Italian Game:Jerome Gambit

Named after the American Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, who published it in the 1870s. White sacrifices a bishop on f7 to drag the king out; objectively it is unsound.

It is reached after 7 moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Bxf7+. It is a line of the Italian Game.

Black is to move and has 3 legal moves. Over the next four moves — two for each side — the game can branch into 92,227 different games. Those games reach 53,682 different positions: most positions can be reached in more than one way, 1.7 on average.

No later position on this line has a name of its own in the Lichess opening list: the names end here.

The same moves can be played in 9 different legal orders that all reach this position. For example 1. Nf3 e5 2. e4 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. Bxf7+, which starts as the Zukertort Opening.