When I initiated this column half a year ago, I wanted it to be an opportunity for readers who would not otherwise have such a public forum to show their games and submit them to gentle analysis. It's intended to be informative and above all fun, but I do appreciate that it takes some nerve to expose games to scrutiny, especially disasters. And today I salute a reader who sent me two games in the full knowledge that they both start with what is, in the cold light of day, a totally insane gambit. And so both are totally "unsound". He is Rick Kennedy a class B player (about 1600ish) from Columbus Ohio and the opening is the "Jerome Gambit".
Rick, who is 64, retired after 40 years as a clinical social worker. He writes: "My wife Libby is a retired school psychologist. December will see our 40th wedding anniversary. We have three children, (Matthew, Mary, Jon), a daughter-in-law (Melanie) and a grandson (Cole). The adults know how to play chess, but do so infrequently. I have placed my pawnpushing hopes on the 1½-year-old.
Researching unusual chess openings has always interested me. Along with Riley Sheffield, I wrote The Marshall Gambit in the French and Sicilian Defences (Caissa, 1988) about 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 c5!? and 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 d5!? – openings championed by the American Frank Marshall.
Both Marshall Defences approach legitimacy. The Jerome Gambit, however, runs from it furiously. Morbid curiosity led me to do a lot of historical research and analysis on 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ and in mid-2008 I began my Jerome Gambit blog on the opening, with posts daily, then every other day. I passed post #2,300 a while ago.
Rick continues: When I first encountered this opening, the Jerome Gambit, all I could think of was "Who was this guy Jerome, and why are they blaming this horrible opening on him??" After 15 years of research and play I have come to appreciate the wacky, completely unsound invention of U.S. Civil War veteran (and later hemp farmer) Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, officer, 26th Infantry, United States Colored Troops.
Actually, over the years many club players seem to have invented and re-invented the opening, unaware of Jerome's 1874 (and later) published analysis and games. The Jerome is a fun blitz opening – as a chess friend, who plays at his local tavern said, either way, the game is over quickly – or a way to give a weaker player "odds". As a therapist of 40 years, I can say, too, that the Jerome is a fascinating study in the field of "errors in thinking".
I have no illusions about the Jerome Gambit. In fact, years ago the United States Chess Federation's magazine for children, Chess Life for Kids, published my article on the Jerome titled "The Worst Chess Opening Ever". Still, it's fun, and it can be educational. If Emil Josef Diemer could call his Blackmar Diemer Gambit a "high school for chess tactics", then I suppose I can call the Jerome Gambit a "pre-school for chess tactics".
When I (JS) looked at the games, I found them entertaining and instructive as to how to deal with such 19th century guerrilla opening tactics. Indeed, I was rather hoping to be able to use this gambit myself occasionally at blitz. You don't need software to realise that this should be utterly refutable, but unfortunately there is a very clean and boring refutation starting with 7...d6 in the second game, so I guess if I'm looking for occasional blitz insanity I should go for the glorious Halloween Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4...
The games were played in an online tournament in which the Giuoco Piano was mandatory – but not of course in this extravagant form. The time limit was actually a stonking three days per move, but obviously none of the players availed themselves of software, which would totally have spoiled the fun. Rick presented himself as "perrypawnpusher" and I've used his notes, dropping in the odd note of sanity as JS.
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