Do Not Panic

Strakh - Dporth, lightning, FICS, 2012

In the position above, White, to move, is down a piece, but his lead in development, and his opponent's unfortunately placed King and Queen make the game about even. If White could be assured of reaching this position regularly, the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) would be seen much more often!


13.e5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.Rae1 

15...Qxe1 


Panic. (After all, this is a lightning game.) Instead, Black can give the extra piece back with 15...Ne4 16.Bh4 Kf8 17.Qc2 d6 and keep the even game.


Mate now follows, and Black can only avoid it by resigning.


16.Rxe1+ Kf8 17.Bxf6 d6 18.Be7+ Ke8 19.Bxd6+ Black resigned

Point Made

One day this past winter, MyGameUMove took on an opponent at FICS who was rated a couple hundred points higher than he was. They contested three Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4!? 4.Bxf7+!?) games. MyGameUMove, with the White pieces, won all three, with the longest game ending up with the final position.

MyGameUMove - NN, FICS, 2012

Point made.


(Three of them, actually.)

While enjoying my first cup of morning coffee..

How nice to read the following (check out "Tom's BDG Pages", one of my links) and see that, in my own small day, I can help someone get off to a good start each day...


Over at his entertaining blog on the Jerome Gambit, which I often read while enjoying my first cup of morning coffee, Rick Kennedy discusses an interesting observation from Max Euwe on an early h7-h6. (JeromeGambit: A Jerome Look At The Semi-Italian Opening (Part 1)):

Happy Birthday!

Four years ago I shared my first post on this Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) blog. Since then, I have kept to my goal of posting at least once a day. (If Blogger is correct, this is post #1465.)


A quick look at the statistics show that for this month of June the top ten countries that readers have come from are Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Vietnam, Germany, Canada, India and Italy. Welcome!


Readers are encouraged to visit often, and are invited to share games, analysis and comments.


I no longer expect to be able to post daily, but I hope to keep as close to that goal as possible. There is still much to uncover about "Jerome's Double Opening"!

Poison

A recent game from FICS again shows the dangers associated with an alternative to defending the Jerome Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5, the "Line of Play Everyone Should Know About"


meijinmike - Shahin
blitz, FICS, 2012


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 

4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6 6.d4 

6.Qg4+ is a playable alternative.


6...d6 7.d5+


Offering a taste of poison. Black should now flee from temptation with 7...Ke7.


7...Kxe5 8.Qh5+ g5 

8...Kf6 was seen in iplayforsean - Leftang, blitz, FICS, 2008.


9.f4+ Kd4 10.0-0 


This relaxed move wins nicely. Readers might want to look at the three retrograde moves, 10.Qd1+,  10.Qe2, and 10.Qf3, and find the mates associated with them as well.


10...Kc5 11.Be3+ Kb5 12.Qe2+ Nc4 13.Na3+ Ka6 14.Qxc4+ Black resigned

A Formidable Task

As I suspected earlier, playing the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) against an opponent rated 400 points above me (in one of the two Italian Opening tournaments that I am involved in at Chess.com) proved to be a formidable task. I did not make the best of my chances, while my opponent played steadily and pocketed the full point.


Losing the following game leaves me at 4 - 1 in the first tournament, needing a win in my remaining game (I have Black) to move on to the next round. The Jerome Gambit has scored 2-1 for me, with my other tournament wins coming in the endgame with Black.


In the other tournament, I am sitting with 1 win against four losses. One of the incomplete games should be another endgame win with Black. One is a Jerome Gambit that just started (I have White), and, with luck, the last one will be a Jerome as well. 



perrypawnpusher (1740) - JoseSoza (2080)
Italian Game tournament, Chess.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.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 Bxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.O-O Re8 10.Bg5

This is possibly a slight improvement over 10.f4 from perrypawnpusher - KaZC, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1/2-1/2, 61) and perrypawnpusher - Fazmeister, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 36).


10...Nc6 11.Qd3 Be6 12.f4 Kg8 13.Rae1 Bf7

14.a3 


I was not sure what to do here, so I tried the text, thinking at least it would not hurt me. Black's response gave me something to work with.


14...Qc8 15.Bxf6 gxf6 16.Qg3+


After the game Rybka suggested a Rook feint on the Kingside to grab a pawn on the Queenside: 16.Re3 Qd7 17.Rh3 Rad8 18.Rff3 Ne7 19.f5 Kh8 20.Qe3 Ng8 21.Qxa7 Qc6 22.Qf2 Qc5. That's a bit above my playing level.


16... Kh8 17.Qh4 Qd8 

18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.exd5 Rxe1 20.Rxe1 Nd4 21.Qf2 Nf5 22.g4 

I was pretty sure that this was not the "best" move (Rybka later recommended 22.Qf3) but I was hoping that Black would retreat and misplace his Knight.


22...Ng7 23.Qd4 Qd7 24. f5 Re8 25.Kf2 

The game is slipping away. Rybka cold-bloodedly suggested 25.Rxe8+ Nxe8 26.Qxa7 Qe7 27.Qxb7 Qe2 28.h3 h5 29.Qb4 Qd1+ 30.Kf2 Qxc2+ 31.Ke1 Qd3 32.Qd2 Qg3+ 33.Kd1 Qb3+ 34.Kc1 Qc4+ 35.Kb1 hxg4 36.hxg4 Qxg4 37.Qc2 Qf3 38.Qc6 Ng7 39.a4 when White still has some play.


25...Rxe1 26.Kxe1 Qe7+ 27.Kf2 h5 28.h3 b6 

I decided to play on, as long as Black's Rook was misplaced. When that was exchanged, I decided to play on as long as Black's Queen was misplaced. Later, I played on because Black's Knight was misplaced...


29.Qe3 Qe5 30.Qxe5 dxe5 31.c4 Ne8 32.b4 Nd6 33.c5
bxc5 34.bxc5 Ne4+ White Resigned

A very solid demonstration by my opponent.

Further Explorations (Part 6)

I have provided a link to an interesting Opening Report on the Noa Gambit, aka the "Open Italian Four Knights Jerome Gambit", nka ("never known as") the Fischer Attack, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.Bxf7+, for interested readers. 



(Okay, I lied. One more graphic from the good people at the Cafe Press website.)