Why I play sharp chess

If, reading the title of this post, you begin reading it expecting me to win an exciting hack-attack, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed - check the posts either side of this one! Instead, for round 4 of the Surrey Congress U-180, I was black in a Caro-Kann against the 159 Eamonn O'Molloy. My irregular and whimsical deployment of my reserve King's Pawn opening is usually well-judged, if I do say so myself, but this is a clear exception - I quickly lost a pawn, and with nothing exciting happening on the board, had no realistic chance of averting my fate, and had to consent to a slow, dull grind.

 As I said in the title, that's why I usually play more exciting chess than in the above game! It's surely better to go down in flames but with chances of a save than to be slowly throttled with precisely nil chances of one's own. Of course, this attitude sometimes explodes in my face in a winning position - in fact I had it happen to me in a friendly game at school only today - but sometimes I just don't compromise very well (witness, for example, my defence of most inferior positions, which I often spoil even further by trying to defend absolutely everything without concessions) and for now I can still produce some games which I'm not ashamed to publish.

 After this rather grim reminder, you shall no doubt be pleased to hear that I returned to normal for the final two rounds on Easter Sunday.