The Jerome Gambit: Jerome Gambit: Another Zombie Attack

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Jerome Gambit: Another Zombie Attack

Here is the latest game from Cliff Hardy - a 1-minute, no increment, bullet game that has 60 moves. That's an average of 1 second per move, and Cliff not only won the game, he (of course) won it with the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+).

The commentary is Cliff's. I have added a few diagrams. Have fun!

Hi Rick!

I'm sorry to be so shameless to inflict this 1 0 game on you but the Zombie Attack I got with my pawns in the game was so heart warming ☺. I'm so shameless I even stole the term "Zombie Attack" from your blog! 😉

Cliff Hardy (2212) - NN (2164)
1 0 bullet, Lichess, 2019

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+

4...Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qh5+ Ng6 7.Qd5+ Ke8 8.Qxc5 Qe7

9.Qe3 d6 10.Nc3 Nf6 11.0-0 Kf7 12.f4 Rf8

13.f5 Ne5 14.d4 Nc6 15.Qd3 Kg8 16.Bg5 Qf7 17.Rae1

17...Qh5 18.Bxf6 Rxf6 19.Nd5 Rf7 20.c4 Qg5 21.g3 Qd8 22.g4? =

The zombies are moving! But moving a different zombie with 22.e5! would have yielded White a winning position.

22...Ne7 23.Nf4 Bd7 24.h4 Nc6 25.g5 Rf8 26.a3 Qe8 27.b4 a6

28.Qc3 Qf7 29.a4

The zombies have lined up right across the board and are walking (or maybe even dancing?) together down the board like that in the "Thriller" film clip.

29...b5 30.axb5 axb5 31.c5 Na7 32.d5 dxc5 33.bxc5 c6 34.d6 Rae8

35.Qd4 Qc4 36.Qxc4+ bxc4 37.Rf2??

The zombies shouldn't have stopped walking. After 37.e5!? Bxf5 38.e6!, White's zombies on d6 and e6 would have made up for bishop deficit, and led to a slight advantage for White.

37...Nb5??

Crushing for black would have been to take the free pawn with 37...Rxf5!

38.Rc2 Bxf5 39.Rxc4 Be6 40.Nxe6 Rxe6 41.e5 Rd8 42.Rce4 Na7 43.Kf2 Nc8 44.Kf3 Nxd6??

OK, with this Black hangs the knight. Now the standard of the game really goes down the tubes, as we both made a mad rush for the time limit.

45.Kg4?? Nxe4 46.Rxe4 Rxe5?? 47.Rf4?? Rd4?? 48.h5?? Rxc5?? 49.Rxd4