Back with a bump

 Yesterday was my first full day back at home after my first term at Bristol University was completed, and I decided to spend it at a rapidplay tournament in the Docklands. I have been once before, the day before my 17th birthday, and won £60 with an unbeaten 5/6 in the then U-125 section, and my draws in the final two rounds should have been wins if not for time trouble. This time, I entered the Minor again, now U-130. In hindsight, this was a mistake, but I reasoned that if I could score massively, which on recent form I could hope to do, then it would send my grade up and I could win some money - it influenced my thinking that the U-170 and Open sections are almost always merged.

 Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan! It started going wrong when I went to bed early (10pm) the previous night, then woke up at 2am and was hit by my steadily worsening insomnia. By 5:30, having failed miserably to get back to sleep, I had gotten up. A similar thing happened at Richmond in September though, and that ended quite well, so not in itself cause for concern. A difference though, if I may be permitted to deploy a Fischer Defence of sorts, was that the noise levels were atrocious for a chess tournament (not helped by one competitor who had to call out his moves - loudly to a small room - for his opponents to play, but I fully accept that: there's nothing he can do it about it. People chatting after finishing their games, however...)

 But enough excuse-making - in the final analysis, I just played badly. I managed to start off with my habitual first-round win, although laboured to victory against a 93 who played 1. a3!? against me...

 Round 2 was where things started going wrong, just like the July Richmond Rapid. After mishandling a Smith-Morra Gambit, I was forced to give up the exchange. But in fact this gave me a fantastic bind, especially after Queens came off, and I was cruising only to switch off, blunder a piece, maintain swindling chances only to walk into a mate...

 I debated whether or not to publish my round 3 game, which is of little interest to anybody, but in the name of completion...:

 Round 4 was the only time I was able to win consecutive games in this event. It was also my favourite game of the tournament, providing further evidence in support of my half-serious protestations that the French Defence loses by force for black:

 By contrast, the penultimate round was a complete disaster for me; after only 10 moves my chances of finishing in the top places went up in smoke. A very painful game to remember, but I have always said I wanted to avoid resembling the Lalic YouTube channel, and I've been posting too many wins lately. Therefore:

 At least I managed to finish nicely. By this stage I was more angry than anything else, and resolved to try and blast my opponent off the board, whoever they happened to be. I was against an 89, and achieved my aim with an eccentric King's Gambit:

 On Friday I came back to London; on Saturday I came back to Earth. Since I lost in mid-August to Prashast Vir, I have enjoyed an incredible run of results, losing only 1 game out of about 30 and drawing only a few. If there was any danger of over-confidence, something I try hard to avoid, it was certainly headed off by this miserable display. I performed at a meagre 114, which is the lowest since my first spell in the Richmond Rapidplay U-135 section (ie: the 2010-11 season) Having said that, my performance at rapid chess prior to July was so bad this will still increase my grade!

 As I mentioned in the preamble, I have no shortage of excuses, and to add to them perhaps my unfortunate vulnerability to 'burnout' played a part, but I must concede that I just played badly. It was just a case of switching off at important times. Allowing Bynnersley his back-rank mating ideas and then an actual mate, before diligently setting up a tactic for myself to walk into against Fleischer - twice - are the most obvious examples, but even the wins were shaky - Buckland had real drawing chances at times even after losing a piece thanks to time trouble, and I missed the painfully obvious 14. Qxe6+ against Litvin. Perhaps the saddest casualty was my long unbeaten run with white, which lasted for seven-and-a-half months in graded games. At least it continues for now at slowplay time controls, where it stretches right back to round 2 of the Surrey Congress.

 On the bright side, I maintain the ability to produce nice individual games even when on poor form (and I have a theory that strategic understanding isn't affected by form very much; tactical vision, at which I was very sloppy on this day, is) even if against opponents I outgrade considerably. I was certainly playing with freedom, offering a pawn in all of my games with white and once as black. My overall rapidplay half-season has been immense, and I might just reach 150 rapidplay if the grades of my junior opponents increase enough. Certainly I won't even be able to consider wasting my time in sections like this again, although I still drew a timely lesson.

 I have one more game before the London Junior U-21 FIDE Open, a friendly at CCF tomorrow that I think will probably be ECF-graded and possibly even FIDE-rated. Time will tell. I have white against a 146, so it should be an interesting game.