Anatoly Karpov & Jerome Gambit (Part 2)
(by Yury V. Bukayev)
Dear reader, you know that usually I write about new theoretical inventions and psychology in chess openings on this blog, but sometimes I write here about notable chess games.
The Part 2 of this my work is about the World Champion, Top GM Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov, one of the strongest players in chess history, and about one of his worst simultaneous exhibition games ever.
Of course, readers of jeromegambit.blogspot.com remember Rick Kennedy’s words of his publication (February, 17, 2021) about this game:
“The other day Yury Bukayev sent me a game played by World Champion Anatoly Karpov in a simultaneous display <…>:
Karpov - Delgado, Simul, Terrassa, Spain, 1976: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 b5 5.Bb3 Na5 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Nxe5+ Ke7 8.d4 Nf6 9.O-O Qe8 10.Nc3 Bb7 11.Re1 Kd8 12.d5 Qh5
<…> Karpov lost in 58 moves <…>
I am still searching for answers, starting with the question "Didn't Karpov's 12th move simply drop a piece?" and following with "Why didn't Delgado play 12...Qxe5 ?" My suspicion is that Delgado didn't believe that his opponent would make such a mistake, and so declined the sacrifice, only to take advantage of another error, about 30 moves later...”
These two questions by Rick Kennedy aren’t easy to answer really. Here are my main versions about true answers. Firstly, most probably, Anatoly Karpov played 12.d5??, because he confused Black's King on e7 with the Queen on e8. Probably, these two pieces were of an equal height, with broken crowns. I think, after his 10.Nc3 A.Karpov passed to a next board and forgot the history of this game. It maybe, he forgot it only after his 11.Re1. Secondly, probably, Mr. Delgado played 12...Qh5??, because he planned to play 12…Qxe5! (-+) 13.f4 Qh5!? (-+), but he lost his attention when his eyes were refocused from the board to A.Karpov’s face, so he forgot that moment that the moves 12…Qxe5 and 13.f4 weren’t done yet.
I suggest to name this tragic (for White) ‘variation’ 12.d5?? as the ‘First Tragic Jerome-ish variation’. It has the following main properties which are common to the main line of the Jerome gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+): White lost his King’s Bishop after the capture of the pawn on f7 with a check, White can lose his King’s Knight after the capture of the pawn “e”, Black can’t castle.
Fortunately for the World Champion, the winning move 12…Qxe5 didn’t appear in this game. After 12...Qh5?? 13.Qxh5! Nxh5 14.Nf7+ White got a large advantage, and further moves of this game aren’t so interesting here.
Finally, readers remember that the Nightingale gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 b5 5.Bb3 Na5 6.Bxf7+!?) is much stronger than we thought earlier: this fact was proved in my analytical article ‘The Nightingale Gambit etc. (C70, C20, C60): Bombs’ (June, 16, 2021). So it isn’t serious to discuss a comparison of theoretical forces of A.Karpov’s 6th move and of the psychological move 4.Bxf7+ in the Giuoco Piano. But A.Karpov’s 8.d4 (instead of 8.Nf7!) brings the position closer to some of Italian risky Jerome-ish gambits.
