As suggested earlier, players involved in Jerome Gambits would benefit from studying the "classic" game examples of that opening.
In the game below, MrJoker's opponent turns over his King at the loss of a Rook, just when things were becoming interesting. He should be sentenced to play over Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1885 - but, then again, "Nobody expects the Jerome Gambit!"
MrJoker - gredow
blitz, 2 12 ICC, 2013
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qxh8
Black disconnected and forfeited
Many people have an "anger management" problem of a specific kind: they put up with repeated small intrusions in their lives, saying nothing and setting no limits. Then, finally, the explode all out of proportion.
Wall,B - Guest3797656
Playchess.com, 2013
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6
7.Qd5+ Kf8 8.Qxc5+ Qe7 9.Qe3 Nf6 10.Nc3 Kf7
Black is looking to castle-by-hand.
Previously seen: 10...c6 11.0-0 d5 12.f3 Qe5 13.d4 Qd6 14.e5 Qe6 15.exf6 Qxe3+ 16.Bxe3 gxf6 17.Bh6+ Kf7 18.Rae1 Re8 19.Rxe8 Kxe8 20.Re1+ Kf7 21.g4 Be6 22.Ne2 Black resigned, Wall,B - Quack, Chess.com, 2010.
11.0-0 Re8 12.f4 Kg8 13.d4 d5 14.f5 Nh8
Black has allowed White's "Jerome pawns" to swarm, bypassing ...Nxe4 several times. Soon he will strike back, but it will be poorly matched to the position.
15.e5 Ng4 16.Qd3 c6 17.h3 Nxe5 18.dxe5 Qxe5
The "science" is probably good here, as Black has returned his extra piece for two pawns, but he hardly has the advantage that he had at, say, moves 4, 6 or 8.
19.g4 d4
Again, Black "fights fire with fire," or aggression with aggression, but only after he has allowed White to bottle up his Bishop and Knight, which should have been attended to instead. Another explosion is building up.
20.Bf4 Qc5 21.Na4 Qb4 22.b3 b5 23.a3 Qe7 24.Rae1 Qxe1 25.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 26.Kf2 Re8 27.Nc5 Nf7
Black has aggressively exchanged his Queen for two Rooks, and achieved - what? White's pieces (including his King) are better developed and more prepared to swing into action.
28.g5 a5 29.f6 g6 30.h4 Bf5 31.Qxd4 Rad8
Finally. I still think White has the better game, however.
32.Qc3 Bg4 33.Qxa5 Re2+ 34.Kg3 Bf5
Again, passively allowing White's King to intrude, when 34...Rxc2 35.Kxg4 Rxc5 was the assertive way to go.
35.c3 Rd5 36.Qa8+ Nd8 37.Qb8 Rc2 38.Be5 Re2 39.Bd6 Re8
After making "scary" threats on the Queenside, Black's Rook returns to defense.
40.Be7
Threatening 41.Bxd8 Rdxd8 42.Qc7 and 43.Qg7 mate.
Black resigned.
I have a friend who told me that she once helped her team win a basketball championship game. As the seconds were ticking down at the crucial end of play, she said, "I went up to the coach and said 'Don't put me in, coach!' and she didn't, and we won the game..."
I thought of that as I won my last game in the third round of the Chess.com Italian Game Thematic Tournament, qualifying for the fourth round. I won both games against each of the other players in my quad rated lower than me. I drew both games against the player rated higher than me.
The curious thing was that I had played against the higher rated player in round one, where I won with Black, but lost with White playing the Jerome Gambit. In the second round, against the same opponent, I drew with Black, but lost again with the Jerome Gambit. This round I drew with Black - but my opponent declined to allow me to play the Jerome Gambit, and I drew with White, as well. This allowed me to tie him at 4-0-2.
In all fairness, even if I had played the Jerome Gambit and lost (or won) we both would have moved on to the fourth round, anyway.
The Jerome Gambit can have many diffierent kinds of effects on a defender. I particularly like the "brain freeze." In the following game, each player has at least 15 minutes to start with, and yet...
majorminor - Mzolisi
standard, FICS, 2012
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.Bxf7+ Black forfeited on time
As I finish up parsing the Jerome Gambit and Jerome-ish games from the last 6 months of play at FICS, added to The Database, I now have a new, large collection of games from MrJoker to add as well!
To readers who have already requested a copy of the updated Database, thank you for your patience. To readers who have not yet requested a copy - I will post when the final culling is complete.
While I was finishing up my games in the third round of the Chess.com Italian Game thematic tournament, I received a challenge from another player, and was able to inject some more Jerome-ish fun into my game.
We followed a line that I was familiar with, and although it took an odd turn or two, the result was pleasing.
perrypawnpusher - eaadahl
Chess.com, 2013
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6
The Semi-Italian Opening.
4.0-0 Bc5 5.Bxf7+
The Semi-Italian Jerome Gambit. I have played it 51 times, scoring 88%. pblond has two of the three wins against me; the other was an embarassing mouse-slip Queen-loss on move 8.
5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.Qh5+ g6
The Database has almost 27,000 games in it, yet there are only 7 (until now) with this position; and I had White in all of them, scoring 100%.
8.Qxe5
Here Black resigned in perrypawnpusher - JohnBr, blitz, FICS, 2010 and perrypawnpusher - AcesFullofKings, blitz, FICS, 2011.
8...Bd6
Or 8...Qf6 as in perrypawnpusher - alekbb, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 47); or
8...Be7 as in perrypawnpusher - PravinMamania, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 50); or
8...Nf6 as in perrypawnpusher - islanderchess, blitz, FICS, 2008 (1-0, 46) and perrypawnpusher - wadada, blitz, FICS, 2009 (1-0, 19)
Best is 8...Bf8!?, planning to trap White's Queen after 9.Qxh8?.
9.Qxh8 Qf6 10.Qxf6+ Nxf6 11.d3 h5
White has the exchange plus two pawns for the advantage.
I survived the silly 11...Be5 12.Bxh6? in perrypawnpusher - apinheiro, blitz, FICS, 2010 (1-0, 35)
12.Nc3 a6 13.Bg5 Bc5
The time limit on our game was three days per move, but obviously this was played too casually.
14.Bxf6 Kxf6 15.Nd5+ Kg7 16.Nxc7 Rb8 17.Nd5 d6
I was pretty sure that if I opened the game up, Black's two Bishops would be a good match for my Rook and Knight. Therefore I took some time to see how I could make use of my extra pawns.
18.c3 Be6 19.Nf4 Bf7 20.d4 Bb6 21.Nh3 Bc4 22.Rfe1 Re8 23.f4 d5 24.e5 Bc7 25.Nf2 a5 26.g3 b6 27.h3 Bd8
I don't think that my timid play impressed my opponent.
28.b3 Bb5 29.Rac1 Bc7 30.c4 dxc4 31.bxc4 Ba6 32.d5 Bc8
Black is ready to play cat-and-mouse, his Bishops against my pawns, but it is time to open the position and finish things up.
33.d6 Bb8 34.c5 bxc5 35.Rxc5 a4 36.Rb1 Ba7 37.Rc7+ Black resigned
What can I say??
A new addition to The Database, Randompl - Steftcho, blitz, FICS, 2012 (1/2-1/2, 47), in case you missed it:
White ran out of time and Black had no material to mate.
Bummer.
