JG: The New in Its Opening Theory, in Its Psychology (Part 13)

 JG: The New in Its Opening Theory, in Its Psychology (Part 13)   

  

(by Yury V. Bukayev) 

 

 

As a further development of my Part 11 (the post of August 16, 2022 on Rick Kennedy’s blog), this continuation of my theoretical research on the standard line of the Jerome gambit (JG) is about position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.Qh3+! Ke7 8.Qc3 Bd6!? 9.f4!? Ke8!? 10.d4!? Nc6 11.0-0!  

 

After 11…Bf8 White has the following two possibilities: 

 

I)12.d5! AN  

 

A)12…Nce7 

A1)13.Qd3 d6 (13…Nf6 14.c4! with the idea 15.e5 and with the attack) 14.c4! with the idea 15.e5 and with the attack 

A2)13.Qf3! with the same idea, with the attack 

 

B)12…Qe7 13.Kh1! (13.dxc6 Qc5+ 14.Kh1 Qxc3 15.cxd7+ Bxd7 16.Nxc3, and White loses his attack, the position is good for Black) 13…Qc5 (13…Qb4 14.Qd3! with the attack) 14.Qd2! with the attack 

 

 

II)12.e5! Qe7!? 13.Rd1!? AN, and White’s attack continues.  

 

 

These theoretical difficulties for Black can be mortal for him in your game, even without very large difficulties of other kinds, which are present always at games. So I recommend you to play this line, if you are a lover of the Jerome gambit with 5.Nxe5+. You can get it also by my other sequences of moves: 9.d4 Nc6 10.0-0 Ke8 11.f4 Bf8; 9.0-0 Ke8 etc.; 9.f4 Ke8 10.0-0! Nc6 11.d4 Bf8.   

 

 Of course, ‘the Fantastic Star Jerome Gambit Deferred’ and ‘the Triumphant Jerome Gambit Deferred’ (these are my most strong deferred lines of JG, real parts of JG, they were invented and published in 2022 in my analytical research ‘Lose Never with a Strong Deferred Jerome Gambit! (Part 2)’) will be much more attractive for a lot of experts of the modern chess opening theory than the standard line of JG.  

 

 

 

 

 

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Played Jerome-ish Games!

In earlier posts we have looked at a couple of bullet games played by top Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave which featured the risky Jerome-ish gambit with Bxf7+.

Yury V. Bukayev has sent his three more Jerome-ish games. Have a pleasure to explore the style of the current World Blitz Chess Champion!

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime - Vallejo Pons, Francisco

World Rapid 2017  

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 b5 5.Bb3 Na5 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Nxe5+ Ke7 8.d4 d6 9.Nd3 Kf7 10.OO Bb7 11.Nc3 Nf6 12.e5 dxe5 13.dxe5 Nd5 14.Ne4 Be7 15.Qh5+ Kg8 16.Ndc5 Bc6 17.Qg4 Bxc5 18.Qe6+ Kf8 19.Nxc5 Qe8 20.Qh3 Kg8 21.f4 h5 22.Nd3 Qg6 23.f5 Qg4 24.Qxg4 hxg4 25.b3 Rh5 26.Bd2 Nb7 27.Rf2 a5 28.a3 a4 29.c4 bxc4 30.bxc4 Nb6 31.f6 gxf6 32.exf6 Kf7 33.Re1 Re8 34.Rxe8 Bxe8 35.Re2 Nxc4 36.Bc3 Rf5 37.Re7+ Kf8 38.Rxc7 Nbd6 39.Bb4 Kg8 40.Rg7+ Kh8 41.Rxg4 Bf7 42.h3 Ne8 43.Bc3 Nxf6 44.Rf4 Rxf4 45.Nxf4 Nxa3 46.Bxf6+ Kh7 47.Kf2 Nc2 48.Ke2 a3 49.Kd2 Bb3 50.g3 a2 51.Kc1 Ba4 52.Nd5 a1=Q+ 53.Bxa1 Nxa1 54.Kb2 Nc2 55.Nb6 Nd4 56.Nxa4 Ne2 57.g4 Nf4 58.h4 Ng2 59.h5 Kh6 60.g5+ Kxg5 61.h6 Kxh6 ½-½

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime - Nakamura, Hikaru

9th London Classic 2017, London ENG

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.h4 h5 11.Bb3 Rc8 12.O-O-O Ne5 13.Bg5 Rc5 14.Kb1 Re8 15.g4 hxg4 16.f4 Nc4 17.Qd3 Na5 18.Bxf6 exf6 19.Bd5 Nc6 20.Nxc6 bxc6 21.Bxf7+ Kxf7 22.Qxd6 Rxc3 23.Qxd7+ Qxd7 24.Rxd7+ Ke6 25.Rxg7 Rf3 26.Rxg6 Rxf4 27.Rg1 Rxe4 28.R6xg4 Rxg4 29.Rxg4 f5 30.Ra4 Rg8 31.b3 Rg4 32.Rxa7 f4 33.Kc1 f3 34.Kd2 Rxh4 35.Ra8 Rh2+ 36.Kd3 Kf5 37.a4 Kg4 38.a5 Rh1 39.Rg8+ Kf4 40.Rf8+ Kg3 41.Rg8+ Kf4 42.Rf8+ Kg3 43.b4 f2 44.Kd4 f1=Q 45.Rxf1 Rxf1 46.Kc5 Rc1 47.Kxc6 ½–½

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime - Dudin, Gleb

World Blitz Championship 2021, Warsaw POL

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.d4 Bb6 9.Be3 O-O 10.Nbd2 Rb8 11.Re1 h6 12.h3 Re8 13.a4 exd4 14.cxd4 Nb4 15.a5 Ba7 16.d5 Bxe3 17.Rxe3 c5 18.dxc6 Nxc6 19.Rd3 Nb4 20.Rc3 Bb7 21.Bxf7+ Kxf7 22.Qb3+ Nbd5 23.Rd3 Qd7 24.exd5 Qf5 25.Nd4 Qxd5 26.Nxb5 Qxb3 27.Nxd6+ Ke6 28.Nxb3 Red8 29.Nc5+ Ke7 30.Re1+ 1-0

Jerome Gambit: QED

The following game shows why many play the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) - White can win quickly.

angelcamina - hovdav

1 0 bullet, lichess.org, 2022

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Ke8 

Black suspects that something is up. One extra piece is enough, thank you very much.

6.Qh5+ Ke7 

Here Black avoids 6...g6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Qxh8 but encounters something worse.

7.Qf7+ Kd6 8.Nc4  checkmate

Last year angelcamina beat SammmDBest the same way.

Alonzo Wheeler Jerome: How Strong?

 

I recently was asked how strong a player Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), was.

Finding an answer is a challenge.

Jerome lived 1834 - 1902, well before rating systems such as those devised by Harkness and Elo.

The first official use of the term "grandmaster", for example, was in the 1907 Ostend tournament.

On the other hand, from much earlier on the term "master" was freely and casually applied to players who were impressive in one way or another.

Official recognition as "master" by a particular chess body - say, the German Chess Federation - came only in the last quarter of the 19th century and had criteria which would exclude Alonzo Jerome.

Although some statisticians have looked at historical chess players to estimate their strength, Alonzo Jerome is handicapped by not being a very significant figure (outside of this blog, that is). For example, Jeff Sonas' Chessmetrics work looks at 13,000 chess players, but does not include Jerome.

The Edo Historical Chess Rating System does not list Alonzo Jerome, either.

Closer to home, the Database includes 27 games played by Alonzo Jerome, drawn from newspaper and magazine accounts of play. Of those, only 9 appear to be over-the-board encounters: 4 wins, 3 losses, 2 draws. 

Jerome scored 2 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw against Professor Orestes Augustus Brownson, whose life is documented in three volumes (1, 2 & 3) - none of which cover Brownson's chess. We are left with the Dubuque Daily Herald's 1892 bright but breezy reflection upon Brownson

His keen mental faculties found particularly agreeable employment at times in the intricacies of chess at which king's pastime he had few superiors in the country. 

Jerome had 1 loss and 1 draw against William A. Shinkman, the "Wizard of Grand Rapids".

In assessing Alonzo Jerome, we are left with a comment by J. W. Miller, the chess editor of the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph chess column (previously of the Cincinatti Commercial Gazette; also with William Cook, Synopsis of Chess Openings, A Tabular Analysis,With American Inventions in The Chess Opening and Fresh Analysis Since 1882) 

In Cincinnati we met a number of players in the Mercantile  Library… We also had the pleasure of contesting several games with Mr. Jerome, of Paxton, Ill. He is well known as the author of the so-called Jerome Gambit, in which white sacrifices the Bishop by taking KBP on the fourth move of the Giuoco Piano game. Neither the gambit nor its author proved strong in the contest.

If the Edo rating given for J. W. Miller, 1956, is accurate, then Alonzo Wheeler Jerome probably was of average club player strength for his time period - the kind of guy, after all, who would play the Jerome Gambit.