Away on 1 means the white pieces, and I expected to play a 152 who played a line of the Nimzowitsch Defence against our now-second board last year: 1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 f6!?. I couldn't find anything fully convincing, which is strange, but I was pleased to see that he was in fact not playing; instead I played Chris Strong of 136 grade. I'd been told beforehand he plays the Sicilian, which sounded rather more exciting a prospect!
The grade comparison: 149-138, 156-U, 111-124, 109-135, 81-87, U-U, might suggest a tough match in the offing, and that's what I expected. But we managed to convert our higher-board grading advantage, and with some good results elsewhere, came out with a surprisingly convincing win. Whilst I chipped in with a full point, it was certainly not a convincing display:
To sum up, I misplayed the opening terribly by inaccurately judging the variations 4. e5 and 6. Nxe4, and so was forced to bail out into an inferior ending made worse by optimistic pawn-grabbing. Black established a promising bind, but as ever, I started playing that little bit better when my back was against the wall, and that proved enough - persistent failure to recapture a second sacrificed pawn allowed me to slowly but surely unwind, and when Rooks came off, black was mercilessly ground down despite my pressing time trouble. Our flattering WWWDLW victory is good news for our league standing.
Still, my performance was cause for alarm, as I really had to labour to the win, despite black often offering help along the way. I often get quite pessimistic about winning chances in better positions, and this was no exception, which didn't help matters. Yet again, a Grand Prix Attack mutated into a positional grind, but, improbably, it worked.
Black's strategy, although ultimately resulting in defeat, deserves comment. I adhere to the idea that activity of one's forces is the paramount concern, and the sacrifice 16... b4 should not be accepted. When I blindly took it, black gained lots of compensation, keeping me tied down, and this was no small part of my time trouble - for the next 10 moves he had a real grip and it was hard to find any moves, hence the clock creeping up on me at the end. 10 moves may not sound like a lot but it was almost an hour in real time! An admirable concept all in all - but it was his narrow-minded determination to maintain the most concrete aspect of compensation, the Bishop Pair, that led him to neglect his good Knight and c-file control, and ultimately it was this that allowed me to exert my will on proceedings.
Unusually for recent weeks, I'm not entirely sure when my next game will be - given the above, it is probably good news that I am surplus to requirements for the A-team's match tomorrow (and bad news for Horfield B, their opponents, considering that a weakened line-up beat their A-team 5.5-0.5 last week!) At the latest, it will be on the 5th December, and at the earliest a week today. Stay tuned...
PS: I have a nagging feeling that I've used this post title before, but I've looked and I can't find it. If you can, please let me know...
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