Jerome Gambit: Chess Is A Cruel Game

 

Imagine that you are defending against the Jerome Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+. 

After 4 moves you are a piece ahead, and feeling fine. Sure, your King is a bit displaced, but, so what?

Then your opponent gives you another piece.You have got to be winning now, right? Sure, the check by the enemy Queen at move 6 is annoying, but you can deal with it.

By move 10, you have returned some of the sacrificed material and driven back the invading Her Majesty. The computer says your advantage is less than a pawn, but what does it know?

You continue to develop your pieces and use them to presure the enemy center. You even castle-by-hand Queenside.

Then you get checkmated two moves later.

You forgot the wisdom of sports philosopher Lawrence Peter Berra, "It ain't over 'till it's over". Something to remember.

Especially when facing the Jerome Gambit.

To appreciate the following game, it is important to notice that it is played at bullet speed, 1 minute with 1 second increment.

Pauliboy1031 - SoulSkinS69

1 1 bullet, Chess.com, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 

7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 Qe7 9.Qe3 Nf6 10.d3 d6 

11.O-O Bd7 12.Re1 Bc6 13.Nc3 Kd7 14.d4 Rae8 15.e5 dxe5 16.dxe5 Nxe5 

17.Rd1+ Kc8 18.Qxa7 Nfg4 19.Qa8 checkmate

In the Jerome Gambit, the name of the game is "Attack!"

Jerome Gambit: Recent Draws

Draws in Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) games are relatively rare. Either White's wild attack crashes through, or Black's defense wins the day.

The following drawn endings are therefore interesting, if a bit amusing.

Mwafakalhaswa - Chesstahiri, 3 2 blitz, TINDJAD, 2021 (1/2-1/2, 101)

Most 3-minute games do not last over 100 moves.

emv1 - Weirco, 1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2022 (1/2-1/2, 57)

Simple enough: a draw.

Chessyyy - sulimanchess, 10 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2022 (1/2-1/2, 72)

Explanation: White ran out of time, and Black did not have mating material.

jerrylorry - amrab123454321, 5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2022 (1/2-1/2, 71)

Without any pawns, the extra Bishop is not enough.

vrijeme - majalcmaj, 10 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2022 (1/2-1/2, 61)

Explanation: Black ran out of time, and White did not have mating material.

lazernicky - Sluntyai, 10 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2022 (1/2-1/2, 72)

Bishops-of-opposite colors endgames can be drawn, even when one player has an extra pawn.

Jerome Gambit: Extra Tempo

The following hyper bullet (30 seconds on the clock for the entire game) Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) humorously raises the question as to whether an extra tempo helps or hurts an attacking or defending player.

I think I know the answer, but it doesn't include "always".

curtisasral - BestPositionIs69

1/2 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 

Refusing the second sacrificed piece in this way (i.e. placing the King on the e8-h5 diagonal) is not a good idea. There are 151 examples in The Database. White scores 72%.

Instead, the more popular - and relatively stronger - choice is 5...Kf8. There are 499 examples in The Database. White scores 57%.

6.Qh5+ g6 7.Nxg6 Nd4

 At this point it is relevant to mention the related game arunmech - gemasamol, 15 0 standard, FICS, 2016: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bd5 Nd4 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Nxe5+ Ke8 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Nxg6 -- Here we have the same position as above, only it is Black's move.

How does he use the move? 8...Nxc2+?! This fork appears in several lines in the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit, and chasing after the Rook on a1 is often a poor idea, a distraction. 9.Kd1 Nf6 10.Qe5+ Kf7 11.Nxh8+ Qxh8 12.Qd5+? (White hung his Queen in what might have been a mouse slip, if he intended 12.Qxc5+ and then 13.Qxc2, and then at the last fraction of a second realized that capturing the Bishop didn't give check, but another move would...) White resigned

8.Ne5+ Black resigned 

Sometimes it happens this way.

Stronger was 8.Nxh8+, because after 8...Ke7 9.Qxh7+ Ke6 10.Qf7+ Kd6 11.Qd5+ Ke7 12.Qxc5+ d6 13.Qxd4 White finds himself significantly ahead in material.

Black's resignation was appropriate, though, as also collects material with 8...Ke7 9.Qf7+ Kd6 10.Qd5+ Ke7 11.Qxc5+ d6 12.Qxd4 Nf6 (12...dxe5 loses to 13.Qxe5+ and 13.Qh8) 13.Nf3.

Jerome Gambit: Out of Gas

I have pointed out that what an attacker risks with a mis-step is the loss of his attack, while what a defender risks with a mis-step is the loss of his King.

This rule of thumb, however, is upended in a heavily sacrificial opening like the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+). If the attacker invests a large amount of material, then a mis-step could end his attack and leave him short-handed to continue the game.

The following blitz game shows how this can happen.

superslide - NIP94

5 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2022

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.Kd1 

Black's Queen check is part of a dangerous counter attack.

White seems concerned that 9.g3 would be met by 9...Nf3+ and so moves his King, instead. The choice, however, causes more problems.

White scored 20% in the 5 games with this move in The Database. See perrypawnpusher - Drewbear, Jerome Gambit thematic tournament, ChessWorld.net, 2008 (0-1, 10) for an example.  

9...Qg4+ 

This will force the exchange of Queens, and leave White with two pawns for two sacrificed pieces - and his attack runs out of gas.

10.Qxg4 Nxg4 11.Rf1 Nxh2 12.Rh1 Ng4 

13.Rf1 Nf2+ 14.Rxf2 Bxf2 15.Ke2 White resigned

The position has settled down. Black's advantage is apparent.

Jerome Gambit: Excitable

I know that sometimes I can be a bit excitable about the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+).

For example, when this blog was only 4 months old (almost 14 years, or about 3,575 posts ago) I heard about the existance of a book All or Nothing! The Jerome Gambit, by Chaim Schmendrik and was ecstatic.

Of course, as I related in "rec.games.chess.misc & email" it was a joke. There was no such book.

Later, I admitted that "The Jerome Gambit is Going to Drive Me... (Parts 1 & 2)" after I tried to chase down a story about Alekhine losing to the Jerome Gambit... It was, again, "Much Ado About... Nothing".

Even later, I chronicled some of this searching in "Jerome Gambit: Worse vs Best (Parts 1, 2 & 3)". (Emanuel Lasker faced the Jerome? Wilhelm Steinitz lost to the Jerome?) After all, the good Dr. Michael Goeller had informed me that GM Larry Christiansen had played the Jerome - see "A GM plays the Jerome Gambit ??"

I mention all of this as prelude, for chessfriend Dan Middlemiss - a devoted Stafford Gambit aficionado and relentless provider of Jerome Gambit games that I had not yet seen - teased me with the following tidbit

BTW, during the Gibraltar Battle of the Sexes tournament, somebody in the chat (a highly suspect source!) mentioned that GM Pia Cramling has been know to dabble in the Jerome Gambit. I wonder whether your readers might be able to confirm this....

Wow.

Oh, no, here I go again... 

(I sent a message to WFM Anna Cramling, GM Cramling's daughter as well as a Twitch live streamer and YouTuber, asking if either one of them had experimented with the Jerome Gambit.)

Jerome Gambit: Match!?

 

Just received a challenge to play a Jerome Gambit match, each of us playing Whites with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+, the winner being the first to 5 points.

How could I resist?

Still working out how many games to play at a time, and what the time control will be, but it looks like a lot of fun.

Winter Olympics. Super Bowl. Jerome Gambit.

Sounds awesome. 

Jerome Gambit: Update -> Unplayed

Some recommended moves in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), despite their playability, don't find their way to the chessboard. 

There is one in particular, mentioned on this blog 13 1/2 years ago, which has yet to make it into play, remaining a "secret".

v-trash - P-H-Pearse

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 

As I mentioned about 2 1/2 years ago, in "Jerome Gambit: Disease 1, Cure 0"

The major problem with this move is that it leads to a position that Black is not prepared to deal with. He may have planned to "take White out of his book" by refusing to play the "normal" 5...Nxe5, but this is one of the cases where the "cure" is worse than the "disease".

6.Nxc6 

The Database has 60 games with this move, with White scoring 65%. Bill Wall has 9 wins against 0 losses.

By comparison, The Database has 87 games with the more aggressive (if "objectively" not quite as strong) 6.Qh5+, which leads to messy positions (dangerous for Black) where White scores 75%.

Personally, I am 1 - 0 - 1 with 6.Nxc6 (perrypawnpusher - rodrigojalpa, blitz 2 12, FICS 2008 [1-0, 25] and perrypawnpusher - zsilber, 2 12 blitz, FICS, 2010 [1/2 - 1/2, 43]) and 2 - 0 with 6.Qh5+ (perrypawnpusher - platel, 10 3 blitz, FICS, 2011 [1-0, 7] and perrypawnpusher - schachix, 5 3 blitz, FICS, 2013 [1-0, 10).

6...bxc6  

This is a reasonable response.

Recently there has been 6...Bxf2+, getting a pawn for the Bishop that is going to be lost, anyhow: mwafakalhaswa - Ashkan -estemmm, 10 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2020 : 7.Kxf2 Qf6+ 8.Qf3 Qxf3+ 9.gxf3 dxc6 10.Nc3 Be6 11.Rg1 g6 12.d4 Ne7 13.Bg5 Rf8 14.Bxe7 Kxe7 15.Rad1 Rad8 16.d5 cxd5 17.Nxd5+ Bxd5 18.Rxd5 c6 19.Rxd8 Rxd8 20.Ke2 Ke6 21.Rd1 Rxd1 22.Kxd1 Ke5 23.Ke2 Kf4 24.c4 b6 25.b4 a6 26.a4 b5 27.axb5 axb5 28.cxb5 cxb5 29.Kf2 h5 30.h4 g5 31.hxg5 Kxg5 32.Kg3 h4+ 33.Kh3 Kh5 34.f4 Black resigned.

Likewise, we have seen 6...Qf6, as in chessmaster512 - jonjons, ultrabullet, lichess.org, 2020: 7.Ne5 Qxe5 8.d4 Qf6 9.O-O Bxd4 10.Qxd4 Qxd4 11. Be3 Qf6 12.Nc3 Ne7 13.Rad1 Ng6 14.Bd4 Qe7 15.Bxg7 Rg8 16.Nd5 Qxg7 17.Nxc7+ Kd8 18.Nxa8 Qf6 19.e5 Qc6 20.e6 b6 21.exd7 Bxd7 22.Rxd7+ Kxd7 23.Nxb6+ Kc7 24.Rd1 Qxb6 25.c4 Kc6 26.Rf1 Kc5 27.Kh1 Kxc4 28.Kg1 Kb4 29.Kh1 Qxf2 30.Rxf2 Ne5 31.Re2 Ng4 32.Re4+ Kc5 33.Rxg4 Rf8 34.h3 Rf1+ 35.Kh2 Rd1 36.Kg3 Rc1 37.Kh2 Rc2 38.Kh1 Rxb2 39.Kh2 Rxa2 40.Kh1 Ra1+ 41.Kh2 Rb1 Black won on time

The strongest reply, however - one first mentioned in "You, too, can add to Jerome Gambit theory", later "Jerome Gambit Secret #3" - is 6...Qh4. The game might continue 7.d4 Qxe4+ 8.Be3 (8.Qe2 is also possible) when things would remain quite complicated, but a bit in White's favor.

7.Qh5+ Black resigned

White will win the Bishop at c5 and be 2 pawns up.