Jerome Gambit: Tactical Awareness

When playing the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) it is important to always be aware of tactics that might present themselves. In the following game, Black believes he has drained the game of danger, and he relaxes too early - and thus falls to a tactical shot.

TePart0 - sharmamohit

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Bxf2+ 

Reader Alejandro Lizardi  calls this the "Counter-Jerome Defense". 

Black is willing to return his material advantage to get the Queens off of the board, winding up a pawn down.

White must be careful not to become distressed at the disappearance of his smashing, crashing attack. He has a solid pawn advantage to work with.

Black, in turn, must be careful not to become lax and inattentive.

8.Kxf2 Qf6+ 9.Qxf6+ Nxf6 

The Queens are gone.

10.d3 Rf8 11.Rf1 Kg7 12.Kg1 d6 

Both Black and White have castled-by-hand.

13.Nc3 c6 

Creating a weakness that White immediately pounces upon.

14.Bf4 Ne8 

Protecting the d-pawn, but overlooking something.

15.Bh6+ Black resigned

White will now be up a pawn and the exchange, making even easier for him to grind out a win.

Jerome Gambit: Blackburne's Ghost

 

We have looked at Blackburne's defense to the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) recently - see "Jerome Gambit: Distant Psychological Effects" and "Jerome Gambit: Not So Easy" - and the caution has been that play for both sides has is complicated, although not as powerful for Black as Blackburne's crush of the Jerome might have led you to believe.

Solving the challenges for each side while playing a 3-minute blitz game can be hazardous, and it is most likely that the players will see most deeply into the game - after it has been completed.

TePart0 - Vencedor96

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 

Blackburne's defense, which features the offer of a Rook. White's Queen can become trapped, and further attacking ideas can involve more sacrifice by Black.

8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.O-O

This move is sound, although the alternative, 9.d4, is stronger, as Stockfish 13 illustrates in one of its lines: 9...Bb4+ 10.c3 Bh3 (a typical Blackburnish move) 11.gxh3 Re8 12.O-O Nf6 13.Qxe8+ Kxe8 14.cxb4 Nxe4 15.Nc3 Nxc3 16.bxc3 Qxh3 17.Bf4 Kd7 18.Rae1 Qg4+ 19.Bg3 h5 20.f3 Qg5 21.f4 Qg4 22.f5 h4 23.f6 hxg3 24.f7 and White is clearly better. 

Check out "Jerome Gambit: It Helps to Be Prepared" for 9.d4 games and ideas.

9...Nf6 10.Qd8 

White's Queen seeks an exit from the back rank. Black can now impede that for a move by protecting the c-pawn with 10...Bb6, but after 11.e5 dxe5 12.Qd3 Her Majesty has escaped.

10...Bh3  

Great fun! Black offers a second Rook.

11.Qxc7+ 

White is not tempted. If 11.Qxa8 then 11...Qg4 would lead to checkmate, e.g. 12.g3 Qxe4 13.Qe8+ Nxe8 14.a3 Qg2#.

Of course, if 11.gxh3 then 11...Rxd8. 

The move in the game is enough to draw - with correct play on both sides - which is why the earlier option of 9.d4 might be preferred (with proper preparation).

11...Kg8

It makes a big difference which square Black's King retreats to. He will need an effective block to White's Queen check, and this move does not allow it.

Compare with 11...Kf8. White's plan at this point is to find a draw, and he has several paths

 

12.Qxb7 Bxg2! 13.Qxa8+ Ne8 (not 13...Kg7? because 14.Qb7+ Kh6 15.d3+ Kh5 16.Qg7 and Black is busted, e.g. 16...Bxf1 17.Qh6+ Kg4 18.Qh4+ Kxh3 19.Kxf1 when White is a Rook and three pawns ahead ) 14.Kxg2 and White is ahead so much material that Black must force the draw with 14...Qg4+ 15.Kh1 Qf3+ 16.Qg4+ etc.

12.gxh3 Qxh3 13.d3 and again, as in the note to the line above, Black is forced to find the draw 13...Qg4+ 14.Kh1 Qf3+ 15.Kg1 etc.

12.e5 Ne4 does not change things after 13.gxh3, when Black again has to pursue 13...Qxh3 14.d3 Qg4+ 15.Kh1 Qf3, etc.

Now White has two possible lines to pursue. Which should he take?

12.gxh3 

This move looks reasonable enough, but it should only lead to a draw.

Because Black does not have an effective block to White's coming Queen check (see note after two diagrams above), 12.Qxb7 is now strong, for example 12...Bxg2 13.Qxa8+ Kg7 (the King must flee as in the losing line after 11...Kf8, above, because he has no way of blocking the check) 14.Qb7+ Kh6 15.d3+ Kh5 16.Qg7 Bxf1 17.Qh6+ Kg4 18.Qxh4+ Kxh4 19.Kxf1 and White is better. 

If Black moves the Rook in response to 12.Qxb7, say with 12...Re8, White can count up material, see that he is the exchange and 4 pawns ahead, and go for 13.Qb3+ Be6 14.Qg3 putting an end to Black's attack on his King. 

12...Qxh3 13.Qxb7 

It is time for Black to split the point with 13...Qg4+ etc, but he has one more try, instead.

13...Ng4 

Now, White can still play for 3 results.

He can go after the draw with 14.Qxa8+ Kg7 15.Qb7+ Kf8 16.Qb8+ Ke7 17.Qc8+ Kd8, etc.

He can find the win by exchanging Queens 14.Qb3+ Qxb3 15.axb3 remaining a Rook and several pawns ahead.

He can show exhaustion at all of the variations that have been analyzed up to this point, and, even with about a minute left on his clock, turn over his King. 

The Jerome Gambit. A 3-minute game. A complicated variation.

White resigned

Jerome Gambit: Distant Psychological Effects

The following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game illustrates one of the benefits of the opening: psychological impact, beyond the direct cognitive challenge of having to solve tactical and defensive challenges when prepared for only the "quiet game" (Giuoco Piano).

gabrielebattaglia - Rumle

5 2 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6

7.Qxe5 d6 

Blackburne's defense. It leads to a complicated game, where White should at least draw, but where Black has occasionally won brilliantly.

8.Qxh8 Qh4 

A quick peek at The Database shows 293 games with this position, with White scoring 56%. If White now plays the recommended 9.d4, there are 80 games with that position, and White's scoring has increased to 80%. It is worth checking out "Updating the Blackburne Defense" (Part 1 and Part 2).

9.O-O

We have seen this move recently, in "Jerome Gambit: Not So Easy". It is still quite playable. The Database shows 84 games with White scoring 68%.

9...Qxe4 

The pawn was there for the taking, but in doing so Black gives up a major plan in the Blackburne: lock in and threaten to win White's Queen.

Instead, 9...Nf6 was best, although then White has 10.Qd8 Bb6 (protecting the escape pawn at c7) 11.e5 dxe5 12.Qd3 and the Queen has escaped. 

10.Qxh7+ Kf8 11.Nc3  Nf6 

This doesn't work, because... 

It reminds me of a reflection by Vladimir Tukmakov in his Risk & Bluff in Chess, after looking at the game Shakhriyar Mamedyarov - Alexander Khuzman, Warsaw 2005

In this case, White's attempt to sharply change the position with a piece sacrifice was met poorly. But the decisive factor was the distant psychological effects of the action. The psychological stress undoubtedly has an influence on Black's condition. In addition, maintaining the status quo on the board required a great deal of time and strength.

Therefore it is not surprising that, having solved some serious problems, Alexander was eventually unable to cope with some relatively simple ones. The bluff used by Mamedyarov, as a lever with which to unbalance the position, proved an effective weapon. It did not lead to immediate success, but it nevertheless determined the final result.

12.Qh8+ Ng8 13.Nxe4 Black resigned

Jerome Gambit: A Game of Desperation and Opportunities

 

The following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) blitz game had quite an impact upon me. Devin Brown introduced it with this preamble

 today I have a game of desperation and opportunities.

Sounded like a typical Jerome Gambit to me. Not so. Upon playing over the moves, I could only write back to Mr. Brown

If I incur any medical bills after rolling on the floor laughing my derrière off after playing over your game, I will send them your way. 

Truly, you have created the Rasputin of Jerome Gambits. I can just imagine your opponent screaming “Die! Die, blast you! Why won’t you just die?!”

Seriously. It would have been perfect after the game ended if you had messaged “Just playing rope-a-dope with you, pal, I hope you don’t mind?”

I will happily share the game, but I will also limit comments from Stockfish 13 because - well, you will see soon enough.

TheRealTrueD - yourcelium

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7 8.Qxh8

 Yikes! Everybody knows that you don't take the Rook when facing Whistler's defense.

In fact, here I was reminded of "Everybody Knows" by Concrete Blonde, including the lyrics

Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows that the good guys lost

But I was wrong, oh, so wrong...

8...Qxe4+ 9.Kd1 Qxg2 10.Qxh7+ Kf8 11.Re1 Bxf2 

Status Report: White's Queen has escaped the corner (h8); Black goes for immediate attack, overlooking the stronger 11...d5.

12.c3 

Amazingly enough, 12.d3 Bxe1 held out chances for survival. But, as IM Gary Lane said about the Jerome Gambit, in a different context (see "Jerome Gambit: Chess Is An Easy Game, After All")

I think anyone with good manners playing Black would now go to another room to carry on laughing.

12...Qf3+ 13.Re2 d5 14.d4 Bg4

As you can see, White has equalized.

Really.

The easy part is 15.Bh6+ Nxh6 16.Qxh6+ Kg8 17.Qxg6+ Kh8 18.Qh6+ Kg8 heading for a draw by repetition.

If Black's King, instead, now tries to run away and escape the checks, there is 19.Qg6+ Kf8 20.Qh6+ Kf7 21.Qh7+ Kf6 22.Qh6+ Kf5 23.Qe6+ Kg5 24.Nd2 Qf5 25.Qe7+ Kh6 26.Kc1 Bxe2 27.Qxe2 and the storm is mostly over with a clearly balanced position.

15.Kc2 

This move is part of a deep strategy that will unfold over the next 18 moves. (p.s. It allows checkmate in 5, but that's not the strategy.)

15...Qxe2+ 16.Kb3 Qc4+ 17.Ka3 Rd8 

Everybody knows that the boat is sinking 

Everybody knows that the captain lied 

Everybody's got this broken feeling 

Like their Momma or their dog just died 

18.Bh6+ Nxh6 19.Qxh6+ Kf7 20.Qh7+ Kf6 

21.b3  

White fights on! I am reminded of the Monty Python scene from "The Holy Grail" which I parodied in my post, years ago, "The Black Knight".

21...Qa6+ 22.Kb2 c5 23.dxc5 d4 24.c4 Qe6 25.Ka3 d3 26.Nd2 Qe2

27.h3 Qxd2 28.hxg4 Qa5+ 29.Kb2 d2 30.Rf1 d1=Q

Here, we have contrasting refrains. Black, no doubt, is focused upon

Die! Die, blast you! Why won’t you just die?!

Much to his enjoyment, White has two reasons to sing out 

Everybody knows that its now or never
Everybody knows that its me or you

Because, you see, White now has a checkmate in 9.

31.Rxf2+ Kg5 32.Qe7+ Kxg4 33.Qe4+ 

Luckily for Black, his flag now fell, and White won on time.

It would be a real bother to be checkmated when you have the extra Queen.

Bravo!

Jerome Gambit: Beating the Clock / Beaten by the Clock

 

Here we have the position after 76 moves in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game payton321 - rangerover2020, 3 0 blitz, lichess.org.

The first thing to notice is that the players must have been using an average of about 2 seconds per move. It is a good thing that each player only had to move his mouse and not worry about hitting the time clock, which is automatic in online play.

The game continued about as you would have expected.

77.Kxd3 g4 78.Ke2 g3 79.Kf1 Ke5 80.Kg2 Ke4 

This position is completely even, and 81.Kxg3 now would guarantee a draw, except for an egregious blunder on Black's part that would allow the remaining pawn to promote. Perhaps the latter is just what White was hoping for.

81.c4 Kd3 

A mouse slip? Suddenly, the pawn can run faster than the enemy King.

82.c5 Kc4 83.c6 Kd5 84.c7 Kd6 85.c8=Q Ke5 

And now, Black won on time

I can applaud White's last chance for a win, and chuckle at Black's slow-footed King, but there is something missing in this analysis.

I am not sure about play online at lichess.org, but in games where I have played elsewhere, capturing Black's pawn would have protected White from loss, automatically generating a message from the site at flag fall something like "White has run out of time, Black has no checkmating material, the game is drawn."

Of course, had White taken a move to eliminate the g-pawn, Black's King would have caught the c-pawn, and the game would have been drawn, anyway. 

 White wanted to avoid a draw, and, in the end, he did.

Jerome Gambit: Escape

 

In the following Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game, White slips out of a dangerous position and escapes punishment for capturing a Rook. In turn, later on his opponent's Knight cannot escape after capturing a Rook - and that is a major reason that this blitz game ends up "1-0". 

payton321 - hindigrandmaster

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7 

Whistler's Defense, named after Lt. G.N. Whistler, Secretary of the Lexington Kentucky Chess Club, who played the defense against Alonzo Wheeler Jerome in a series of correspondence games.

8.Qxh8 

Dangerous. When I play Black, I am always happy to see my opponents take the Rook. When I play White, I always stay away from this dangerous grab.

However, some players are content to enter complications with a firm belief that they can out-combine their opponents and escape.

For a couple of looks at this move, see the posts "Jerome Gambit: In Bullet, Almost Everything Is Playable" and "Jerome Gambit: Beware Free Hugs"

8...Nf6 

Faced with two attractive choices - attacking the enemy King and trapping the enemy Queen - Black chooses the more difficult one. He should have pursued 8...Qxe4+.

9.d3 

Beginning to set things right.

9...d6 10.Bh6 Bxf2+  

A tricky idea with the goal of eliminating White's annoying Bishop, so that White will be unable to check the King from g7. However, that would allow White to check from h7.

Remember, this is a 3-minute game, and it is not always possible or practical to analyze deeply. 

11.Kf1 

White wants to avoid the fork 11...Ng4+ 12.Ke2 Nxh6, but he would then have 13.Qxh7+ and be able to pick up the Knight on the next move.

11...Bd4 12.Qg7+ Ke6 13.Qxe7+ Kxe7 14.c3 Bb6 

The White Queen has gotten free and exchanged itself off. The first player is the exchange and a pawn ahead. 

15.Ke2 Bg4+ 16.Kd2 Be6 17.Bg5 h6 18.Bxh6 Ng4 19.Bg5+ Kd7 20.d4 Rf8 

Black is keeping his pieces active, his only chance.

21.Na3 Rf2+ 22.Kd3 Rxb2 23.Nc4 

Looking at half of the board, this appears to be a very effective move, attacking the enemy Rook at the same time planning to exchange off one of Black's troublesome Bishops. Adding in the other half, however, shows that the move is a slip; Black's active Rook has been rewarded - almost.

23...Nf2+ 24.Ke3 Nxh1

So close, and yet so far... Black is happy to grab the exchange, overlooking the fact that he could grab a whole piece, instead, with 24...Bxc4 - and that piece needs to go because it attacks a Rook itself. 

25.Nxb2 Black resigned

Black's Knight will not escape.

Jerome Gambit: Battle Between Pawns and Pieces

Chessfriend Dan Middlemiss continues to send me Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) games that he discovers in his own search for Stafford Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6) games to add to his collection.

The following game is an interesting example of the Jerome battle between pawns and pieces.

payton321 - Jcht

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Bd6 

Whenever I see this kind of move, I wonder if Black - in this 3-minute game - is drawing inspiration from the "fork trick" in the Italian Game. Choosing moves by analogy sometimes works, but not here.

8.d4 

As I pondered, earlier (see "Is he serious, or is he bluffing?")

Here come the pawns! Is White serious?

By the way, stronger at this point is 8.Qf5+. See "Jerome Gambit: Some Things Fall Apart" and  "Jerome Gambit: Ready".

8...Ng6 

The Knight seems more "helpful" here, instead of at c6. I think its best retreat, however, is 8...Nf7. 

9.f5+ Kf7 10. fxg6+ hxg6 11.Qxh8 Qe7 

Things have gotten out of hand quickly for Black. He is down the exchange and a pawn. Still, he has better development, and White's Queen looks like she might get stuck in the corner. White's King looks vulnerable, too.

12.O-O+ 

This takes care of part of the problem.

12...Ke6 

And this takes care of the rest.

Black's "best" was 12...Nf6 but White's pressure on that piece will be unrelenting: 13.Bg5 Qf8 14.Qh7 Ke8 15.Qh4 Bb4 16.a3 Ba5 17.e5.

13.d5+ 

There was also 13.Qh3 mate, but White chooses his own way to win - often the watchwords in blitz are When in doubt, grab material.

13...Ke5 14.Qxg8 

Instead, 14.Qh3 led to a checkmate in 11 moves, but this one was effective enough, as here 

Black resigned 

(Once again, notice the difficulty that Black has with his development: his Bishop blocks the pawn which blocks the Bishop which locks in the Rook. Typical Jerome Gambit.)