Jerome Gambit: Chessflare

At the Chessflare online site, "The best chess openings ?", you can find the following accurate assessment of the subject of this blog

The Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5) is an unsound gambit where White sacrifices two pieces for an initiative. Though it is fun to play in blitz or bullet games, it has been refuted in classical time controls.

 

My Simultaneous Exhibition Game Against the Two-time World Blitz Champion GM Valentina Gunina (Part 2)

 

My Simultaneous Exhibition Game Against

the Two-time World Blitz Champion 

GM Valentina Gunina (Part 2)

 

(by Yury V. Bukayev)

                             GM Valentina E. Gunina - Yury V. Bukayev

                                simultaneous exhibition, Moscow, 2025, 

                                   August 16 ('The Chess Square 2025')

20.Re3?

The following photo demonstrates the moment when maestro's 20th move is made.

20...Re5 21.Nf6+?

 

It's the worst move in the whole game which transforms Stockfish 17.1 program's evaluation from "-0.1" to "-4.4", as I found after the game. 

Maestro has a lot of minutes, so she could make a calm move instead and win on time very soon and easily. Nevertheless, she tries to checkmate me. 

 

21...gxf6 22.Bxf6 Qxe3!

 

Both arbiters went far away, although there was a hyperbullet time situation for me after my 20th move! Moreover, I continued to make the notation of the game. But this terrible life made me a 'God of Hyperbullet Chess' that memorable summer evening.

Maestro waited for my 22...Rxf5? to play 23.Rg3+! with a beautiful rapid checkmate. And after my 22nd move she understood that her calculation was mistaken, that my position is easy to win, but this easy win required my some minutes to make a checkmate! I had no time for it!

 

23.Qg4+!

 

Maestro isn't resigning, isn't offering a draw. She is waiting for my blunder or the finish of my time. Arbiters are absent.

 

23...Rg5! 

The following photo demonstrates the moment when my 23th move is made.

24.Bxg5

 

Again, she isn't resigning, isn't offering a draw. She is waiting for my blunder or the finish of my time. Arbiters are absent. 

Arbiters have rights to fix a draw in such absolutely won and clear situations, when the time isn't finished. The main arbiter with his helpers must be near boards during these chess clock finishes and must control all rules. It maybe, dear arbiters were called out by dear organizers for this long time after their set of clocks.

 

24...Qe1+! 

The following photo demonstrates the moment when this my last of legal moves is made. 

Now we can find evaluation by Stockfish 17.1 program as "-4.7". Well, Black has a Rook with a Knight for a Bishop with a pawn without White's compensation.

25.Kh2

Again and again, maestro isn't resigning, isn't offering a draw. She is waiting for my blunder or the finish of my time. Arbiters are absent. Maestro has a lot of minutes.

In one second my time finished after her 25th move. It means, I lost the game. But arbiters are absent, my eyes and thoughts are concentrated on the board, and it is impossible to know for me here that my time is finished. Maestro's eyes went away to her next board before this moment, she went away. Only the man behind my back said: "The control!" But I didn't understand that these his words are about the real time situation on my board, I haven't looked at chess clock and continued to play. This fact was fixed then. All further moves of opponents are illegal, consequently.

If someone wants to know, further I played 25...Be5+ (Black still has a very large advantage after it: "-3.7") trying to provoke White's blunder 26.g3? to not lose my game on time: 26...Qxf2+ etc. When maestro approached my board, she didn't say about the finish of my time and played 26.f4 . If she didn't know about this finish also, then I repeat again: she isn't resigning, isn't offering a draw. Arbiters are absent... And I received no apologies that day. Do you understand my internal emotions now?..

Let's stop my story and its analysis, I'll continue it in my future Part 3.

At the end of August, after this simultaneous exhibition, the Moscow Chess Federation has updated its time rules for further simultaneous exhibitions of 'The Chess Square 2025' (20 min - 2 min by 30 min - 5 min) and changed the model of clocks for them (the new model of clocks is much higher, has hands instead of electron figures, has not dark glass).  Moreover, arbiters became to work much better again. Nevertheless, that summer evening was full of my very warm demonstrated senses to dear organizers, dear arbiters, dear person who told about the finish of my time and, of course, dear grandmaster Valentina Gunina! 

Well, with extra 3 min for a participant I could have enough time to checkmate maestro after 25.Kh2 . But first of all, I repeat, if GM Valentina Gunina's exhibition starts in planned 18:15 or even in 18:30, then there is no necessity for a participant to become a 'God of Ultrabullet Chess (or Bullet)' in my situation.

                                              

                                     (...to be continued)

My Simultaneous Exhibition Game Against the Two-time World Blitz Champion GM Valentina Gunina (Part 1)

 My Simultaneous Exhibition Game Against

the Two-time World Blitz Champion 

GM Valentina Gunina (Part 1)

 

(by Yury V. Bukayev)

 

Dear readers, now I'd like to tell you about my recent ultra-sharp game against the super chess star of the modern time GM Valentina E. Gunina in her 14-board simultaneous exhibition in Moscow. The official report about this event ( https://moscowchess.org/news/18681 ) is of minimum length, but you can find one official photo in it.

Wikipedia starts to indroduce the maestro so:

" Valentina Evgenyevna Gunina (Russian: Валентина Евгеньевна Гунина; born 4 February 1989) is a Russian chess grandmaster. She is the two-time Women's World Blitz Chess Champion (2012 and 2023), has won the Women's European Individual Chess Championship three times (2012, 2014, 2018), and has won the Russian Women's Championship five times (2011, 2013, 2014, 2021, 2022). She was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2010, 2012, 2014, at the Women's European Team Chess Championships of 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019 and at the Women's World Team Chess Championship of 2017. Gunina won the 2016 London Chess Classic Super Rapidplay Open in one of the best performances or victories for a woman at a top-level chess tournament, defeating several top 100 grandmasters along the way ".

What chances do we have against such opponent in 2025? Hmm...

Very unfortunately for me, the following two circumstances caused dear arbiters to set a chess clock on my board (simultaneously with other boards) after White's 19th move on my board already. Thus, firstly, the simultaneous exhibition started approximately in 19:00 (instead of planned 18:15), although its necessary finish was in 20:00. Only one hour for 14 boards - it is a terrible fact! Of course, arbiters prepared clocks in the box, as the following photo demonstrates.

And secondly, since the very beginning dear maestro renunciated orally to accept my opening moves as immediate responses after her moves. So my game was played with the ordinary velocity, according to maestro's solution.

      GM Valentina E. Gunina - Yury V. Bukayev

          simultaneous exhibition, Moscow, 2025,

            August 16 ('The Chess Square 2025')

 

1.е4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 0-0 6.0-0 d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.Re1 Nb6 9.b4 Bd6 10.Bb3

The following photo demonstrates the moment when maestro is making her 10th move. 

I think, my play after maestro's 10th move started to be psychologically provocative: I started to search a possibility to make a psychological blow ...Nc6xb4 with further capturing of the Rook on a1, after c3xb4, with an ultra-sharp play and without my easy loss after it. It was enough risky plan, but it can work well in many cases...

10...a6 11.Nbd2 Bg4 

The following photo demonstrates the moment when the 11th move is made.

12.Ne4 Be7 13.Ng3 Bf6 14.h3 Bxf3 15.Qxf3 Nxb4 16.cxb4 

16...e4 17.Nxe4 Bxa1 18.Bg5 Qd4 19.Qf5?

 

This moment chess clocks were set near boards, with 20 minutes for White and with 2 minutes for Black only! Only 2 minutes for this early middlegame - what a terrible fact! Here I spent more than a minute, but found the best response, fortunately.

 

19...Rae8!

 

I offered a draw to maestro in this ultra-sharp position (with my material advantage) which is enough near to even ( "+0.7" according to Stockfish 17.1 program, for example, as I found after the game), and I said that I'll lose on time if a draw isn't accepted. She listened my words, but declined my offer with her words which mean that she is fighting for a win without her sympathy with my bullet time situation. No sympathy with my situation, no acceptance of my offer... I became sad.

                                       (to be continued...)