Only a few days after the game against Kalaiyalahan, I was back at CCF. This time, I was in Castles colours once more, on board 1 as we played the "Knights of Old". There is a certain irony in a team deliberately composed of juniors playing a team deliberately composed of older players (I must be careful how I phrase that!), but in the end it was youth that triumphed, 2.5-1.5. This was impressive, since by grade (129-148, 128-116, 119-113, 72-107) we looked to be struggling on the extreme boards. Yet we won on board 3, drew everywhere else and so secured our spot at the top of the league. My contribution was a quite comfortable draw against the 148 Brian Allan:
After the improvised early opening skirmish settled down into a Stonewall formation, I was never seriously trying to win. I reckoned that a draw would do for us, and events proved me right. Despite that, if one removes the context of the game, the fact remains that white made several inaccuracies that could have allowed me to mount a winning try. But a draw with a 148 should stabilise my grade for the January list at just over 145, which would be an excellent advance in only 6 months.
I thought this would be my last game of the year. I was wrong, as it turned out, getting one more in just in time on the 29th December. Before this, my last win in a longplay game was on the 16th November, so it was nice to finish off with a quick victory.
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