Jerome Gambit: Strategy, Tactic

I continue to be amazed that anyone can play chess at 1-minute bullet speed, and even more amazed that they could win regularly.

(I have never played bullet, but I am sure that a typical game for me would go 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 White lost on time.)

Although analysis of moves is, of necessity, not very deep in bullet, the games can often serve as lessons for play, even in the Jerome Gambit.

Alex_Ignatev - cianfits

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Kf6 

This game is a reminder that anyone playing the Jerome Gambit should be familiar with this mis-step by Black and have a proper response handy to deal with it.

7.f4 

About this move, there is good news and there is bad news.

The good news is that according to The Database, White scores 78% in games with this move. 

The bad news is that White is moving away from a line that immediately returns his sacrificed pieces: 7.Qf5+ Ke7 8.Qxe5+ Kf8 9.Qxc5+. 

Black can now withdraw his Knight with 7...Nc6 and claim an advantage.

Instead he plays a move that supports the attacked Bishop by placing his Queen, thematically, on e7.

7...Qe7 

These things happen in bullet games: knowing the attendant strategy, overlooking the related tactic.

8.fxe5+ 

It is Game Over after 8.Qf5#. 

Another, related game: 8.Rf1 Ng6 9.e5+ (9.Qf5#) 9...Kf7 10.f5 Nf6 11.fxg6+ Kg8 12.Kd1 Nxh5, White resigned, BahatiTheGrandmaster - Mammaen-din, lichess.org, 2021. 

8...Qxe5 

9.Qxe5+ 

White heads for a familiar position. Perhaps he did not want to risk 9.Rf1+ Ke6 10.Qg4+ Ke7 11.Rf5 Qxh2 12.Qxg7+ Ke8 13.d4 Be7 14.Qxh8 Bh4+ 15.Kf1 Qh1+ 16.Ke2 Qxg2+ 17.Kd3 where White is better, but not at all comfortable.

9...Kxe5 

This position is frequently reached by the move order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Qf6 8.Qxe5+ Qxe5 9.fxe5 Kxe5 

10.b4 Bd6 

The Bishop can retreat however it wants. Taking the pawn, however, falls to 11.Bb2+ as in the game.

11.Bb2+ Ke6 12.Bxg7 

12...Ne7 

After 12...Be5 13.Bxh8 Bxh8 14.c3 White would have a Rook and two pawns for Black's Bishop pair. Black would likely be better.

13.Bxh8 Black resigned

In 1-minute games you can sometimes count on your opponent's clock to help you out of a difficult situation - but not this time.

Black Was Winning - Until He Wasn't

The following game is another example of the attacker's ability to stay awake for possibilities - until they arrive, and become certainties.

KamranShirazi - mikikoker

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+ 

Here we have the Abrahams Jerome Gambit, otherwise known as the Polerio Gambit, or what Yury V. Bukayev has suggested might be called the Polerio Knightless Jerome Gambit. 

3...Kxf7 4.c3 Qh4 5.Qe2 d5 

Black is defending well, and even counter-attacking.

But the game is not over, yet.

6.Nf3 Qxe4 

Ooops. Blitz game.

7.Ng5+ Black resigned

Black will have only two pieces for his Queen.

Jerome Gambit: Messing

Messing. Messing with. Messing up.

The following Jerome Gambit game shows White making moves designed to elicit certain responses. Perhaps you should not mess with Stockfish 15 that way - but a human, why not?

Black_Clover13 - goniec-64

3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Ke7 

The Jerome Gambit Declined. Sometimes a defender will play this move to avoid the oncoming sacrificial onslaught. Sometimes he will try to out-psych the attacker with a You want me to take the piece? Then I won't challenge.

Declining the gambit takes some of the fun out of the game, at the cost of yielding White the advantage.

5.Nxe5 

Retreating the Bishop is safe and solid. Instead, White wants to keep things complicated.

The move offers Black an apparent way out.

5...Nxe5 6.Bxg8 Rxg8 

There you go. Black has a piece for two pawns, he leads in development, and he is prepared to play ...g5 with a pawn storm on White's King.

Only one problem: White is winning. (Stockfish 15 says he is better by a Rook.)

7.d4 

Oh. The threat of Bg5+ wins a piece.

7...Kf8 8. dxc5 d5 9. exd5 Qf6 

Black fights on. In a 3-minute blitz game, this attitude can sometimes prevail, despite "objective" circumstances.

Not this time.

10.O-O Bg4 11.f3 Bh5 12.Nc3 Re8 

13.Ne4 Qf5 14.b3 

Calmly developing. With his Rook on the same file as Black's Queen and King, he can afford to be calm in the face of the coming attack.

14...g5 15.Bb2 g4 

Trying to be scary. In 3-minute games, this often is enough.

16.fxg4 Bxg4 17.Rxf5+ Bxf5 18.Qf1 Black resigned

The Jerome Gambit Does That To You

Another reason that I like the Jerome Gambit is that it can bring a lot of excitement and joy to those who play it - as well as fear to those who face it.

From a recent email

[I] wanted to let you know I had another devastating game using the Jerome gambit...

I think this one was interesting for a few moves. 5.Nxe5+ followed by Ke8, I think he was truly afraid of the opening having never seen it, and couldn't believe I would offer two pieces. this was devastating for him, as I quickly snagged the rook. 

The second move was 11.c3???? At the time I had the idea of going c3 to kick the knight and follow up with d4. Looking at it though this is not good at it seems to fork me, and blunder the rook.... right? As it turns out at some stockfish depths (<25 moves) this is the recommended move as it starts to shove his pieces away with the eventual idea of Bg5+ winning a queen.

I thought this might make for an interesting look at just how quickly the jerome can blow up a game if they opponent doesn't know how to counter it, as after the 5th move the game was effectively won.

samsanit - Slaya2016

3 0 blitz lichess.org, 2022 1. e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8

I was amused - but not surprised - that the lichess.org computer labelled this move a blunder.

If you have no idea what kind of devastating attack your opponent has just unleashed upon you, it is quite normal to decide not to choke on sacrificed pieces, but to put your King closer to safety.

Verdict: psychologically sound, chessically suspect.

6.Qh5+

The Queen plays boogyman. Instead, 6.Nxc6 gives White an edge, but that is not what White is looking for; he wants a quick win.

6...g6 7.Nxg6 hxg6

Fatalism. The Rook is now hanging. The Bishop was already hanging. Doom and gloom.

It would probably have been impossible to convince Black that after 7...Bxf2+ 8.Kxf2 Nf6 he would still have been better. The Jerome Gambit does that to you.

8.Qxh8 Nd4

Striking back, somehow. The defender does not want to go quietly into the night.

9.Qxg8+ Ke7 10.Qxg6 d6 11.c3

Now this is just plain mean.☺ "Go ahead and take my Rook," says White, "It has nothing to do with the outcome of the game."

11...Nb5 Black resigned

Black has had enough.

Jerome Gambit: Smash Again!

Similar to the game featured in the recent post, "Jerome Gambit: Smash!", the following game shows Black's King taking a cavalier walk into danger - with a deadly result.

lksharma - popasile

3 0 blitz, FICS, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d3 d6 5.Bxf7+ 

The game has transposed to a "modern" Jerome Gambit - one that does not have Nxe5+; in this case, White has preferred d3.

5...Kxf7 6.Ng5+ Kg6 

The King anticipates a White Queen check at h5 and boldly moves to prevent it. His Majesty can survive this visit beyond his pawns, but more prudent would have been 6...Kf8. 

7.h4 h6 

The text is designed to chase the enemy Knight away.

It might also be there to give Black's King a bit of breathing room, but if that was the plan, 7...h5 would have been better, as another defender later learned 8.Qf3 Qf6 9.Qg3 Bxf2+ 10.Qxf2 Qxf2+ 11.Kxf2 Nd4 12.Na3 Bg4 13.c3 Ne2 14.Be3 Nf6 15.d4 exd4 16.cxd4 Rhe8 17.Nc4 Nxe4+ 18.Nxe4 Rxe4 19.Rhe1 Nxd4 20.Bxd4 Rxd4 21.Ne3 Rd2+ 22.Kg3 Rf8 23.Nxg4 hxg4 24.Re6+ Kh7 25.Kxg4 Rd4+?! 26.Kh3 Rd3+ 27.g3 Rff3 28.Rg1 Rd2?! 29.Re7 Kg6 30.Rxc7 Rxb2 31.a4 Kf5? 32.Rf7+ Ke4 33.Re1+ Kd5 34.Rxf3 Rb4 35.Rf4 Rb3 36.Kg4 Black resigned, lksharma - angelachi, blitz, FICS, 2022 

8.h5+ Kf6 9.Qf3+ 

Here Black resigned in lksharma - Caarreeyy, blitz, FICS, 2022 

9...Ke7 10.Qf7 checkmate

Earlier Sources, Once More

Returning to Peter J. Monte's The Classical Era of Modern Chess (2014), searching for precursors of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) we have already seen that in the 1590s Giulio Cesare Polerio explored 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+

He also looked at White placing his Queen on e2, to be able to follow up on 4.Bxf7+ with a Queen check fork. For example 

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qe2 c6 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Qc4+;

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qe2 Nf6 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Qc4+ d5 6.Qxc5 Nxe4 7.Qe3 Re8 8.Nf3 Nc6; 

and 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Qe2 Nf6 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 Qc4+ d5 7.Qxc5 Nxe4

It is disappointing to see that the main Jerome Gambit line - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ - doesn't show up in these very early sources. In part it seems that the Queen check at c4 (after Qe2) was where the analysts focused; I could only find one relevant Bishop's Opening line with Qh5+, and the move was labeled as wrong, with no further attention. 

Abrahams Jerome Gambit Games

I recently visited the Russian language web page of Khafiz Shakhmamedov which had several of his chess games with the Abrahams Jerome Gambit, otherwise known as the Polerio Gambit, or what Yury V. Bukayev has suggest might be called the Polerio Knightless Jerome Gambit. 

Whatever you call it, the games are enjoyable to play over.

Shakhmamedov, Khafiz - NN

Mail.ru, 2021

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5

Or 2... h6 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ Ke6 5.Qf5+ Kd6 6.d4 Qf6? 7.dxe5+ Qxe5 8.Bf4 Black resigned, Shakhmamedov - NN, Mail.ru, 2021. 

3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ Ke6 

Or 4...g6 5.Qxe5 d6? 6.Qxh8 Qh4 7.d4 Qxe4+ 8.Ne2 Qxg2 9.Qxh7+ Kf8 10.Rg1 Black resigned, Shakhmamedov - NN, Mail.ru, 2022. 

Instead, Stockfish 15 recommends 4...Kf8 5.Qxe5 d6 6.Qg3 Nf6 7.d3 Nc6 and Black is better.

5.Qf5+ Kd6 6.Nf3 

Or 6.Nc3 a6 7.d3 Nh6 8.Bxh6 gxh6 9.O-O-O Nc6 10.Nf3 Ke7 11.Nxe5 d6 12.Nd5+ Ke8 13.Qf7 checkmate, Shakhmamedov - NN, Mail.ru 2021.

 6...Qf6 

The position is about equal.

7.Qh3 

White does not want to exchange Queens, but he would have done better to allow it with 7.d4. 

7...Qe6 8.Qg3 g6 

Black protects his g-pawn, but overlooks the pin on his e-pawn - which would have suggested he could keep things balanced with 8...Nc6.

9.d4 

Grabbing the advantage.

9...Bb4+ 10.c3 Ba5 11.b4 Bb6 12.d5 Qe8 

13.Nbd2 

Black's game is seriously constricted, and 13.Bg5 would have tied him up further.

13...Nf6 14.Ba3 

Setting up a discovered check. Stockfish suggests the squeeze 14.a4.

14...Nh5 

Missing his chance to have his King bail out with 14...Ke7.

15.b5+ c5 16.bxc6+ Kc7 17.d6+ Kxc6 18.Nxe5+ Kb5 

Black needed to give his Queen up in order to avoid the upcoming checkmate. How much longer he would survive after that, however, is debatable.

19.Qd3+ Ka5 20.Nb3+ Ka4 21.Qc4+ Kxa3 22.Qb4+ Kb2 23.Nc4+ Kc2 24.Na3+ Kb2 25.Rb1+ Kxa2 26.Nc1 checkmate