Jerome Gambit: It's Also About Attitude

 

The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) is about many things: sacrifice, attack, surprise, discovery, courage, foolishness... but most of all, attitude.

If you are going to play an opening which has several refutations, and which is regarded by some players as "garbage" - and you expect to win - you are going to have to have the right attitude.

Part Bashi-Bazouk, part standup comedian, part psychologist.

Ben_S_Chess has just released a YouTube video, "How To Destroy Black in 3 Minutes | The Jerome Gambit" that provides an introduction to the basic lines of play in the Jerome, as well as the proper attitude to help you play the game.

It's a bit irreverent, but that's the whole point. If you can't laugh, you probably shouldn't be playing the Jerome Gambit, anyhow.

Check it out.  

Jerome Gambit: GM Video

 

Chess friend Yury Bukayev pointed out a video by GM Larry Christiansen, titled "Julian Hodgsen: A modern Blackburne" and containing

ECO: C50, A45: Giuoco Piano: Jerome gambit, Trompowsky attack (Ruth, Opocenský opening)
Players: Blackburne, Hodgson, Martin

Reading through some of the promotional material, I found

The never-to-be-forgotten ‘perfect checkmate’ unleashed by attacking pioneer Joseph Blackburne. Get a Knight and Queen near the enemy King and this is on! 

Christiansen's videos appear to be collections of annotated games.

The above quote refers to the lesson for month 8, day 3, in Christiansen's "Attacking Chess Mega Bundle" of chess videos. The title of the lesson is "Attacking Pioneer Joseph Blackburne".

Clearly it is referring to the Jerome Gambit game Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884.

Still, it might be fun to see what the GM has to say about the line.

By the way, back in 2011 I posted "A GM plays the Jerome Gambit??" about Christiansen.

 

Jerome Gambit: Outplayed, Alas (Part 2)

 

[continued from the previous post]

perrypawnpusher - ZlikoM

"Piano Piano" tournament, Chess.com, 2020

Here I looked at a couple of Jerome style moves, 16.Bg5 and 16.h3. I eventually rejected both, because of 16...Nxe4 in each case, but that was largely due to poor analysis.

After the game, I had Stockfish 11 do a blunder check. After 16.Bg5 Nxe4 17.Rae1 Black had 17...Qxg5 18.Nxe4 Bxe4 19.Rxe4 h5 20.h3 Rae8 21.Rxe8 Rxe8 22.hxg4 Re4 when White will lose one pawn quickly, and another a few moves later. Black also could have played 17...Ngf6 18.Nxe4 Bxe4 and White will have trouble capturing the beleagured Bishop, e.g. 19.d5 (to prevent the supportive ...d5) Rhg8 (to attack White's Queen after he exchanges his Bishop for the supportive Knight) 20.Qc3 Nxd5 21.Bxe7 Nxc3 22.bxc3 Bxc2 and although White has captured a piece, Black would be better. 

A better choice from the diagram would have been 16.h3, as 16...Nxe4 was not much of a threat, as 17.Nxe4 Bxe4 18.hxg4 Rae8 looks even. Black would do better to answer 16.h3 with 16...Rae8 17.hxg4 Nxe4 18.Nxe4 Qxe4 when his better development and safer King would give him an edge. Also interesting would have been 16...h5 as 17.hxg4 Nxe4 18.Nxe4 Qxe4 would transpose.

16.e5 

This move simply drops a pawn. Inexcusable, given the time limit of 3 days per move.

16...dxe5 17.dxe5 Qxe5 18.Bf4 

Looking for something that is not there, as Black shows with his next move.

18...Qc5+ 19.Kh1 Rae8 

There's not a lot for White to work with here, as even a Rook check to the King would only allow him to retreat to c8.

20.Rae1 Kc8 21.h3 h5 

Very nice. White dare not capture the Knight now.

22.Rxe8+ Nxe8 23.Qe1 Qc6 24.Qe6+ Qxe6 25.fxe6 Ngf6 

The checkmate threat has been dealt with, but the material deficit is still a big problem for me.

26.Rd1 Ne4 27.Nxe4 Bxe4 28.c3 Bf5 29.e7 g6 30.Be5 Rg8 31.Rd8+ 

Hoping to tie the pieces up. My opponent untangles, however.

31...Kb7 32.Kg1 Kc6 33.Kf2 Be6 34.a3 Bf7 35.Ke3 g5 36.g4 hxg4 37.hxg4 Rg6 White resigned

The passer on e7 was doomed, and the endgame, a piece down, did not appeal to me.

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]