Jerome Gambit: Again to the Early Sources

Looking again (see "Jerome Gambit: Early Sources") through Peter J. Monte's The Classical Era of Modern Chess (2014) I noticed that the Jerome Gambit-related line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5 4.Bxf7+ (see "Offside" for starters) 

has appeared as early as in Rodrigo "Ruy" López de Segura's Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del Axedrez (1561) and Giulio Cesare Polerio's Ordini di giuochi degli scacchi in diversi modi, cosi di mano, come sottomano, cio e in offenza, e dife[n]za co[n] altri bellissimi partiti, sono di Guilio Cesare Polerio alias l'Apruzzese. Giocandosi del Pari (1594).

 Monte writes

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5: Mentioned in Lopez III, xiv, the move 3...Na5 is refuted by the sequence 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ etc. in Polerio's D16 and 29.

The early lines of play are given

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Na5

Last move in Lopez III, xiv. 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+

* 5...Ke7 6.d4 d6 7.Bg5 Nf6 8.Nd3 h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Bg4 11.f3 Bh5 12.Qd2 in Doazan D16

* 5...Ke6 6.Qg4+ Kxe5 7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.Qd5+ Ke7 9.Qxa5 and

* 5...Ke8 6.Qh5+ Ke7 7.Qf7+ Kd6 8.Qd5+ Ke7 9.Qxa5 in Doazan D29

"Doazan" refers to Gabriel Eloy Doazan's 1843 article in Le Palamede, where his "Un manuscrit sur les echecs" presented one of Polario's manuscripts. 

Jerome Gambit: Early Sources

 

From time to time I look for games or resources that might have insprired Alonzo Wheeler Jerome's interest in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) 

Recently I have been going through Peter J. Monte's The Classical Era of Modern Chess (2014) which includes his attempt, in part, to "record all openings that were written down between 1497 (Lucena) and 1597 (Gianutio)". Eventually he extended this examination further, "to a period embracing approximately 150 years of the modern European game."

I hoped, in part, to find some written Italian sources that would lead to Tonetti's gambit game of 1863 which predated Jerome's analysis that came a decade later. (Relevant to this is a discussion about the rule changes that came about during that period - see Yury V. Bukayev's "Who is the 1st inventor of JG in chess – A.Jerome or G.Tonetti?    The new approach [Part1]")

I was most successful in finding the roots of what I have referred to as the Abrahams Jerome Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+ - called such due to the fact that Gerald Abrahams referred to the line, arising out of the Bishop's Opening, as the Jerome Gambit in his The Chess Mind (1951) and The Pan Book of Chess (1965).

Looking at Giulio Cesare Polerio's Ordini Manuscript (1594) - Ordini di giuochi degli scacchi in diversi modi, cosi di mano, come sottomano, cio e in offenza, e dife[n]za co[n] altri bellissimi partiti, sono di Guilio Cesare Polerio alias l'Apruzzese. Giocandosi del Pari - Monte writes

The Bishop's Opening: In the Classical Variation (2...Bc5) the new 3.Bxf7+ etc. is introduced...

In Polerio's Doazan Manuscript he goes further

The Sortie 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ etc. (Ordini 28) is extensively elaborated in D13 and D34.

Looks familiar, yes?

Perhaps I should now refer to 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+ as the Polerio Gambit. One problem might be that there is already a Polerio Gambit in the King's Gambit (although it is also referred to as the Muzio Gambit): 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3. f3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.0-0

I continue to examine The Classical Era of Modern Chess with hopes to find proto-Jerome Gambit lines.

Jerome Gambit: Smash!

 

The Jerome Gambit can be an awesome tool of destruction.

scwymstr - JAM99

RedHotPawn.com, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.h4 

White outranks his opponent, he has given "Jerome Gambit odds", and he is ready to Smash! like Hulk. 

(See "Good Fortune" for an earlier reference.) 

5...d6 6.Ng5+ Kg6 

Everyone knows that the Jerome Gambit is a pile of junk that is guaranteed to self-destruct. (Ha!)

Here Black has a creative plan to stop White from playing Qh5+.

7.Qf3 

Oh, dear. Now Black is busted.

7...Bd4

Stockfish 15 suggests that Black can limit his deficit to the exchange by playing 7...Bxf2+ 8.Kxf2 h5 9.Qf7+ Kh6 10.d3 Qf6+ 11.Ke1 Qxf7 12.Nxf7+ Kh7 13.Bg5 Nf6 14.Nxh8 Kxh8. 

8.h5+ Kh6 9.Nf7 checkmate

Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit: Accept or Refuse?

I know that it has been said that the best way to refute a gambit is to accept it, but at least at the club level declining a sacrifice is popular amongst defenders who throw out the challenge If you want me to take the material, then I won't.

KnightBiker - snob

5 0 blitz, FICS, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nd4 

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit.

4.Bxf7+ 

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit.

4...Ke7 

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit Declined.

Surprisingly, The Database has 829 games with Black declining the Bishop this way. Not surprisingly, White scores 70%.

The player as Black in this game, snob, has 160 games with the Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit in The Database, so he is no newbie. Of those games, 52 involve 4...Ke7, where he has scored 33% (slightly above the average for the move).

5.Bc4 

White has a pawn advantage, and his King is much safer than Black's.

Interestingly, in 15 of snob's games in The Database his opponent played 5.Bxg8 - a very reasonable choice - yet snob scored 47%. That is the Jerome Gambit world for you - at blitz speed, with club players.

5...d6 6.d3 h6 

Black does not want an enemy piece to arrive at g5, but this move weakens light squares.

7.Nh4 Nf6 

An oversight that occurs in blitz play. Perhaps Black had been expecting and was focused upon 7.Nxd4.

8.Ng6+ Kd7 9.Nxh8 Kc6 

White has grabbed a Rook and expects not to have to pay his Knight for the honor.

Black's King heads toward greater danger.

10.Ng6 Be7 11.Nxe7+ Qxe7 

12.c3 

White could have simply castled, but his choice of this move - with both a threat to the Knight and the opening of an attacking line for the Queen - shows that the attack will continue.

12...Ne6 13.Qa4+ Kb6 14.Qb5 checkmate

Jerome Gambit: It Takes More Than A Move

I like the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+).

I play the Jerome Gambit.

I am glad that others play the Jerome Gambit.

Still, I have my favorite moves for the defense.

Consider the following game.

Petasluk - faredce

3 0 blitz, FICS, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Nd3+ 

Creative and cool.

Anyone who has read Aron Nimzowitsch's The Blockade will recognize the idea behind this move.

Something similar is equally deadly for Black, when the d-pawn is blocked, which in turn blocks the Bishop, which then keeps the Rook from entering the game. 

I have looked at this move before, in "Brilliant, but Not Sound" and "Jerome Gambit: The Hurrieder I Go, The Behinder I Get", where you will see Petasluk mentioned as well.

There are 26 games with this position in The Database, where White scores 65% - despite the fact that Stockfish 15 rates Black as about 4 pawns better.

8.cxd3 Bd4 

Here is a clue that helps explain the statistics above. It takes more than one move to make a defense.

In this game (and in four earlier ones) instead of retreating or protecting, Black moves his threatened Bishop to the improved a1-h8 diagonal where it can not be threatened by White's pawns.

This kind of oversight can happen in a blitz game.

(For perspective, no games in The Database have the top recommended move 8...d5.)

9.Qd5+ Black resigned

White will take the long diagonal - and the Bishop.

Jerome Gambit: Huh?

Sometimes, the result of a game is a puzzlement.

SorryYouLose - Pinckman

7 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Nd4

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit. 

4.Bxf7+ 

The Blackburne Shilling Jerome Gambit

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke6 6.f4 

Supporting the advanced Knight, at the risk of allowing ...Qh4+.

The main line was seen in Wall - Ferny, PlayChess.com, 2018: 6.c3 d6 7.cxd4 dxe5 8.Qb3+ = Kf6 (8...Ke7) 9.dxe5+ Kxe5 10.Nc3 Nf6 (10...Be6) 11.d4+ Qxd4 (11...Kd6) 12.f4+ Kd6 13.Nb5+ Black resigned 

6...h5 

Interesting. Black, in turn, prevents a check by White's Queen. The Database shows that the line has scored 50% - 17 wins, 17 losses. 

Stockfish 15 recommends, instead 6...Qh4+ 7.g3 Qh3 8.Nf3 Nxf3+ 9.Qxf3 d5 with advantage to Black. 

7.c3 Nc6 8.Qb3+ d5

9.Ng6 

White goes for tactics. More solid would be 9.O-O.

9...Rh6 10.Nxf8+ White resigned 

White's resignation is a puzzlement.

It is not hard to imagine the game continuing 10...Kf7 11.Qxd5+ Qxd5 12.exd5 Nd8 13.Ne6 Nxe6 14.dxe6+ Rxe6+ 15.Kf2 Nf6 when White would be 2 pawns ahead - although Stockfish 15 (35 ply) rates the position about equal.

Jerome Gambit: Prognostication

 

Although there are 5 games yet to be completed in the third round of the "Giuoco Piano Game" tournament at Chess.com, it seems likely that I will be joined in the fourth round by xyz7, DouglasEngle, i1slamov, auswebby, joro_videv, graintrader69, and Johnny71.

Probably there will be two groups of four players each.

In any event, I will be the next-to-lowest ranked player.

I still intend on playing the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) in every game as White. My results, good and bad, will be posted here.