Anyway, this is a chess blog, not a diary, so onto the Saturday, which saw me at Ashtead Chess Club on board 2, a new high for county matches. Our opponents were Kent, who went into this match with a 5/5 record and the SCCU title already secured. Surrey had 2/5, placed 3rd of 4 but with a slim chance of qualifying for the national stage if we could win and another result went our way. It's curious, but I realised the other day that Kent are the sole exception to my otherwise fantastic record in county matches, having supplied the defeat on my debut (still the only county match I've ever lost) and a disproportionate number of draws. Luckily I noticed only after the match!
My opponent was an ungraded player named Krzystof Jamroz, whose official estimate grade is 153. He's done solidly in a few games this season, and played 5 games a decade ago, but otherwise has been inactive for a long time. However, he was very strong once - in 1996 he had a FIDE rating of 2175, and when it was last active at the turn of the millenium, it was still 2115. According to Olimpbase the day before this game was his 36th birthday, so any loss of strength is probably on account of rust rather than aging. In any case, he played a disreputable opening line and gave me an early advantage with black, but some careless play on my part let him off the hook. Fortunately for me, I'd made enough progress on the Queenside that despite leaving me totally passive, he couldn't make progress either:
It would have been nice to win, but to lose after paying £40 in train and bus fares to get a return from Bristol to home, Ashtead and back would have been even more disappointing than this ugly draw! It was one of many games to finish in draws at around that time; Kent took far too long to muster any reply to our early wins, and as soon as they did we struck back immediately, and so 9.5-6.5 was the final result. It restored us to an even score for the season (although 100% when I've played! See also my appearance in November; playing 2/3 of the home matches is worth trumpeting when this far away.) We will finish second and advance if Middlesex beat Essex in the final match of the season, but their away record this season has been dire (again, see above) so it must be considered very unlikely. In any case, I'll probably be unavailable.
And so onto the game itself. This Saturday also would have been Fischer's 70th birthday, but I can hardly say I rose to the occasion. A game in the 5. Bc4 Grand Prix Attack is never going to be theoretically significant, and my opponent's outdated play soon landed him in difficulty - that stage of the game I played reasonably well, efficiently confirming the impressions of the theoreticians. But perhaps I was unsettled by the surprising - but bad - 14. Ne5?, for thereafter I seemed to lose my way until things calmed down into a slightly worse endgame that ultimately could be held on account of his congested Queenside. I was too eager to trade Queens with 17... Qe8?, and so let him consolidate whilst losing my initiative. The failure to play ...f4 whilst I had the chance put paid to any hopes of victory, and I was labouring for the split point. However the position after move 28 is another one to add to the catalogue of those Fritz 10 struggles with - white's position is optically impressive, but there is no way in. I did enough earlier in the game to at least make sure of that. Whoever thinks the opening doesn't matter that much beyond getting the pieces out, think again!
I next play tomorrow, against Downend A in the Bristol League. It's likely to be a strong (ca. 180) opponent, but the last time I said that the opposition had a player exodus! So let's see...
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