JG: The New in Its Opening Theory, in Its Psychology (Part 10)
(by Yury V. Bukayev)
As a further development of my Part 8 (the post of September, 22, 2021 on Rick Kennedy’s blog), this continuation of my theoretical research on the standard line of the Jerome gambit (JG) is about White’s good ways after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qh3+! Ke7 8.Qc3!? Bxf2+!? 9.Kxf2!? Qf8+ 10.Ke1!? Qf4 11.Qb4+!?. Thus, we’ll start to consider the response 11…Kd8 N. I think that my new idea 11…Kd8 is weaker than 11…d6, but it’s your opponent’s possible attempt to avoid the way of the Part 8 (11…d6).
Now we’ll consider my new invented ways for White how it is possible to play here.
I)12.Nc3 Qh4+ 13.g3 Qe7 14.Qb5!?, and here White receives enough calm play.
II)12.g3 Qf3!? 13.Rf1! c5! 14.Qa4! [14.Qxc5?! Qxe4+, and Black has a very large advantage: 15.Kf2 Nf6! or 15.Kd1? Qg4+!? 16.Ke1 Nf6!] 14…Qg4 15.Rf4! Qh3!? 16.d4!, and White attacks.
III)12.Rf1 c5! [12…Qh4+? 13.g3 c5 14.Rf8+! Ke7 15.Qxc5+ d6 16.Qc7+ Kxf8 17.gxh4 +-] 13.Qxc5! [13.Qa4 Qh4+!, and Black has a very large advantage] 13…Qxe4+ 14.Kd1!. If Black prefers 14…Qg4+!? (and it is very probable) then White should make a quite extraordinary move 15.Rf3!. The position is enough sharp, and your cautious opponent will think a lot here. If he has a lack of time or doesn’t want to fight further, he can make a draw: 15…Nxf3!? 16.Qf8+! Kc7 17.Qc5+! Kd8 18.Qf8+! etc., ½ - ½ . I suggest to name this variation (15…Nxf3) as the ‘War’s stop first variation’.
Of course, the ‘Natural star Jerome gambit deferred’ (it’s a strong deferred line of JG, it was published in 2021) will be much more attractive for a lot of experts of the modern chess opening theory than the standard line of JG, but the defence 6…Ke6 after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ requires their new attention and large revision already now, we can see.