Rightly or wrongly, I have managed to develop a reputation as being quite a sharp tactician. It's true that I have played some good games in openings that demand a good tactical eye, and when I'm on form this can lead to some exciting fireworks. The problem is when I am not on form. Recently I prepared a tactics quiz for a Sutton Grammar team training session, based on the not unsound reasoning that demonstrating a season's worth of tactical blunders in my games should be worth a laugh or two. It was interesting to notice that at the start of the season, I was running rings around my opponents tactically, but since shortly after the start of the school term in September, this has sharply declined, along with my results.
Anyway, round 5 turned out to be my last graded game of the tournament - I got a bye for the last round - and was decided early on when I didn't calculate well enough and so lost a piece:
2.5/6, even when assisted by a bye, is a good score for me, however I am disappointed with the tournament - I was missing terrible things (the crazy 28... a4? is a good example here, and the most bizarre is 9. Nh4?? from round 1) and only played one coherent, blunder-free game in the whole tournament. I won that game, so it remains a case of spacing the bloopers better...
I did play a game in round 6, against the 171 James Coleman (Ed: now a Candidate Master - Sep. 2012), but it was not to be graded, neither player has much to be proud of (after a blunder-filled display from both of us he eventually won when I unwisely elected to avoid a perpetual check with a piece vs. 3 pawns in a Rook ending), and I have many more games to get onto. Now I was back playing team events - and lots of them.
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