When I ran in school, my teacher said not to stop at the finish line, but to aim for a spot well beyond there. He said that would keep me moving as fast as possible while I was racing. Otherwise, I would slow down at the end, and this would be to the benefit of my opponents. The same advice can be given to those who defend against the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+): When you realize that you have received a piece or two in a "refuted" opening, keep "running" - keep competing - and do not slow down or relax your attention too soon. Chessfriend Vlastamil Fejfar, of the Czech Republic(see "A Fierce Jerome Gambit Battle", shares a recent online game where his opponent ignored this advice. The result was as expected. vlastous - rubicon ChessManiac.com, 2016 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Qf6
Vlasta and Readers have seen this move before, as I noted in an earlier post
A line seen as early as in a note in G.H.D. Gossip's 1891 The Chess Player's Vade Mecum and Pocket Guide to the Openings with all the latest theoretical discoveries and traps in the openings revealed, and more recently supported by FM Eric Schiller in his books on unorthodox openings. (It is fun to read MrJoker's comments about some of Schiller's analysis - see "Joker's Wild" 1, 2and Conclusion.)
I would like to point out that Schiller in his Unorthodox Chess Openings(1998) wrongly identified Henry Joseph Blackburne's opponent in his classic destruction of the Jerome Gambit as Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, himself. Fifteen years of research into the Jerome Gambit has not turned up any evidence that AWJ ever travelled to London, let alone was able to play HJB at Simpson's Divan. (Certainly Dr. Tim Harding would have included this tidbit, were it not merely a figment of Schiller's imagination, in his exhaustive Joseph Henry Blackburne A Chess Biography.) In any event, Black has every reason to feel comfortable with his position, as he has played a "refutation" that both time and reference books have presented as sufficient. 8.Rf1g6 9.Qh3+ Kf7
But - Black relaxes too soon, as Vlasta immediately demonstrates. Best was the alternative 9...Ke7. 10.fxe5 Qxf1+ 11.Kxf1 d5 12.Qc3 b6 13.d4 Black resigned
I received some more games from Bill Wall, new to me if not all of them "new". The following is a good example of Black defending against the Jerome Gambit with nefarious ideas of his own. (For perspective on this kind of "duel" see "Post Script".) He almost makes them work... Wall, Bill - Royercordova Chess.com, 2010 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Bxf7+
In his games Bill has chosen many different squares to retreat his Queen to. See "Spicy!" for alternatives. 9...Qf6 This move is often part of Black's defense in the Jerome Gambit. Bill has also faced 9...Qe7 10.O-O Be6 11.Qa4+ Bd7 12.Qb4 b6 13.Nc3 c5 14.Qb3 Be6 15.Qa3 Ne5 16.d4 Nc4 17.Qa4+ Kf7 18.d5 Black resigned,Wall,B - Guest4027845, Chess.com, 2015 10.O-O N8e7 11.d4 Nc6 12. c3 Bd7 13.f4 Rf8 14.d5 Na5
The game has proceeded along typical Jerome Gambit lines: White has a relatively safe King and two useful extra pawns; Black has an extra piece, but his King is stuck in the center. The position is slightly in Black's favor, but it is "messy". It is about to get a whole lot messier. 15.Qxc7 A calculated risk (Bill gives the alternative 15.Qd3). As Wilhelm Steinitz reportedly said, "A pawn is worth a little trouble". In this case, White gains a pawn and loosens Blacks position a bit, but he risks having his Queen trapped. The proper order of moves will be important. 15...b6 The idea here is clear. Bill gives a more refined version as a suggestion, 15...Bb5 16.Rf3 b6. 16.Na3 Rf7 17.Nc4
White's Knight races to help his trapped and soon-to-be-threatened Queen. 17...Bb5 Black's best, as Bill pointed out, was 17...Nxc4 18.Qxc4 Kf8, allowing the Queen to escape but perhaps reamainingwith an edge. 18.Nxd6+ Black resigned
After 18...Kf8 19.Nxf7 Qxf7 20.Qxf7+ Kxf7 21.Re1 White will have a Rook against Black's two Knights, but he will have four extra "Jerome pawns" to make up the difference. Had Black played Bill's suggested 15...Bb5 16.Rf3 b6, White would not have been able to use his Knight for rescue and attack. For example, after 17.Na3, Black can simply retreat the Bishop with 17...Ba6, (although he could also win White's Queen with 17...Rf7 18.Nxb5 Rxc7 19.Nxc7+ Kf8 20.Nxa8 Qd8 21.Be3 Qxa8 22.Bd4 - White may have adequate compensation, however) when White's best chance is to complicate with 18.e5 dxe5 19.fxe5 Qd8.
Searching the internet the other day, I came across an interesting and intriguing web page titled "SPRING & SUMMER 2013: Definitely with the gambits" which had, among other things, the following quote
By playing the Jerome Gambit and by paying more attention to the moves of my mate, I came to win against more chessmates than I used to do before.
On the site there is a photo of a couple of people playing chess at an outside table ("Paul & a young Champion at Hunter College") easily placed at the Chess and Checkers' House in Central Park in Manhattan (a short walk from Hunter College). The site includes a useful link to a Jerome Gambit "database" actually a spreadsheet of opening moves. The post finishes with
With the gambit, there is really a gamboling of some pieces, a frolicking about of them, most often the Queen, and that is what makes it interesting and a good technic to develop attention, concentration and technical skills in playing Chess.
Elsewhere, the web page's author notes that "chess obeys to Bayesian statistics" - which certainly begs further attention and exploration. I have been unable to track down his manuscript Chess and Bayesian Statistics (Le Jeu d'Échecs et la Statistique Bayésienne) but can note his summary
The manuscript is to prove that chance or hazard has little to do with chess in contrary to playing cards or other saloon's games, since Bayesian statistics deals with conditional or linked probabilities...
Even a little bit of knowledge can be a good thing, if it is properly applied. If it is missing - things change. The following is from an ongoing game - the players will go unnamed - from the ongoing "Giuoco Piano Jerome Gambit Tournament" at RedHotPawn.com. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 Bxd4 7.Qxd4 Qf6
This position should feel familiar, if you read the recent post "Again, 'Why Did He Play That Move?' " or are able to recall '"Why Did He Play That Move?" I feel a bit disappointed that both players seem to have missed that content. 8.O-O b6 Instead, Black had the crushing 8...Nf3+, winning White's Queen on the next move. (In all fairness, I have to report that the position appears in The Database 40 times, and Black found 8...Nf3+ only 13 times, an unhappy 32.5%. It is important to recall that we are in the land of online club play, not grandmaster gladiator duels. Also, not everyone reads this blog - yet.) 8.Nc3 c5 Ouch. Again, the move to play was 8...Nf3+ with a winning game. 10.Qd5+
White will win a Rook now. This game has continued a couple dozen more moves. White is currently up an insurmountable amount of material and should win by checkmate quickly. What an unfortunate outcome, given that the defender missed an opportunity to be up a whole Queen early on in the game. Again, we must congratulate the Jerome Gambit player, even as we recall the old saying "It is better to be lucky than to be good".
In every chess game we play, we must often ask ourselves about our opponent, "Why Did He Play That Move?" Failing to do so - or failing to answer the question accurately - can lead to disaster. Consider the following game. JeanTylerGabriel - LittleDonkey Giuoco Piano Jerome Gambit Tournament RedHotPawn.com, 2016 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7
Out of a normal (for the Jerome Gambit) opening setup, Black plays an unexpected move. Why did he play that move? 10.Re1 A decent enough response. 10...Qf6 Again, why did he play that move? 11.gxh3 Wrong answer. 11...Nf3+ 12.Kh1 Nxd4 13.Rf1 Qf3+ 14.Kg1 Qxh3 15.Bf4 Nf6 16.Rac1 Nf3+ 17.Kh1 Ng4 18.Rfd1 Nxf2 checkmate
And this is how we reached one of the positions in "Good Knight".
When recently discussing the "Macbeth Attack" I mentioned the early game Wright - Hunn, Arkansas, 1874, which appeared in the November issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal for that year. The game began 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4, garnering the comment "Brilliant but not sound" from the editor. (I suspect Jude Acers and George Laven, authors of The Italian Gambit and A Guiding Repertoire for White might challenge that "not sound" assessment.) After 4...exd4 ("The German Handbuch gives as best variation 4...Bxd4 5.c3 Bb6 6.Ng5 Nh6 7.Qh5 O-O 8.f4 exf4 9.Bxf4 d6 10.Rf1 Qe7 and Black should win."), 5.Bxf7+ the editor commented "An unsound variation of Jerome's double opening." Still, he was able to join in the fun. After 5...Kxf7 6.Ng5+ he suggested that Ne5 "a la Jerome" is better than Ng5. That may not be "objectively" true, but capturing the imaginary pawn on e5 certainly is in line with the outlandish play of Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's creation. I was surprised to find 40 games in The Database that, wittingly or unwittingly, followed the DCJ's suggestion. The following blitz game shows some of the fun behind the lighthearted suggestion. SupremacyPawn - northug blitz, FICS, 2014 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.d4 exd4 6.Ne5+
6...Nxe5 7.Qh5+ Ke6 8.f4 Nf6
Black is having so much fun "punishing" White for his audacity of early Queen moves - well, you know how those things sometimes go... 9.Qxe5+ Kf7 10.Qxc5 Black has quickly returned two pieces. He would do best to calm himself, rationally look at his new position, and plot a new strategy. Something like 10...d5 comes to mind, with either 11.Qxd4 Ne4 or 11.e5 Ne4 to follow, and despite his previous misfortunes, Black would not be worse. Alas for the defender, he is sure that White has erred (a clear assessment that is out of date, however) and still can and should be punished for his transgressions. 10...Nxe4 11.Qd5+ Kg6 12.Qxe4+ Kf7 13.O-O Black resigned
The following game from the Jerome Gambit thematic chess tournament presented at the Scacchi64.com website provides a framework for how a number of computer chess programs address a particular opening line. (I have been guided in my own assessments by Stockfish 7.) La Dame Blanche 2.0c - Comet B48 Torneo tematico GaJero00-A, 2009
