I enjoyed checking out the Jerome Gambit tournament played in September 2020 at the DailyChess site.
Players bramble, Greg Williams, Jim Dandy, karlconroy, and Norfolk and Good battled it out.
Greg Williams, karlconroy, and Norfolk and Good each finished the first round with 5 wins, and advanced.
In the second round, karlconroy prevailed with 2 more wins, giving him the top score.
Well played, all.
I have added the games to The Database.
Stumbling onto the simplifychess website, I discovered the following entry for the Jerome Gambit
The Giuoco Piano: Jerome gambit is extremely rare and occurs in less than 1 in 10,000 games. From the data, you can expect that White will only have a 39.13% chance of winning, while Black should have a very high 60.87% chance of winning. Since most players have probably never seen this opening and because White has such a low expected chance of winning, it may be well worth it to keep this variation in your back pocket. If you are Black you should have a significant edge and will probably catch your opponent off guard.
Fascinating.
I do not know the reference database for the above statistics, but I checked my Big Database (2016) and there were 10 Jerome Gambits out of 6,466,290 games: 0.00000154648, far less common than the above, by an order of magnitude. On the other hand, White scored 3 - 5 -2, which is 40%, very much in tune with the above.
No wonder the Jerome Gambit often surprises the defender.
angelcamina (you have seen his games on this blog before) likes to play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) at bullet speed - one minute per game, no increment.
His opponents sometimes just lose to the strength of the attack. Other times, they work to "solve" the Jerome, but this takes time off their clock, so they slip and drop material and lose. Or, they simply run out of time.
Here is a recent game, with a couple in the notes, to see how it's done.
angelcamina - chessgenius71
I was recently challenged to a game by an online player new to, and excited about, the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+). He took White, and I decided to play my favorite defense, although, in retrospect, I could have chosen something that would have allowed him to bash me all over the board...
Anyhow, I probably should have suggested "Jerome Gambit: What About the Rook?" as pre-game precautionary reading.
NN - perrypawnpusher
Chess.com, 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
This move often leads to either the Blackburne or Whistler Defense, and in either case there will be a dangerous offer of a Rook.
7.Qxe5 Qe7
Whistler's Defense.
8.Qxh8
I have touched upon the dangers of this move in the aptly titled post "There Are Some Risks We Should Not Take."
8...Qxe4+ 9.Kf1 Qh4
A couple of years ago I saw it in analysis in one of the Hindi Chess Videos - see "Jerome Gambit: Interesting Sideline".
10.g3 Qh3+ 11.Kg1 Qe6
Also seen:
11...d5 12.Qe5 Bd6 13.Qxd5+ Be6 14.Qf3+ Nf6 15.Qg2 Qh5 16.Nc3 c6 17.d3 Bh3 18.Be3 Bxg2 19.Kxg2 Re8 20.Rae1 Nd5 21.Nxd5 Qxd5+ 22.Kg1 Bc5 23.b3 Qf3 24.h4 Bxe3 25.fxe3 Rxe3 26.Rxe3 Qxe3+ 27.Kh2 Qf2+ 28.Kh3 h5 29.Rh2 Qf1+ 30.Rg2 Kf6 31.d4 Kf5 32.Kh2 Kg4 33.c3 Kf3 34.Rc2 Qd3 35.Rg2 Qxc3 36.g4 Qxd4 37.gxh5 Qxh4+ 38.Kg1 gxh5 39.a4 Qe1+ 40.Kh2 h4 41.a5 Qf1 42.Rc2 Qe1 43.Rg2 h3 44.Rc2 Qg3+ 45.Kh1 Kg4 46.b4 Qf3+ 47.Kh2 Qf4+ 48.Kh1 Qe4+ White resigned, ZahariSokolov - MadonnaFn, FICS, 2015; and
11...b512.d4 Bb7 13.Qxh7+ Qxh7 14.Nd2 Qh3 15.f3 Bxd4 checkmate, ZahariSokolov - ekwador, FICS, 2017.
12.Kg2
I was shocked to see this move (the time control was 3 days per move, so the play was not continuous) because I had set the position up wrong, and thought that my opponent had played 11.Ke1, not 11.Kg1.
Instead of the text, White had 12.Qxh7+ Kf8 13.d4, forcing Black to consider a draw by repetition, e.g. 13...Qe1+ 14.Kg2 Qe4+ 15.Kg1 Qe1+ etc. Otherwise, Black can play on, down the exchange and a pawn.
Now Black can force checkmate.
12...Qe4+ 13.Kg1
Or 13.Kf1 Qxh1+ 14.Ke2 Qe4+ 15.Kf1 d5 16.Qxh7+ Kf8 17.Qxc7 Qh1+ 18.Ke2 Bg4+ 19.Kd3 Qf3 checkmate
Or 13.Kh3 d5+ 14.g4 Qxg4 checkmate
13...Qe1+ 14.Kg2 Qxf2+ 15.Kh3 d5+ 16.Kh4 Be7+ 17.Qf6+ Bxf6 checkmate
Sharp-eyed Readers may have noticed that I have recently changed my photograph in the "About Me" section of this blog. The sweatshirt is a birthday gift from my son, Jon, and daughter-in-law, Himani. So, when it comes to the Jerome Gambit, I not only wear my heart on my sleeve, I gladly wear the moves on my chest.
Following up on the previous post, I want to take another dive into the Jerome Gambit archives.
Cheltenham Examiner
Wednesday February 21, 1906 page 6
[Chess notation changed to algebraic]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
This gambit is an American invention (though the actual moves may have been tried before America was discovered, or soon after. But the first-known analysis of their effects was American). It is unsound, but a suitable opening for the better of two players - having the attack - if he wants amusement, or to handicap himself slightly. After ...Kxf7 White could reply 5.d4, to bring his Bishop into action, but this is not as good as
4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5
Black can play ...Ke6 or ...Kf8. The latter gives him a safe game, but ...Ke6 should win also, though it often loses when Black is a weak player. That is, often in proportion to the number of games played at this opening, which number is small. Black won the following
6.Qh5+ Ke6
6...Ng6 can be safely played instead, with care.
7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.Na3 c6 10.c3 Qf6 11.cxd4 Qxf5 12.exf5 Nf7 13.Bf4+ Ke7
It is always interesting to note under which conditions the Jerome Gambit is considered "playable".
The suggestion, above, of 5...Kf8, is as old as Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's analysis in the March 1874 issue of the Dubuque Chess Journal; and first played in Jerome - Brownson, Iowa, 1875 (1/2 - 1/2, 29).
However, the Cheltenham Examiner article has the first - and only, so far as I have found - recommendation that I have seen for 5...Ke6. The writer's assessment that the move "should win" is a bit optimistic, if White finds 6.Qg4+ Kxe5 7.d4+ Bxd4 8.Bf4+ Kf6 9.Bg5+ Kf7 10.Bxd8, when Black has 3 pieces for a Queen and a pawn, in a complicated position - see Wall,Bill - Guest4105968, PlayChess.com, 2018 (1/2 - 1/2, 50).
Also, the note that "Black won the following" suggests that the line is from a game, not mere analysis (see "Jerome Gambit: Poetry or Prose?"). To date, I haven't found such a game. More research ahead!
I recently ran across a copy of Chess: Its Poetry and Its Prose A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Arts of Composing and Solving Chess Problems, with Numerous Illus., Diagrams, Containing Essays on the Principles of Porblem Composition, Practical Composition, the Art of Solving, with Solutions and Critical and Explanatory Notes, Also Elementary Instructions for Beginners by Arthur Ford Mackenzie (1887).
In a short section titled "Glimpses of the Openings" I found 10 openings mentioned, and was pleased to see that the Jerome Gambit was one of them. I have changed the notation from descriptive to algebraic.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
This move constitutes the gambit. It is the invention of an American, whose name it bears. The sacrifice of the Bishop is unsound if Black play properly, but, to an inexperienced player, defeat follows in most cases very rapidly.
4...Kxf7
Of course it is correct to capture the Bishop, and the game will probably proceed thus:
5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6
Best.
7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.d4 Bxd4 9.Na3 c6 10.c3 Qf6 11.cxd4 Qxf5 12.exf5 Nf7 13.Bf4+ Ke7
and Black is now out of all immediate danger, and is numerically much stronger than White.
It is relevant to mention that MacKenzie notes
Valuable works are Cook's Synopsis of the Chess Openings, and Horowitz' Chess Studies and End-games.
Indeed, the line of analysis above comes directly from Cook's Synopsis (1882, 1884) - which, in turn, was taken from S.A. Sorensen's seminal Jerome Gambit article in the May 1877 issue of Nordisk Skaktidende.
I, for one, would like to think of the Jerome Gambit as poetry, rather than prose, although, in all fairness, it is more likely doggerel than sonnet.
