Jerome Gambit: Fireworks

The following game is selected from the recently uncovered 2009 "Dare to Jerome" tournament at the online SchemingMind.com.

It is a good example of how Black needs to properly play his chosen "refutation" of the Jerome Gambit - or face self-ignited fireworks.

Schaakmaatje - Clive Everill

"Dare to Jerome" tournament, SchemingMind.com, 2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ 

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Qf6 

As far as I can tell, this thematic Queen move was first suggested by master Eric Schiller in his Unorthodox Chess Openings (1998).

8.Rf1 g6 

Kicking the Queen.

9.Qh3+ Kf7 

This slip ends the game. The f-file, with White's Rook on it, is a dangerous place for Black's Queen and King.

10.fxe5 Qxf1+ 11.Kxf1 d6 

Black has a Bishop and a Rook for his Queen (and a couple of pawns), but he cannot counter that Queen's threats fast enough.

12.Qc3 Be6 13.d4 Bb6 14.d5 Bg4 15.e6+ 

The "Jerome pawn" adds to the attack. Both the Rook at h8 and the enemy King are in danger.

15...Ke7 16.Qg7+ Black resigned

Checkmate looms.

Jerome Gambit: SchemingMind

I just ran across a 2009 thematic Jerome Gambit tournament, "Dare to Jerome: Standard Chess" at the SchemingMind.com website.

This 90-game double round robin affair featured 10 players.

The winner was matizccc, with 14.5 out of 18 points.

He was followed by Schaakmaatje with 13 points, lemmie with 12.5 points, and Archon with 12 points.

A little further search uncovered another 2009 tournament,"Jerommeke - knockout: Standard" a 16-player Jerome Gambit event won by XTC ahead of MOIMOI.

Over 100 interesting games to add to The Database. White scores 44%, which is about as expected in such a tournament.

Jerome Gambit: Long, But Not Longest

Very recently posted is the YouTube.com video "Jerome Gambit Xiphos (White) vs Koivisto (Black) - Computer Chess" which shows a 113 move loss by White with the Jerome Gambit.

That is a long game, but the longest Jerome Gambit in The Database is stockfish_20060616_x64_modern - fruit_2.1, 2020 (1-0, 158).

Although computer vs computer games tend to be longer than human vs human games because the machines often play on in "lost" positions up until checkmate, it is significant that the second longest Jerome Gambit game in The Database is the human vs human latemate - fadaro, 5 0 blitz, FICS, 2015 (1-0, 157). It must be noted that Black lost on time - each player having less than, on average, 2 seconds per move. 

Jerome Gambit: Looking Toward Round 3

 

As progsnosticated, I have finished first in Group 5 in the second round of the "Giuoco Piano Game" tournament at Chess.com, scoring 5 wins, 1 loss, and 2 draws.

My score with the Jerome Gambit was a decent 3 wins and a 1 loss.

Two players from each group will move on to round three. It will be accompanied by either Ryszak (1 game unfinished) or MoMalek11 (2 games unfinished), although my assessment of the current positions that they are playing suggest that it will be the former.

Going into the third round, from Group 2 will be auswebby and DocBrowne, who I have also played the Jerome against.

Taking into account unfinished games in other groups, it is possible that 18, 19 (if 3 players in group 8 tie for first), or 20 (if 3 players in group 8 tie for first and the tournament director promotes the highest scoring additional player to make 4 groups with equal numbers) players in total could advance, most likely sorted into 4 groups.

More Jerome Gambits ahead!

[BTW, a compressed PGN version of The Database, through the end of June 2022, is available at no cost, for the asking.]

Jerome Gambit: What Makes A Game A Jerome?

The Jerome Gambit family of openings is extensive. But what, exactly, makes a game a Jerome or Jerome-ish?

Is it from the Italian Game stem, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 ?

Is it the sacrifice of a Bishop on f7?

Is it the attacking Queen that races to h5?

Is it the material imbalance of a couple of pawns for a piece or two?

Is it the disorientation that the defender feels, so that many times he defends well - until suddenly he doesn't?

Yury V. Bukayev sent me the following game which features a couple of top grandmasters and meets three of the above criteria.

Wang, Hao - Giri, Anish

Beijing FIDE GP. 2013

1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 

This is the Philidor Defense, Hanham variation, reached by a modern move order.

I don't think tht GM Giri had played this defense before. He had played against it a few months earlier, in Giri,A - Driessens,P, Netherlands 2013 (1-0, 27), where play took a completely different turn with 5.g4!?

5... exd4 6.Qxd4 Be7 7.Bxf7+ 

Well, this had to be annoying.

Surely, in his opening preparations, GM Giri had noticed this sacrifice, as well as a reasonable response to it.

The problem with facing this kind of attack (and Jerome and Jerome-ish attacks) is a bit like carrying a heavy weight. Sure, you can move it a short distance. But, what happens if you have to carry it for a long time, across a long distance? Slips and falls can happen.

GM Wang is ready to provide the tactical pressure and fireworks.

7...Kxf7 

Just like with the Jerome Gambit, it is possible - but not advantageous - to decline the sacrifice, e.g. 7...Kf8 8.Bc4 c5 9.Qd1 Ne5 10.Nxe5 dxe5 11.Qxd8+ Bxd8 12.Be3 b6 13.O-O-O Be7 14.f3 a6 15.a4 h6 16.Nd5 Nxd5 17.Bxd5 Rb8 18.f4 Bb7 19.fxe5 Ke8 20.Rhf1 Rf8 21.Rxf8+ Bxf8 22.Rf1 Be7 23.c4 Ba8 24.Kc2 Bb7 25.Bf4 Ba8 26.g4 Bb7 27.e6 Bxd5 28.cxd5 Rd8 29.Bc7 Black resigned, Grgic,S - Vujcic,T, Zadar 1999. 

8.Ng5+ Ke8 

The first example that I can find of the Bishop sacrifice was in Rodriguez Camio,A - Wexler,B, Rosario, 1952, which continued 8...Kg6 9.f4 Ne5 10.O-O Nfg4 11.f5+ Kh5 12.Nf3 g5 13.Nd5 Rg8 14.Qc3 Kh6 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.f6 Bf8 17.h4 Kg6 18.Bxg5 Kf7 19.Nxc7 Rb8 20.Rad1 b5 21.Qb3+ Nc4 22.Nd5 h6 23.Qf3 Ne5 24.Qh5+ Rg6 25.Rf5 Bb7 26.Be3 Bxd5 27.Rxd5 Ng4 28.Bd4 Qa5 29.Rf1 Qc7 30.c3 Qc8 31.Rxb5 Rxb5 32.Qxb5 Qe6 33.Qb7+ Kg8 34.h5 Rg5 35.f7+ Kh7 36.Qa8 Qe7 37.Qxa7? White Resigned

9.Ne6 c5 10.Qd1 Qb6 

11.Nxg7+ Kf7 12.Nf5 Bf8 13.O-O 

White has 2 pawns for his sacrificed piece, as well as a safer King. At 30 ply, Stockfish 15 rates this position as "0.00" - exactly even. So, White clearly has compensation for his material.

13...d5 

Thematic, but not absolutely necessary. Later in the year Horvath,I - Berkes,F, Gyula, 2013 (0-1, 23) saw 13...Rg8.

14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Qxd5+ Ke8 

If GM Giri had been familiar with the Jerome Gambit, he might have seen 15...Qe6 with the idea of exchanging Queens and lifting his defensive burden a bit...☺

16.Bg5 Qg6 17.Rad1 Rg8 18.f4 a5 

Preparing a Rook "lift" from the Queenside to the Kingside. It will not come soon enough.

19.e5 Qxf5 20.Qxg8 Ra6 21.Rfe1 Rg6 22.e6 Black resigned

Brutal.

Black's only option to avoid checkmate is to capture the offered Queen, but after 22...Rxg8 the Queen comes back with 23.exd7+ Kf7 24.d8/Q, and White has too many open lines for attack. 

Jerome Gambit: "O! for one hour of Morphy!"

 

A review of Chess Openings (4th edition), published in The Athenaeum of March 5, 1910, includes the following, which coincidentally touches upon the attraction of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) 

...Chess, however, is a diversion as well as a science, and we think it likely that a well-selected series of amateur games would afford more exhilaration to the average player than the professional display of to-day, faultily faultless, and splendly dull.

...Professionalism, as in other games, such as cricket and football, has an unfortunate influence on freedom of play, the use of the unexpected or hazardous as a means of attack... A player, if he is a professional, is hampered by the fact that he cannot run the risks common to the amateur. His reputation, which is his livelihood, is at stake; he must not lose, if he cannot win; and so we see a series of drawn games of little interest and less enterprise. 

The work has been done with utmost care and accuracy, and affords a complete summary of the first thirty moves or so in every opening a player is likely to adopt, not excluding such rash gambits as the Danish, and the Jerome Gambit, in which actually two pieces are sacrificed for two pawns. The latter is an American invention, and, though less admirable than some other novelties from the country of Morphy and Pillsbury, is typical of a freedom from convention which is all for the good of the game. " O! for one hour of Morphy!" we have heard even the enthusiast exclaim after plodding through a hundred moves or so by two masters in which the advantage of a single pawn in a "close game" is at last made into something tangible. The analysis of openings, especially in Germany, is studied with wonderful persistence, but it seems to engender a timidity in the middle and end game which is disappointing to the onlooker...

Jerome Gambit: Disambiguation

 

As a matter of disambiguation - my vocabulary word of the week - I wanted to clarify that my reference to the Jerome Gambit line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ke6 7.f4 Bf2+

(see most recently "Jerome Gambit: Anti-Bill Wall Gambit, Just Fine") as the Anti-Bill Wall Gambit could be taken a couple of ways.

The "Anti-Bill Wall Gambit" would suggest that there was a Bill Wall Gambit, and Black was countering it. There isn't; Black isn't.

The "Anti-Bill Wall Gambit" would suggest that someone was playing a gambit against Bill Wall. This is more to the point.

Way back in the post "The Anti-Bill Wall Gambit" from a dozen years ago, I wrote about the game Wall,B - Buster, Chess.com, 2010 (1-0, 11)

Since the only other game that I have in the updated New Year's Database with 7...Bf2+ is Wall - Equa, Chess.com, 2010, I'm tempted to title it the "anti-Bill Wall gambit"!

The whole notion of ...B(x)f2+ seems to be "backatcha": Black says I really don't know what you're planning on getting out of that Bishop sac at f7, but whatever it is, here's the same thing back at you!

Of course, the irony is that from an objective point of view, what the Jerome Gambiteer gets out of that Bishop sac at f7 is "a lost game" so he is usually delighted for Black to offer to claim that outcome back for himself.

(Yes, indeed, The Database was called the New Year's Database back then, and had a whopping 17,000 games - versus the 75,900 games in today's The Database.) 

I apologize for the lack of clarity - Rick