Jerome Gambit: Outplayed, Alas (Part 1)

When you get out-played in a chess game - as I was in the following Jerome Gambit - it is still tempting to look for the one move that set you on the path to defeat. It is more likely, at least in my experience, that there are a number of mistakes, topped by one big one, that leads to a loss.

It is clear, in any event, that my opponent was the better player in this contest.

perrypawnpusher - ZlikoM

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 

7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 d6 9.Qe3 Nf6 

So far, pretty routine. The Database has 226 games with this position, going back to Charlick - Mann, correspondence, 1881 (1-0, 72).

10.O-O Qe7 

Pressure against the e-pawn. I had scored 8 - 1 - 1 against this move, previously. Komodo 11 prefers 10...d5, which has not yet showed up in The Database.

11.Nc3 

White has a number of Jerome-ish ideas available to him here, from reinforcing his e-pawn with either 11.d3 or 11.f3, or advancing one of those pawns with 11.f4. The last looks a little iffy, according to Stockfish 11: 11.f4 Nxe4 12.Re1 d5 13.d3 Nd6 14.Qf2 Be6 15.g4 Rf8 16.f5 Nxf5 17.gxf5 Rxf5.

I decided to sidestep all of that and reinforce the e-pawn differently.

11...b6 

The Database has 4 games with this position, including perrypawnpusher - navarrra, blitz, FICS, 2011 (1-0, 24), perrypawnpusher - alvarz, blitz, FICS, 2013 (0-1, 59), and perrypawnpusher - MarkHundleby1, "Italian Game" tournament, Chess.com, 2016 (1-0, 27).

12.f4 Bb7 13.f5 

A typical Jerome Gambit advance. Stockfish 11 prefers the more solid 13.d3, which I played against alvarz (above) and which transposes to perrypawnpusher - MRBarupal, blitz, FICS, 2010 (0-1, 22).

13...Ne5 14.d4 Neg4

Withdrawing the Knight to f7 would have been more solid, but it is too much of a temptation to attack the White Queen. Certainly Black's pieces appear to be controlling the "Jerome pawns".

15.Qg3 Kd7 

Is Black's King safer on the d-file? What will happen when Black's Rooks enter the game? How should White proceed?

[to be continued]

Speelman, Bukayev, Konikowski...& Jerome

 

Chess friend Yury Bukayev has sent a link to the blog of master, trainer, and prodigious author Jerzy Konikowski (home page), presenting a letter kindly mentioning the Jerome Gambit with relevant links to some of Yury's analysis.

It is always good to have an exchange of ideas and a new perspective on things we are excited about. Please visit Master Konikowski's site. 

Jerome Gambit: Entering the Maze (Part 3)

[continued from the previous post]

perrypawnpusher - DaniyarManat

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

At this point in the game, I did a lot of thinking...

Okay, maybe White was better, but what was my plan? Transforming my Queenside pawn majority into a passed pawn would take forever. Using my 2 pieces vs a Rook to win material was an idea, but opening up the Kingside files right away was risky - not only to my King, but to my Rook and possibly my Bishop, via x-ray attacks. It looked like victory was still a long way off.

24...Rhf8 25.Bc5 

Developing the Bishop with a gain of tempo. I wasn't sure what else was going to happen.

25...Rf7 26.Ng5 

Hitting the Rook, but with no real plan other than that. 

26...Rf6 

First, I thought of 27.Nxh7, but I wasn't happy with opening the file for Black's other Rook after 27...Rh6 28.Ng5 Rh8. Then I thought of repeating the position for a draw, if Black played 27...Rf7, i.e. 28.Ng5 Rf6 29.Nh7, etc. That kind of thinking wasn't getting me anywhere.

Then I decided to annoy the Rook by putting my Bishop on the long diagonal, 27.Bd4. Of course, if he then played 27...Rff8, I could repeat with 28.Bc5, etc. But he wouldn't do that, would he? He had 27...Rc6, instead, so I had to investigate 28.c3, 28.Bc3 and 28.Rf2 - the last move had the benefit of moving my Rook to where it was protected by my King.

But what about ignoring my c-pawn and capturing his g-pawn with my Bishop, 27.Bd4 Rc6 28.Bxg7 ? That left me open for the terrible 28...Rg8, lining his Rook up on a file with my Bishop, Knight and King. Plus, his other Rook could feast on my pawns.

That led me, in turn, to consider some help from my advanced pawn, and then things began to click: If 27.Bd4 Rc6 28.Bxg7 Rxc2 29.f6 Rxb2 30.f7 - and it was clear that Black's pawn-hunting would allow me to promote my pawn, forcing him to give up his Rook. 29.f6 looked pretty good against 28...Rg8, as well.

27.Bd4 Rc6 28.Bxg7 Rxc2 

As predicted, but this pawn hunting expedition should fail.

 

29.f6 Black resigned

So, it looked like DaniyarManat agreed with me. But - should he have? Imagine that play continued consistently with 29...Rxb2 30.f7 Rxa2 31.f8/Q Rxf8 32.Rxf8 - would that have been messy enough to continue play, despite White's material advantage? Would throwing in 31.Nxh7 first have helped White out? I think in both cases, play could have continued if the game had a fast time control, but we were playing with 3 days per move, so my opponent probably figured that I would figure things out.

In any event, hats off to my opponent for his creative play!

Jerome Gambit: Entering the Maze (Part 2)

 

[continued from the previous post]

perrypawnpusher - DaniyarManat

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

11.Qxc5+

I figured that DaniyarManat knew what he was doing. Time to play my "surprise".

In 2008, in the 10.Kd1 line, fehim had captured this Bishop in an online blitz game against vshamis on FICS and lost on time in 26 moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ 9.g3 Nf3+ 10.Kd1 Ne7 11.Qxc5+ Kxc5 12.gxh4 d5 13.e5 Bg4 14.d4+ Nxd4+ 15.Kd2 Nf3+ 16.Ke3 d4+ 17.Kf2 Nxh4 18.Nd2 Raf8 19.Kg3 h5 20.Kxh4 Nf5+ 21.Kg5 Rh6 22.h3 Be2 23.Ne4+ Kd5 24.Nf2 Re8 (The clock was affecting Black as well) 25.Re1 (Missing his chance, as 25.Kxf5 would give White the advantage) Ree6 (Another slip) 26.c4+ (26.Kxf5) Bxc4 White forfeited on time.

That was all I could find for 11.Qxc5+: The Database had only that one example, and none in the 10.Kf1 line.

11...Kxc5 12.gxh4 d5 

13.d3 Bh3+ 

Black's Knight and Bishop proceeded to drive me to distraction.

14.Kf2 Nxh4 15.Kg3 Bg2 16. Rg1 Neg6 

Now it's 3 minor pieces against my King and Rook.

17.f5 Ne5 

Planning the fork on f3. In hindsight, I was doing fairly well, now, but I was hardy aware of it at the time.

18.Kxh4 Nf3+ 19.Kg3 Nxg1 

A strange position: my minor pieces are undeveloped, while my opponent's are - developed to my side of the board.

I had hopes that my "Jerome pawns" - all of them - would keep the enemy pieces trapped "behind enemy lines" until I could round them up.

20.Be3+ 

A key move.

20...Kd6 

I had figured out the cute line 20...d4 21.Bxg1 Bf1 22.Nc3, uncovering the Rook's attack on the enemy Bishop while covering the d2 square to the Bishop could not escape there. 

21.Bxg1 

The consistent followup, but after the game Stockfish 11 preferred  the other capture, 21.Kxg2. It then looked at 21...dxe4 22.dxe4 Ke5 23.Nd2 Ne2 24.c3 Nf4+ 25.Kf3 Nh5 and although the Knight had escaped and White would have a pawn for the exchange, it saw White as almost 2 1/2 pawns better.

21...Bf1 

This time Stockfish preferred giving up the Bishop with 21...dxe4 22.Kxg2 exd3 23.cxd3 Raf8 24.d4 Rxf5 seeing the position as only slightly better for White. I am not so sure: Black has a Rook and a pawn for the two pieces, plus the Kingside pawn majority, and the possibility that White's d-pawn is weak.

22.Nc3 

Here we have a position similar to the note after Black's 20th move, although now White could answer 22...d4 with 23.Ng5+ and 24.Nxd4. 

22...dxe4 23.Nxe4+ Kd7 24.Rxf1 

The invaders had been repelled. I had a couple of pieces and an extra pawn against his extra Rook. If you had told me that my advantage here was more than two pieces - as Stockfish 11 argued, in the post mortem - I would have laughed.

I felt lucky to have gotten this far.

[to be continued]

Jerome Gambit: Entering the Maze (Part 1)

The following Jerome Gambit game was quite a challenge, pushing me beyond my experience and preparation, and forcing me to work out tactics in positions that I did not fully understand.

When I sought understanding from Stockfish 11 in "blunder check" mode, after the game, I got a lot of criticism and alternative lines of play that were quite incomprehensible. Bleh.

(By the way, Stockfish didn't actually criticize me, it just provided annotations. Somewhere in my desk, however, I do have a copy of an earlier version of the chess engine Fritz - a "talking Fritz" that has a whole CD of comments and insults to go with its analysis. You call that a chess move?? I think I  played a couple of games against it and put it away - but perhaps I should give it another chance...) 

 

perrypawnpusher - DaniyarManat

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Qh4+ 

Cue the violin music.

9.g3 Nf3+ 

As I wrote in an earlier post

An interesting line that I refer to as the "Nibs' Defense," which made its first appearance in the American Chess Magazine of June 1899 in a comical article lampooning a new pastime, chess by phone.  

In a constructed game the author, "R.F.," overcame continued line noises and interruptions to use the Jerome Gambit to defeat "Nibs" in a dozen moves -- erroneously claiming checkmate, by the way. 

And, in "Jerome Gambit: Don't Confuse Yourself"

Both players need to know what they are doing to come out okay.

About 13 years ago, I received a letter - one of those old fashioned things written on paper, and mailed with a stamp - from my chess friend "Mad Dog". He was playing a Jerome Gambit game (online) and was excited that he had just won his opponent's Queen. He was expecting to wrap up the win after dealing with a few complications.

His opponent won. It turns out that the Queen had not been "lost", it had been sacrificed. It was a deep sacrifice that, back then, required some serious thinking time by a computer chess program to work out. (I think it required a search depth of 20 ply. I know, today Stockfish 11 does that in an eye blink.) I was always suspicious, but "Mad Dog" was okay with the outcome. Good game and all that.

Anyhow, the current game was the 20th time that I had faced this line, and although I had scored 16 - 3 up until this game, I was always worried that my opponent would find his way through the complications.

10.Kf1 

The first big decision: does the King go to d1 or f1? For another discussion, see "Jerome Gambit: Very Complicated and Dangerous"

10...Ne7

This is the move I had worried about, but had not yet faced. It appears to be effective against both 10.Kd1 and 10.Kf1. The Database shows 10 earlier games, where White scored 4 - 5 - 1 (45%). Again, that may more reflect the experience and pluck of the Jerome Gambit players, rather than the "strength" of the line for the attacker.

Some time ago, my chess friend Philidor1792 played some games against a chess computer program, testing the strength of 11...Ne7. I posted about them in "Sailing Off of the Edge of the World" and "Sailing Off Again", with a focus on 10.Kd1. 

Most relevant to my game was "Sometimes", where Philidor1792 played 10.Kf1 and met 10...Ne7 with 11.e5+ Kc6 12.Qe4+ d5 13.exd6+ Nd5 14.gxh4, although after 14...Bh3+ "White's King can find no peace."

More recently, my chess friend Boris had played the 11.e5+ line successfully against 10...Ne7, but he pointed out that 13.exd6+ seemed to have unnerved his opponent. (Boris also had played 10.Kd1; instead of 14...Bh3+, 14...Bg4 would have been effective.) 

My question in the game, therefore, was "Do I play 11.e5+, etc and hope that DaniyarManat doesn't know the line - or do I play the move that I had been holding in reserve for a dozen years?"

[to be continued]

Jerome Gambit: More Short, Entertaining, Educational Videos

 

A while back I passed along a link (see "Jerome Gambit: Don't Take Everything Blindly") to a short, entertaining and educational YouTube video on 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+. I just noticed that the author, Vijay Joshi, has added three more videos, each showcasing a short Jerome Gambit:

Giuoco Piano, Jerome Gambit #2, 

Giuoco Piano, Jerome Gambit #3, and

Giuoco Piano, Jerome Gambit #4.

Jerome Gambit: Mixed Feelings (Part 2)

 

[continued from previous post]

perrypawnpusher - Bossferreira

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

17.Rae1 Qc8 

I don't fully understand this move. Perhaps it was to move the Queen out of the pin on the Knight? In any event, it triggered my attack. 

18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Nd5 Kf7 20.Qh3 

20...Rh8 

For better or for worse, Black needed to protect the h-pawn with his King, i.e. 20...Kg7 A major difference with this defense, as I found out later, was that most of White's effective continuations would then require sacrificing a Knight - and this game showed, my basic tactical engine was sputtering.  

21.Qh5+ Kf8 22.Qh6+ Ke8 23.Qg7 Rf8 

24.Nxf6+ 

I could see that I was winning the exchange here, and had plans to grab the h-pawn as well, but the know-it-all computer pointed out a checkmate in nine: 24.e5 dxe5 25.dxe5 Bxf5 26.e6 Ra7 (What else?) 27.Rxf5 Qd8 28.e7 Rf7 29.exd8=Q+ Kxd8 30.Qxf7 Ne5 31.Qxc7+ Ke8 32.Qe7# 

24...Rxf6 25.Qxf6 Qd8  26.Qh8+ Ke7 27.Qxh7+ 

According to plan. There was also 27.Qg7+ Ke8 28.Qg8+ Ke7 29.f6 checkmate. Keep that pattern in mind. 

27...Ke8 28.f6 

This is okay, but so is 28.Qg8+ Ke7 29.f6 checkmate 

28...Nxd4 29.f7+ 

Or 29.Qg8 checkmate [insert face palm emoji here]

29...Kf8 

30. Qh6+ Ke7 31.f8=Q+ Qxf8 32.Rxf8 Rxf8 33.Qg7+ Black resigned

White will pick up the Knight, and that is too much of a material advantage.