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Chessville
From the
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Birthdays with My Friend, Jerome by Jon, as retold by Rick Kennedy Mom and Dad always look at old picture albums and laugh and say things like "There's baby Jon, sticking peas up his nose!" or "Here's baby Mary with oatmeal on her head!" Yuck! When I want to remember my younger days, I page through a scrapbook of my early chess score sheets. Sure, I played some ugly games back then. I played some pretty ones, too. Here's a game from my birthday party when I was 6. Of course we played chess! I had the black pieces against my friend Jerome: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+
4… Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.d4 Bb6 7.Qh5+ Ke6 8.Qf5+ Kd6 9.Qxe5+ Kc6 10.Qd5 mate.
UGLY! I should have signed the score sheet "Anonymous." My next birthday I invited Jerome again, and that time I was prepared for his favorite line. Luckily, I saved that score sheet, too: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6
Pretty, no? When I turned 8, Jerome brought me a nice present, but he also had this surprise for me: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 d6 8.Qxh8 Qh4 9.0-0 Nf6 La, la la - hadn't I seen this all last year? 10.Qd8
Ooops. 10...Bb6 11.e5 de 12.Qd3 Bf5 13.Qb3+ Kg7 14.d4 Rd8 15.de Qxf2+ 16.Rxf2 Rd1 mate
OW! That's worse than going to bed early, if you ask me! I'm 9 now. Here's my latest birthday party game against Jerome: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ g6 7.Qxe5 Qe7
Surprise, pal! 8.Qxh8 Qxe4+ 9.Kf1 Qh4 10.g3 Qh3+ 11.Ke1 Qe6+ 12.Kd1 Qg4+ 13.Ke1 Qe4+14.Kd1 Qf3+ 15.Ke1 Bf2+ 16.Kf1 Bxg3+ 17.Kg1 Qf2 mate
I can't wait until I turn 10! (P.S. Jon's friend, of course, was playing the Jerome
Gambit. The second game shown here was actually played in Amateur-Blackburne,
London 1880. The first game is based upon an 1874 analysis by Alonzo
Wheeler Jerome, inventor of the cheeky gambit. The third game is based
upon modern analysis by Hindemburg Melao. The fourth game is based
upon modern analysis by Catalan Master Richard Guerrero Sanmarti.) Index of Fiction at Chessville
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