When should you actually win a won game? If your opponent blunders in the opening - and, dear Readers, that is an objective assessment of the Jerome Gambit, after all - should you redouble your efforts and finish him off quickly? Or should you wait and use your extra piece in middle-game tactics? Maybe you should wait for the piece vs pawns endgame?
Whatever your choice, you should not shilly-shally, but get about the business of using your advantage in some way - instead of frittering it away. In the following game White is objectively lost after four moves - but Black is objectively almost as bad off after four more moves. The game is effectively over after another four moves.
musirapha (1874) - deriver69 (1410)
Giuoco Piano Jerome Gambit tournament, 2013
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.d4 Nxd4
Black would do better with either of the other two available captures, with 5...Bxd4 for choice.
6.Nxe5+ Ke8
One attraction of playing unusual openings is that your opponent can be lulled into playing "just any old move." The right retreat was 6...Ke7.
7.Qh5+ g6 8.Nxg6 Nf6
Black does well not to get involved in an excursion into foreign lands such as 8...Nxc2+ 9.Kd1 Nxa1? since what follows is sharp retribution: 10.Ne5+ Ke7 11.Qf7+ Kd6 12.Nc3 Qg5 13.Nc4+ Kc6 14.Qd5+ Qxd5+ 15.exd5 checkmate.
9.Qe5+
For a moment, White slips. This is the right kind of move when playing similar positions in the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit, but in the current position the prosaic capture 9.Qxc5 is better.
9...Kf7
Too cooperative. With 9...Ne6 Black would rescue two pieces.
10.Nxh8+ Qxh8 11.Qxc5
Now everything is fine for White, and his opponent's next move makes it "finer."
11...Nxe4 12.Qd5+ Kf8 13.Qxe4
A Rook is a Rook is a Rook.
13...d6 14.Bh6+ Kf7 15.0-0 Bf5 16.Qd5+ Be6 17.Qh5+ Ke7 18.Qh4+ Kd7 19.Nc3 Rg8 20.Kh1 Nf5 21.Qh5 Nxh6 22.Qxh6 Bd5 23.Nxd5 Rg6 24.Qh3+ Kc6 25.Ne7+ Black resigned
