3,378 FICS games, White has 1,822 wins and 80 draws, scoring 55%.

Of course, as they say, "your mileage may vary". Keep practicing. (My scores are 80%, 78% and 90%. Bill Wall's are at least 96%, 90% and 100%.)

At Long Last

At long last, I am offering interested Readers the 2012 version of The Database, a free PGN database of 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+.

I should mention that 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+).

If you are interested, email me at richardfkennedy@hotmail.com.

Successful

If you inquired how someone can regularly be successful with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), you might first find that it is helpful to be a strong player.

You might also learn that becoming familiar with a large number of Jerome games, by working with The Database, is an advantage.

Finally, you might see that experience in playing the Jerome Gambit is a great help, too.

Which is a pretty handy introduction to the latest Bill Wall game.

Wall,B - guest2170544
PlayChess.com, 2012


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

4...Kxf7 5.0-0

A "modern" variation of the Jerome Gambit (i.e. not 5.Nxe5+).

5...h6

Provoking a transition to the Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit.

6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4

Of course, there is also 7.Qh5+ Ng6 (7...Ke6 Wall,B - Guest473534, PlayChess.com, 2011 [1-0, 21]) 8.Qd5+ Ke8 9.Qxc5 Wall,B - Castro,S, Chess.com, 2010 (1-0, 23).

7...Nf6

A quick position search in The Database will find 5 games (before this one), with Black winning 80% of them. Does that make any sense?

A second look will show that in all of those games it is Black to move; that White first played d2-d3, and then, later, d3-d4. The loss of tempo changes everything.

That makes Black's 7th move in this game a novelty  – understandable, perhaps, in that the second player does not choose which piece to surrender, he merely develops another – but his choice is not as strong as the old 7...Bxd4, as in 8.Qxd4 Qe7 (8...Qf6 9.Be3 Ne7 10.Nc3 Rf8 11.Nb5 c6 12.Nc7 Rb8 13.f4 Nf3+ 14.Rxf3 Qxd4 15.Bxd4 Kg8 16.Bxa7 1-0 Wall,B - Foman, Chess.com, 2010 [1-0, 16]; 8...Ng6 9.Qc4+ Kf8 10.Nc3 c6 11.Be3 b5 12.Qb4+ N8e7 13.f4 a5 14.Qd6 Kf7 15.f5 Nf8 16.f6 Ne6 17.fxe7+ 1-0 Wall,B - Merdiyev,F, Chess.com, 2010 [1-0, 17]) 9.f4 Nc6  Wall,B - Ratebabb, Chess.com 2010 (1-0, 28)

8.dxe5 Nh7

Choosing this time, but not wisely. Black would have done better to hold onto the Bishop with 8...d6, and, after 8.exf6 Qxf6 he would at least have the two Bishops as partial compensation for his lost pawn.

9.Qd5+ Kf8 10.Qxc5+ d6 11.Rd1 Black resigned

Black sees that it is time to let the game go, as he will be down three pawns after 11...Be6 12.exd6 cxd6 13.Rxd6

Resisting Temptation

When Black faces the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) he should resist the temptation to come up with something new that is crushing or brilliant, and stick with the old, boring, tried-and-true refutations. Unfortunately, to some defenders the Jerome looks like a giant "Kick Me" sign, and they want to add their own signature impression.

jfhumphrey - fractalclouds
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 Bxd4 7.Qxd4 d6 8.f4

Here we have a typical Jerome Gambit position, where Black's extra piece outweighs White's two forward "Jerome pawns."

The Database shows Black winning about 3/4 of the games from this position. *Yawn*

8...c5

What could be more natural than kicking the enemy Queen?

9.Qd5+ Kf8

Here is the problem, though. Black has to be ready to sacrifice his b-pawn with 9...Be6 in order for the "kick" to work. I'm pretty sure that jhumphreys had several improvements in store from the last time he met that move: 10.Qxb7+ Nd7 11.0-0 Ngf6 12.f5 Bc4 13.Re1 g6 14.Nd2 Qa5 15.Qxd7+ Nxd7 16.Nxc4 Qxe1 checkmate, jfhumphrey - Yunoguthi, FICS, 2011

10.fxe5 Qh4+

Perhaps this is still part of Black's counter-attack, but he overlooks the fact that his own monarch is in great danger.

11.g3 Qh3 12.Qxd6+

As good as this is, 12.Rf1+ was even stronger.

12...Ne7 13.Rf1+

White has an embarassment of riches, as 13.Bg5 and even 13.Nc3 also give a substantial advantage, either in material or advanced "Jerome pawns".

13...Ke8 14.Bg5 Ng6 15.Qd8 checkmate

The Queen has her revenge.

"Only" A Draw

Here is another draw from the nearly-completed-now Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament at ChessWorld. It is full of play on both sides of the board, and White only grows "peaceful" when his King is threatened.

Knight32 - Baron wd von Blanc, heart pirate
Jerome Gambit Thematic TournamentChessWorld, 2011

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

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

7.Qxc5 N8e7 8.d4 Rf8 9.Nc3 d6

10.Qc4+ Be6 11.d5 Bd7 12.Bg5 Kg8 13.f3 Ne5 14.Qe2 h6 15.Bh4 g5 16.Bg3 N5g6

17.h4 c5 18.h5 Nf4 19.Bxf4 Rxf4 20.g3 Rf8 21.0-0-0 b5

22.e5 dxe5 23.Qxe5 Nf5 24.Ne4 Nd4 25.f4 Nf3 26.Qc3 g4

27.Qxc5 Qa5 28.Qd6 Qxa2

That's close enough, thinks White, who checks out.

29.Qg6+ Kh8 30.Qxh6+ Kg8 31.Qg6+ Kh8 32.Qh6+ Kg8 33.Qg6+ Kh8 34.Qh6+ drawn