Jerome Gambit: It Is Best to Go All In

 

In the following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game, Black enters into the complicated and dangerous attacking  "Nibs" variation, only to decide to then retreat his Queen for safety reasons.

The result is as might be expected.

 

SensGuy - vosloo_choppist

2 1 bullet, lichess.org, 2021

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+ 9.g3 Nf3+ 10.Kd1 

This is a complicated position - The Database has 33 games, with White scoring 59% - although the computer clearly prefers Black. Generally you don't get here on a whim.

However, Black now has second thoughts - about the way I feel when a roller coaster reaches the top of the first hill...

10...Qe7 11.Qd5 checkmate

BSJG: Reaching Too Far

 

The following Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit is a good example of the defender over-reaching. 

First, rather than play a regular Italian Game, he tries the Blackburne Shilling Gambit.

Then, he underestimates the Jerome Gambit version of the BSG.

Finally, he makes a grab for a "free" Rook that turns out to be anything but free.

It cannot be much of a surprise that he lasts an unlucky 13 moves.

JefferyLu1 - Andymurray2811

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit. White has a number of reasonable replies, including 4.Nxd4, 4.d3, 4.c3 and 4.0-0.

What Black is really hoping is that White will play 4.Nxe5, so he can respond with 4...Qg5 and complications. In a 3-minute game, that just might work.

4.Bxf7+ 

Applying the Jerome remedy, however: the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Qxg6+ 

Declining the Rook - he could have tried entering the wild position after 8.Qxh8 Nxc2+ 9.Kc1 Nxa8 10.Qxg8 Qg5.

White must have something planned. Black should be wary.

8...Ke7 9.d3 Nxc2+ 

A free Rook!

Black is much more interested in being a Rook and two pieces up than in exploring the more reasonable 9...Ne6 10.Bg5+ Nxg5 11.Qxg5+ Nf6 12.e5 Kf7 13.exf6 d5  when White would wind up with 3 or 4 pawns for his sacrificed piece.

10.Kd1 Nxa1 

It is interesting that Stockfish 13, which has little appreciation for the Jerome Gambit, suggests that instead of the text, Black "allow" White to reach a draw by repetition, 10...Bh6 11.Kxc2 Qf8 12.Bxh6 Nxh6 13.Qg5+ Ke8 14.Qe5+ Kd8 15.Qg5+ etc.

I don't know that White would be interested in a draw. I have seen in many club games that the extra pawns are at least equal to the enemy's extra piece, despite what computers tend to say. 

11.Bg5+ Nf6 12.Qxf6+ Ke8 13.Qg6 checkmate

Pretty.

Jerome Gambit: Box Load of Fun

Dan Middlemiss sent me over 100 Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) games played on lichess.org by DutchLiLi, someone who really seems to enjoy the opening.

This has provided me an opportunity to see what lines DutchLiLi likes, and what success they have brought. The following game is a good illustration.

DutchLiLi - winielicaballero

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 

7.Qxc5 d6 8.Qb5 

This move - which poses the question, Can Black develop his light square Bishop at the cost of the b-pawn? - is a favorite of DutchLiLi's. He has scored 25 - 13 - 4 (64%) with it, which is pretty convincing.

8...Nf6 9.d3 Re8 10.Qb3+ Be6 11.Qxb7 Bd5 

Black has a sharp retort to the pawn capture, and has to have been a bit scary considering the time control - 3-minute blitz - but White keeps his compusure.

12.Qb4 Nxe4 

Nice.

13.O-O Rb8 14.Qa3 

White's Queen's excursion seems to have been a bit costly, but there are still too factors that are on the first player's side.

14...Nxf2 

Here is the first: the position remains complicated, something which favors the player more familiar and comfortable with the opening. 

Instead of the text, Stockfish 13 recommends the not-so-exciting repositioning of the Knight with 14...Ng5.

15.Nc3 

Strong enough to give White a slight advantage.

15...Qh4 

How can this not be a win for Black? At least that must have been what Black was thinking, even if the clock limited the depth of his analysis.

The computer's suggestion is interesting: 15...Bxg2!? 16.Kxg2 Re1!? (planning to draw after 17.Rxe1 Nh4+ 18.Kxf2 Qf5+) 17.Qa5 (hoping to get the Queen back into play, but Black brings about an even endgame ) Rxf1 18.Kxf1 Ng4 19.Qd5+ Kf8 20.Qf5+ Qf6 21.Qxf6+ Nxf6.  

16.Qxa7 

Brash, but he can get away with it.

16...Qg4 

Might as well. The mundane 16...Bb7 would allow 17.Qxf2+ clarifying things. But the text is a slip.

17.Nxd5 

And here White's second advantage played out: he won on time

Jerome Gambit: It Helps to Be Scary

When it comes to chess openings, it helps to be good.

When it comes to the Jerome Gambit and its relatives, if you can't be good, it helps to be scary.

Witness the following game.

Robepersky - JoeCee

3 5 blitz, FICS, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 

The Semi-Italian opening.

4.O-O Nf6 5.Bxf7+ 

One of the variations I call "impatient Jerome Gambits" because White cannot wait for ...Bc5 before sacrificing. The value of having that piece developed - say, after 5.Nc3 Bc5 - is that it often becomes a target for attack or capture.

5...Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Nxe5 7.d4 

In this blitz game, Black has two extra pieces, while White has two extra pawns.

Way back in "But – Is this stuff playable?? (Part I)" I shared some of Grandmaster Nigel Davies' wisdom from his book Gambiteer I (2007)

Having examined literally thousands of club players’ games over the years, I have noticed several things:

1) The player with the more active pieces tends to win.
2) A pawn or even several pawns is rarely a decisive advantage.
3) Nobody knows much theory.
4) When  faced with aggressive play, the usual reaction is to cower.

7...Ng6 8.e5 Nh7 9.Qf3+ Kg8 10.Qd5 checkmate

We have seen different forms of this "Queen checkmates the cowering King" before. 

Risk & Bluff in Chess

 

I have been reading GM Vladimir Tukmakov's Risk & Bluff in Chess The Art of Taking Calculated Risks. Like GM David Smerdon's The Complete Chess Swindler: How to Save Points from Lost Positions and IM Cyrus Lakdawala's Winning Ugly in Chess Playing Badly is No Excuse for Losing it is not an easy book but it has some interesting insights that can be applied to games with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+).

In the Conclusion of Chapter 2 - Bluff in the Opening, he writes

What is meant by opening bluff in today's chess? Most often, it is when, in preparing for a concrete game with a concrete opponent, the player decides on an extremely risky continuation, in full awareness of the possible consequences... One is reminded of Anna Akhmatova's lines: 'If only you knew what trash gives rise / To verse, without a tinge of shame.'*

...[O]pportunities for computer preparation are now available not just to the world's top players, but to any amateur who is not afraid of technological progress. As a result, it is much more difficult now to surprise an opponent. On the other hand, if you do manage to catch someone out, the effect of the surprise is all the greater. After all, the opponent has the same information sources and databases available to you,** so he can see the same moves and the same computer assessments of the resulting positions. Consequently, the first reaction to a surprise in the opening is usually the standard one: 'I have probably looked at this, but have forgotten it'. However, once it proves impossible to drag anything up from the memory, the panic starts. No doubt the opponent has penetrated the secrets of the position omore deeply than you, and he is armed to the teeth against every possible continuation and remembers every variation perfectly. Meanwhile, you are forced, like a blind man, to grope around for the correct continuation, which the opponent already knows...   

*I Have No Use For Odic Legions

I have no use for odic legions,
Or for the charm of elegiac play
For me, all verse should be off kilter
Not the usual way.

If only you knew what trash gives rise
To verse, without a tinge of shame,
Like bright dandelions by a fence,
Like burdock and like cocklebur.

An angry shout, the bracing smell of tar,
Mysterious mildew on the wall…
And out comes a poem, light-hearted, tender,

To your delight and mine. 

** Of course, you do have access to this blog, and The Database, and likely your opponent does not.

The Jerome Gambit but 100% more dubious

A recent post by CheseyCh3ss to Chess.com shares the dramatic setting that led to the creation of what he calls the "C- Variation" of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+). He also presents some personal analysis of the interesting line: "The Jerome Gambit but 100% more dubious"

Of course, Cricket7890 had to respond with his own creation, the "Bongcloud Attack" in the Jerome Gambit.

Which was met by Yigor's countergambit to the "Bongcloud Attack".

Which was met by Cricket7890's "Jerome Gambit: Bongcloud, Yigor, King Attack"

CheseyCh3ss was looking at 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.b4!?

Which is all very interesting, as long as Readers remember the blog post "Jerome Gambit: Article" by Yury V. Bukayev, which we published 9 months ago, in August, 2020.

Jerome Gambit: Dismiss At Your Own Peril Addendum

We close this look at the recent games of NJ-Avrel and his attraction to Ng5 and Qb3+. This time his opponent takes the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) more seriously, and develops an advantage that grows, until...

To steal from Jurassic Park, "The Jerome Gambit will find a way".

NJ-Avrel - ThyPandanator

5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.O-O Nf6 6.c3 Rf8 

Black is interested in castling-by-hand.

7.d4 exd4 8.cxd4 Bb6 9.Ng5+ 

Helping things along.

 9...Kg8 10.Qb3+ 

White loves the dynamic duo, his last 2 moves, and it is hard to argue with the success they have brought. See "Jerome Gambit: Dismiss At Your Own Peril" and "Jerome Gambit: Dismiss At Your Own Peril Redux". At a slower time control, he would probably have had to choose e4-e5 each time.

10...Kh8 

Ah, yes, when defending against the Jerome Gambit, just about any move will do. Not.

Better was 10...d5

11.Nf7+ Rxf7 12.Qxf7 Bxd4 

Instead of winning the enemy Queen or delivering a smothered checkmate, White has had to settle for winning the exchange. He still has a lot of work to do.

13.Nd2 d5 14.exd5 Qxd5 15.Qf8+ 

Of course, exchanging Queens was possible, but White prefers to keep Her Majesty active.

15...Qg8 16.Qa3 h6 

17.Rb1 

Hoping to unpin the b-pawn in order to play b2-b3.

17...Bf5 18.Ra1 Qf7 19.Nf3 Bb6 20.b3 Qg6 

Black's 2-pieces-for-a-Rook advantage is amplified by White's lack of development.

21.Bf4 Be4 22.Bg3 Bxf3 23.gxf3 Nh5 24.Qf8+ 

A slip, perhaps pushed by the ticking clock. 

24...Rxf8 25.Rae1 Black left the game

Well, that was unexpected.

Perhaps Black disconnected because his flag was about to fall.

Perhaps he was offended that White continued to play after dropping his Queen.

In any event: 1-0