Jerome Gambit: Beating the Clock / Beaten by the Clock

 

Here we have the position after 76 moves in the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) game payton321 - rangerover2020, 3 0 blitz, lichess.org.

The first thing to notice is that the players must have been using an average of about 2 seconds per move. It is a good thing that each player only had to move his mouse and not worry about hitting the time clock, which is automatic in online play.

The game continued about as you would have expected.

77.Kxd3 g4 78.Ke2 g3 79.Kf1 Ke5 80.Kg2 Ke4 

This position is completely even, and 81.Kxg3 now would guarantee a draw, except for an egregious blunder on Black's part that would allow the remaining pawn to promote. Perhaps the latter is just what White was hoping for.

81.c4 Kd3 

A mouse slip? Suddenly, the pawn can run faster than the enemy King.

82.c5 Kc4 83.c6 Kd5 84.c7 Kd6 85.c8=Q Ke5 

And now, Black won on time

I can applaud White's last chance for a win, and chuckle at Black's slow-footed King, but there is something missing in this analysis.

I am not sure about play online at lichess.org, but in games where I have played elsewhere, capturing Black's pawn would have protected White from loss, automatically generating a message from the site at flag fall something like "White has run out of time, Black has no checkmating material, the game is drawn."

Of course, had White taken a move to eliminate the g-pawn, Black's King would have caught the c-pawn, and the game would have been drawn, anyway. 

 White wanted to avoid a draw, and, in the end, he did.