Jerome Gambit: Dubious

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Chess.com has a small educational piece on "Beat The Jerome Gambit", as part of their Ten Dubious Gambits And How to Refute Them series.

It is worth checking out, to see what your opponents might be learning about the Jerome.

Jerome Gambit: Accept The Sacrifice

When White offers material in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) it can be tempting for Black to decide not to "play along" and go into accepted lines.

This psychological ploy on the defender's part is countered by the fact that declined lines are not as strong or as successful as accepted lines.

QangaliTakugakkit - caba454

3 2 blitz, lichess.org, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Ke7 

From a human vantage point, Black hopes to derail White's plans, by declining the Bishop.

From a computer vantage point, Black has turned down the chance for advantage, to arrive at a worse game.

From the vantage point of The Database, accepting the Bishop leads to White scoring 52%, while the text leads to White scoring 67%. (Against 4...Kf8, White scores 61%)

5.Ng5 

White complicates the play. Instead, he could have exchanged or retreated the Bishop.

5...h6 6.Bxg8 Rxg8 7.Nf3 d6 

The position does not look much like a Jerome. Black is better developed. White has an extra pawn.

8.Nc3 Bg4 9.O-O 

White should have first played 9.h3, as becomes immediately apparent.

9...Nd4 10.Nd5+ Ke8 

The pin on the Knight at f3 is a problem for White.

11.Ne3 

The move appears sensible, given the limits of a 3-minute game, but better was 11.c3 Nxf3+ 12.gxf3 Bh5 13.d4 Rf8 and Black is still for choice. 

11...Nxf3+ 12.gxf3 Bh3 13.Ng2 Qg5 White resigned

It is checkmate next move.

Jerome Gambit: Whatever Happened To...? (Part 2)

 

A couple of posts ago (see"Jerome Gambit: Whatever Happened To...?") I queried

I was wondering the other day whatever happed to a couple of nefarious chess opening variations, the OMG Variation and the Face Palm Variation.

Those were 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Ng5 and 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+.

I then presented a couple of online blitz miniatures played by strong players (I did not give their names), and suggested an amount of "fun" must have been involved.

Chessfriend Yury V. Bukayev followed up with an email with his own possible explanatory hypothesis

Yes, this game [the second] (like another one) is strange. I can build some hypotheses about it. In fact, the Jerome gambit chess player (White) made two strange chess moves - 5.Ng5+ and 7.Nxh7+. His opponent made strange chess King moves. So my task here is to explain the play of both opponents. My first hypothesis is that both players wanted to play not ordinary chess, but "dying King's light pieces against dying King" new chess variant (?). In this case, White's moves - 4.Bxf7+, 5.Ng5+, 7.Nxh7+ - were made with a goal to lose pieces. So, it maybe, both players were glad as a result of this rapid checkmate after capturing of all King's light pieces: each of opponents thought, it maybe, that he isn't a loser here. In fact, I don't know rules of this possible new chess variant.

This sounds a bit like "losing chess" or "antichess" - interested Readers can check out the Lichess Antichess World Championship page at Perpetual Check.  

 

Jerome Gambit: Comparable

Two openings - the Jerome Gambit and the Abrahams Jerome Gambit - are similar in some ways, and different in others.

In the following game, lichess.org player feritTurkey demonstrates the benefits of an opening line that he has played at least 373 times.

feritTurkey - makoppo

2 1 bullet, lichess.org, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Bxf7+

The Abrahams Jerome Gambit. It appears in 19,021 games in The Database, with White scoring 51%. 

That compares with 39,663 games in The Database with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+, scoring 52%.

3...Kxf7 4.Qh5+ g6 

With 2 minutes of thinking time for the game, this would seem a resonable move - especially if the defender were familiar with the Jerome Gambit - but here the only move to maintain Black's full advantage is 4...Kf8. 

5.Qxe5 Qf6

Again, the proper move is 5...Bxf2+, i.e. 6.Kxf2 Nf6 7.Qf4 Rf8 8.e5 Kg7 9.Nf3 equal game.

6.Qxc5

White has a 2 pawn advantage, but Stockfish 16.1 evaluates his advantage as almost twice that.

6...d6

This doesn't help. Instead, he should put his Knight or his Queen on c6 and try to hold on, rooting for the clock. 

7.Qxc7+ Nd7 8.Nf3 Ne7 9.O-O Nc6 

Locking in White's Queen

10.d4 Kg7 

A little better is 10...Nxd4 11.Qc4+ Ne6 12.Nc3 Nb6 13.Qb4 Rd8. 

11.Bg5 Qe6 

Instead, 11...Qf8 leads to being more confined, i.e. 12.d5 Nce5 13.Nd4 Kg8 14.Ne6 Qf7 15.Nd2. 

12.d5 Qxe4 13.dxc6 bxc6 14.Qxd6 Qxc2

Now White has a mate in four

15.Qe7+ Kg8 16.Bh6 Qxb2 17.Nbd2 Nf6 18.Qg7 checkmate

Jerome Gambit: Whatever Happened To...? (Part 1)

I was wondering the other day whatever happed to a couple of nefarious chess opening variations, the OMG Variation and the Face Palm Variation.

It turns out that in the past few years, they have been hanging out with some high class players.

Consider the following two blitz games. (Names have been redacted.) 

Sure, the higher-rated player wins in each case, but what in the world is an almost 2700-rated player doing playing such a trashy opening, or even moreso an almost 2800-rated player?

Perhaps a large amount of fun was involved.

Might I suggest the main line of the Jerome Gambit? 

The OMG variation:

WhiteElo 2680 - BlackElo 2921 3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Ng5 Qxg5 5.d4 Qxg2 White resigned

The Face Palm Variation

WhiteElo2772 - BlackElo 2298 3 0 blitz, lichess.org, 2021 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Ng5+ Kf8 6.Qh5 g6 7.Nxh7+ Kf7 8.Ng5+ Kf6 9.Qxh8+ Kxg5 10.d4+ Kg4 11.f3 checkmate

Jerome Gambit: Comes the Time

Comes the time when the defender decides to give back one of the pieces sacrificed in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+), some ways are more entertaining than others.

Not necessarily more effective.

The following game is a quick example.

benjamin84000 - Hozan000

3 2 blitz, lichess.org, 2023

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Nd3+ 

In a post 5 1/2 years ago, "Jerome Gambit: Too Clever", I wrote

Black returns one of the sacrificed pieces, buries White's dark square Bishop, and plans an attack on the dark squares. Still, the Knight move is a bit too clever - although it appears that no one has yet played the best alternative, the walk-away 8...Kc6!? 

[Currently, The Database has 49 games with 8...Kc6 - Rick] 

9.cxd3 Bb6 

Or 9...Qh4+ 10.g3 Qh6 11.Qd5+ Ke7 12.Qxc5+ Kd8 13.Qf8 checkmate, as seen in  Hardy,C - NN, lichess.org, 2019 and Jagulep - loks_sf, lichess.org, 2019. 

In the game, Black pulls his Bishop out of the line of fire. However, Stockfish 16.1 recommends, instead, the interesting line of play: 9...Nf6 10.e5+ Kc6 11.d4 d6 (Black has two pieces en prise again!) 12.Qc2 b6 13.dxc5 (the Bishop expires, after all) dxc5 14.Nc3 Re8 15.Qa4+ Kb7 16.O-O Bd7 17.Qd1 Bg4 18.Qe1 Qd4+ 19.Qf2 Qxf2+ 20.Rxf2 Ng8. Black's pieces are okay, and the computer evaluates (36 ply) that position as less than a pawn better for White - despite the protected, passed pawn on e5.

10.Qe5+ Kc6 11.Qd5 checkmate

Jerome Gambit: Off-Setting Errors

In the following game, White's slip-up on move 9 was balanced by Black's slip-up on move 11, which is a major reason that the game lasted only 15 moves.

farhadba - nukechess2023

10 0 rapi, lichess.org, 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 

7.Qf5+ Kd6 8.f4 Bd4 

First seen, according to The Database, in 5 of the games between Fisher-Kirshner and an early version of Fritz, known as KnightStalker. Black won 4 of those games.

9.c3 

Attractive, but flawed. Instead 9.fxe5+, as played by Fisher-Kirshner, was the way to go, although after 9...Kc6 White's idea of 10.b4? was too far out - 10.c3, as in the current game, was the right idea.

9...Nd3+ 10.Ke2 Nxc1+ 11.Rxc1 Bb6 

Wrong retreat. What worked was 11...Bf6. 

12.d4 

Missing 12.Qe5+ Kc6 13.Qd5 checkmate 

12...Qf6 

It must be the clock. It was time, instead, to safeguard the King with 12...Ke7. 

13.e5+ Ke7 14.exf6+ Nxf6 15.Nd2 Re8 Black resigned