The following game caused a bit of head-scratching here at jeromegambit.blogspot.com...
Doctoroldhead - chesstux
standard, FICS, 2012
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nd4
The Blackburne Shilling Gambit.
4.Bxf7+
The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 6.c3 Qg5
Now, White forfeited by disconnection.
It is hard to know if White simply lost his connection to FICS at this point. If he did, maybe he was not able to log back in and continue the game. Or, maybe his opponent had set his "noescape" variable so that any disconnection would be treated as a forfeit.
It is also possible that White saw Black's last move - thematic to the Blackburne Shilling Gambit (and its relations) - and figured his Jerome Gambit strategy had failed. So, why play on?
I checked The Database for games with the final position. There were 80 of them, including efforts (with White) by well-known Jerome Gambit Gemeinde members GOH, GmCooper, Darrenshome, DragonTail, drumme, sTpny and jfhumphrey. White scored 54%.
In those 80 games, White's average rating was about 47 points higher than Black's average rating, consistent with White's edge in scoring. Also, Houdini 2, at 20 ply depth, rated White's position to be about 2/3 of a pawn better - again, consistent with the scoring of the games in The Database.
Conclusion: no need for White to despair.
Of course, he needs to find the right idea, which is to capture the Black Knight with 7.cxd4, and after 7...Qxg2, find 8.Qf3. Black then has nothing better (and a lot, worse) than exchanging Queens with 8...Qxf3 9.Nxf3.
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analysis diagram
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White has an edge, thanks to his extra pawn. That is certainly nothing to give up on, unless things beyond the chessboard were more pressing.
With some time available recently, I've downloaded more Jerome Gambit (and related) games from the FICS database, making The Database current through July 2012. That's still not "up to date," but I'm working on it...
Bill Wall is pulling together a database of his games for the year, and there's usually a few Jerome Gambits hiding there. The more, the merrier!
Also, I just caught up with the results of the 2nd Jerome Gambit Race at Chess.com. (The 1st Race was covered on this blog earlier this year.)
Rrustyy1 6-2-0
oleppedersen 4-4-0
Jordi-I 4-4-0
quixote 3-4-1
DeDrijver 2-5-1
I hope to present games from this tournament soon.
(I noticed that DeDrijver played in the Chess.com "Play the Jerome Gambit Quad" posted about earlier.)
graphic from the Wizard of Draws
I was doing some online research at the Chess Archaeology website when I ran into an interesting game (a cross between the Italian Game and the Petroff Defense) in the "Chess" column of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat for June 24, 1877
Amateur - Jos. N. B.
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Bxf2+ 5.Kxf2 Nxe4+ 6.Kf3 d5 7.Bd3
At this point Black announced mate in two
Of course, I like the Bishop sacrifice theme (it is interesting to think of the game coming out of a Petroff, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Bc5!? 4.Bc4; or even a Busch-Gass Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Bc5!? 3.Nxe5 Nf6 ), even if it is performed this time by Black.
Has this line appeared in a post in this blog before? I looked up 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Bc5 and ran across it in "Not Quite the Jerome Gambit". Figures.
(By the way, Black does better to 4...0-0, and White should choose the safer 6.Kg1.)
I met JoseSoza in the first round of our Chess.com tournament. I played the Jerome Gambit. He beat me.
I recently met JoseSoza in the second round of our Chess.com tournament. I played the Jerome Gambit again. He beat me again.
I am waiting to see if I will make it to the third round of our Chess.com tournament. I already know that JoseSoza will advance. If I meet him again, I will play the Jerome Gambit again.
perrypawnpusher - JoseSoza
"Italian Game" Thematic, Chess.com, 2012
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf8
The same answer LeeBradbury offered in my other Jerome Gambit game in this round.
7.Qxe5 Qe7 8.Qf4+ Qf6 9.Qg3 d6
I decided not to play the Queen exchange this time.
After 9...Bd6 I was able to outplay my opponent in perrypawnpusher - molerat, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 23).
10.Nc3
Instead, Bill Wall was successful with 10.c3, in Wall,B - Guest340293, Playchess.com, 2012 (1-0, 41).
10...Ne7 11.d3 Be6 12.0-0 Qg6 13.Be3 Bxe3 14.Qxe3 a6
JoseSoza has beaten my Jerome Gambit before, so he is not terribly concerned in this game. Still, he has allowed me to exchange off his dark-squared Bishop, keep my Queen, and prepare for f2-f4. Black's piece-for-two-pawns gives him an advantage, but the game is not unfamiliar to a Jerome Gambit player with white.
15.f4 Bf7 16.Rae1 Qe6 17.f5 Qd7 18.e5
The game is effectively over at this point.
That may surprise you.
What happened is that I spent hours and hours with my pocket chess set, looking at 18.f6!? I then studied the position further, and decided that I could play the text move first, as long as I followed it up properly.
So I played the text.
Then I realized that I had not written any of my analysis down, and I could not remember any of it at all! I played the rest of the game like a zombie.
For the record, after the game Rybka suggested that after 18.Rf2 Kg8 19.Ref1 Rf8 20.Qg3 Qe8 21.b3 h6 22.f6 Ng6 23.d4 Rh7 24.Qe3 White would have a tiny edge.
18...dxe5 19.Qxe5 Nc6 20.Qc5+ Qd6 21.Qxd6+ cxd6
Exchanging Queens was not a good idea. Black now has a slight advantage, and he outplayed me the rest of the game.
22.f6 Re8 23.fxg7+ Kxg7 24.Ne4 Rd8 25.a3 Rhe8 26.Ng5 Rxe1 27.Rxe1 Rd7 28.Nxf7 Kxf7
29.c3 Re7 30.Kf2 Rxe1 31.Kxe1 Ke6 32.Ke2 Ke5 33.Ke3 d5 34.d4+ Kf5 35.a4 Na5 36.b4 Nc4+ 37.Kf3 b6 White resigned
The opening 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4!? has been named the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, even though examples of Joseph Henry Blackburne playing the line have yet to turn up. Supposedly he would play off-hand games with amateurs for a shilling's stake, and such a trappy line might well speed up the master's collections.
Related to the latter, I enjoy sharing the following, from "The Chess Player" column of Yenowine's News for October 13, 1889.
Our Milwaukee Chessist Abroad
J. L Garner, who is back from a five months' tour over Continental Europe, has been devoting his spare hours since his return to dealing out bits of precious chess gossip pertaining to his adventures among the chess lions of the Old World. All in all, he managed to win considerably more than half the games. In Paris he played two with Taubenhaus, drawing one. All the big guns were in London during his stay there, and the Milwaukeean met Blackburne, Bird, Mackenzie, Muller, Gossip and a lot of other stars at Simpson's Divan daily. He made even scores with Gossip, winning one, losing one and drawing one. He regards Gossip as below either Elliott or Treichler as a chess player. With Lee, a very strong player ,who beat both Burn and Blackburne, at the Bradford tournament, Garner had a peculiar experience. In one game he mated Lee on the move, and thinking he would not object, offered to let him take the move back. He was fooled in the man, however; he was willing enough to let the game count, and coolly pocketed the shilling which the professionals charge for a "lesson." As a rule, the chess professionals in London and Paris are a dilapidated lot of tramps, with coat sleeves out at elbows, toes projecting from their boots, hats badly caved in and a ghoulish eagerness to fasten upon some wandering amateur, and bleed him at the rate of a shilling a game...
In doing an online search for the Jerome Gambit, I ran across the Brisbane Courier, whose August 9, 1930, p.20, "Chess" column, has the memorable Blackburne game in which he applies a thrashing to the Jerome, but, according to the Courier, it was J.H.B. who was playing White. (Not so!)
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