The Return of Jerome Gambit for Dummies (Part 3)

Continuing my search for the "essence" of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), or at least an insight into how it "works" (see Part 1 and Part 2) I examined The Database for games of a half-dozen moves in length.

For the most part, as might be expected, the footnote to most of White's 6-move wins was "White won on time". Opponents were either dazzled, shocked, bored, distracted or offended... and went on to other things. An exception was the following game

Perfesser - Talking LCD Chess (1 ply)
casual game at home, 2003
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf6 1-0

More about this game and the match between these two opponents can be found at "Jerome Gambit and The Perfesser" Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.

After six moves in the game, White can recover his sacrificed pieces, playing 7.Qf5+ Ke7 8.Qxe5+ and then either 9.Qxc5+ or 9.Qd5+ and 10.Qxc5, depending on Black's 8th move.

This looks very good for the first player, although I have to point out that White lost 8 of 32 games (after 6...Kf6) in The Database, including the very embarassing perrypawnpusher - chingching, blitz, FICS, 2011.

Although White White's main enemy in 6-move games remained the clock, about one third of those "0-1"s were the result of 5.Ng5+ (see "The Return of Jerome Gambit for Dummies, Part 2").

There was also the first appearance of a new kind of obstacle, one that I had bemoaned a couple of years ago in "A Sneaky Way to Defeat the Jerome Gambit"

Chainbk - zdveslo
blitz, FICS, 2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Black wins by ajudication

The Return of Jerome Gambit for Dummies (Part 2)

Building on yesterday's initial exploration into The Database, "[l]ooking for the 'essence' of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), or at least an insight into how it 'works', " I checked and found 23 games where White had won in 5 moves.

How do you win with White in the Jerome Gambit in 5 moves??  

The following game held the answer

mediax - jemasc
Jerome Gambit Thematic Tournament
ChessWorld, 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ White claimed a win on time

Ah, yes, the "The-Clock-Is-My-Friend" motif. (Or the "My-Opponent-Lost-Interest-In-The-Game" dynamic; or the "My-Opponent-Is-Playing-Too-Many-Games-At-Once-And-Decided-To-Give-This-One-Up" strategy.)

Admittedly, that was not very enlightening.

More interesting was the question: How does White lose in 5 moves, as he did 34 times in The Database?

Again, time was a factor in many of the games, but half of White's 5-move losses went like this

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

with White resigning before or after 5...Qxg5.

This was the first non-trivial finding of my research, but it came with a serious caveat.

It turned out that when I did a search in The Database for games that had the position after White's 5th move, I found 379 of them, averaging 24 moves in length, with the longest (a win for Black) lasting 91 moves.

On top of that, White won 81 of the games, and 9 were drawn, for a score of 23% for the first player.

My conclusion (more proof that the Jerome Gambit can lead to strange chess): [theoretical] Do not play 5.Ng5+ because it loses a piece, and [practical] it cuts White's scoring percentage in half.

The Return of Jerome Gambit for Dummies (Part 1)

Looking for the "essence" of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), or at least an insight into how it "works" – still pondering IM Gary Lane's challenge to identify some good, representative modern examples – I decided to turn to The Database.

Searching by position after the first 4 moves, I found about 8,780 games (admittedly missing those games that transpose later), which I then sorted by length (number of moves).

I began by examining the shorter games.

Not only did I find the elegant 1998 game between Yvonne Brescak and Stephanie Hefti, but I also found the quintessential Jerome (and four more with identical moves, but different players)

Carlos Azcarate - jemasc
Jerome Gambit Thematic, ChessWorld, 2008
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 1-0

What could be simpler?

Unfortunately, I also found three games that went like this

flplayboy - parrot
standard, FICS, 2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 0-1

Worse, there were 28 games that went like this

one-eye bishop - blackburne
ChessWorld, 2004
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 0-1

Obviously I was going to have to dig deeper!

A Cold Day in December...

On a cold day in December, a Jerome Gambiteer, thmavz, and his opponent, Donster, played a couple of blitz games at FICS, each winning one when the other forfeited on time. Checking out the following diagram, which shows one of the final positions, I have to guess that our Gemeinde member was experiencing a surplus of luck.

Then, again, as I have often said, "Good luck is better than a license to steal!"

thmavz - Donster, FICS, 2011

Every European School Girl Knows...

As IM Gary Lane mentions in his current "Opening Lanes" column
at ChessCafe.com, I had a difficult time choosing the "best" or "most important" modern Jerome Gambit games to pass along to him.

Silly me, I fogot about the following classic. While it may be true that there is a lot of chess that "every Russian school boy knows," it seems that "every European school girl knows" that when it comes time for a pre-arranged draw, the Jerome Gambit is a great choice.

Brescak,Y - Hefti,S
EU-ch U10 Girls, 1998

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

In Pawns We Trust

In a number of lines in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) White gets as partial compensation for his sacrificed piece, a couple of pawns. As we have seen in many games, these pawns can advance and cramp Black's pieces, spearhead an attack, or exchange themselves for a piece.

In the following game White still has his 8 pawns after a couple dozen moves. His "extra" ones disappear in winning back a piece, but the process itself seems to disorient Black, who soon returns the exchange as well.

Wall,B - Guest340293
10 0 blitz, PlayChess.com, 2012

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

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

A solid, time-tested defense.

7.Qxe5 Qe7 8.Qf4+ Qf6 9.Qg3 d6 10.c3 Ne7

This is a new move; 10...Qg6 shows up in The Database. 

11.d4 Bb6 12.Bg5 Qg6 13.Nd2 Be6 14.f4 Qh5 15.Bxe7+ Kxe7 16.Qxg7+

This pawn grab gives White three, to accompany his Knight in the fight against the "two Bishops".

16...Qf7 17.Qg5+ Qf6 18.Qxf6+ Kxf6 19.f5 Bd7 20.g4 Rhg8 21.h3 Rae8 22.0-0-0 Bc6

I suspect that masters would give the edge to Black, but in club play, as well as online blitz, White certainly has his chances. As we have seen, time and again, "having chances" is worth at least 3/4 of a point to Bill Wall.

23.Rde1 h5 24.Rhg1 Rg7 25.b4 hxg4 26.Rxg4 Rxg4 27.hxg4 Kg5

28.c4 a5 29.c5 Ba7 30.a3 Kxg4 31.f6 Kg5 32.e5 dxe5 33.f7 Rf8 34.d5

34...Bxd5

Black gives back a piece for two annoying pawns, but then gets troubled by White's 37th move, which threatens the a-pawn, as well as...

35.Rxe5+ Kg6 36.Rxd5 Rxf7 37.Nc4

37...axb4? 38.Ne5+ Kf6 39.Nxf7 Kxf7 40.axb4 Ke6 41.Rd8 Black resigned

Not So Much With A Bang As With A Whimper

I've been enjoying sharing some games by aymmd, who plays online at FICS and whose games began to show up in The Database in the fall of 2010. Until recently, he has only been represented on this blog by one unfortunate loss (see "Challenges"). Today's game does not end in devastation (see "Delayed Devastation" and "More Devastation") but in the quiet acceptance of defeat by Black.

aymmd - rtglass
blitz, FICS, 2011

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

A Delayed Jerome Gambit, although, after 5...Kxf7, the game will have transposed into a "modern" variation, i.e. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.0-0 Nf6.

5...Kf8

Black does not want to give his opponent the opportunity to play his prepared lines.

6.Nxe5

Temporarily complicating things. Instead, there is the straight-forward 6.Bb3 d5 as in HauntedKnight - bozidaranas, blitz, FICS 2010 (1-0, 13); or  6.Bb3 Ng4 as in jfhumphrey - Dpouchy, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 49).

Note that if Black responds to 6.Bb3 with 6...Nxe4 then White has 7.Nc3!? with a kind of Boden Kieseritzky Gambit!

6...Nxe5 7.Bb3

Despite Black's extra piece (for two pawns), White is better.

7...d6 8.d4 Nxe4

Black chooses to return the sacrificed piece, but, in this case 8...Bxd4 was the right move, even thought it would still leave White better.

9.dxc5

Either piece was available for capture. 9.dxe5 might have been a bit stronger.

9...Qh4

Black looks at his lead in development, White's undeveloped Queenside and unprotected Kingside, and thinks: attack.

His move seems to be an all-around attacking strike, but it worsens his situation. Rybka suggest that Black settle down with 9...Nxc5, followed perhaps by 10.Nc3 Bf5 11.Bf4 Qe7 (or 11...Nxb3 12.axb3) 12.Bxe5 dxe5 13.Nd5 Qd7 14.Bc4 c6 15.Ne3 Qxd1 when White's advantage is not too large.

10.Nc3 Nxc3

This is not "settling down" (even if it does compromise the pawns on White's Queenside).

11.bxc3 Qf6 12.cxd6 cxd6 13.Ba3 Nf7 14.c4 Be6 Black resigned

At first Black's decision may come as a surprise, as he is not being crushed. Yet, after 15.Bxd6+ Nxd6 16.Qxd6+ he will be down a couple of pawns; and a sharper move like 15.c5!?, while not winning a pawn for White, might be even more troublesome (note the Rook trapped at h8).