Old friends

 Yesterday I played two games in an event I helped to organise, the first Sutton GS vs. Leavers match. Getting it together was a rather stressful affair, and it was confirmed for definite only two days beforehand, but finally we lined up with 7 boards for each side, giving us a welcome chance to catch up. The entirety of the Leavers team, for which I played on board 1, was in the Upper Sixth last year, and together we formed the spine of the school teams; our results this year haven't been as good, but very impressive considering the size of the gulf our departure created. We had two people missing, one of whom is a 206, and yet still would expect to win easily at the peak of our powers, especially since the SGS team was also without a few people. But many in the team haven't played since leaving! I didn't realise just how much of a difficulty this would present, but I hoped it would balance the odds a bit.

 We followed the format used in the lower divisions of the Briant Poulter Schools League - two games of 30 minutes each, and opponents switch between rounds (so round 2 pairings of 1-2, 2-1, 3-4, 4-3, etc.) Grading costs money since very few of the players are ECF members, so we went without; I was happy at this for it gave me a rare opportunity to experiment at a nearly-respectable time control without much pressure. Nonetheless, I felt that only on the top board group would we be in difficulty.

 The grade line-up for the first round was 152-158, 105-135, 125-129, 128-103, 102-101, 121-112, 101-112. No doubt those numbers look very suspicious, so remember that junior grades are always volatile. I kept the team in the order it would have played in at the end of last season; needless to say I have remained very active, whilst boards 2, 4 and 6 have played occasionally for Cambridge, Bristol and Birmingham respectively. Further, their board 7 (who is displaying enough enthusiasm for rapid improvement and organisation to be termed "the new Daniel Young"!) would have been on board 4 if he could play both rounds, and went that low only to allow an easy substitution for round 2.

 Now onto the chess - though ungraded, the play was certainly interesting enough to merit publication! For the first round, I played my successor as A-team captain, the 158-graded Caspian Heeler. Two of many Suttonians with a sharp playing style, we always seem to bring out the wildest in each other and have produced a number of crazy games that - somehow - almost always end in draws. I have been wondering recently if I can play as excitingly as I used to, and so conciously aimed for an explosive game, resurrecting an archaic part of my opening repertoire in the process. I got a clear answer to the question - yes, albeit with some help:

 Although we had black on every board for the first round, it was still a major surprise to be 3-4 down (WWLWLLL.)  With their board 7 replaced by a 93, we hoped to strike back with white in round 2, for which I played against against my successor as evil overlord, David Powell (135). Again I was up for an opening experiment, and it yielded a very quick success - but one can hardly say it should have done:

 

 We had to be content with a 7-7 draw; this time we came up with WWLWLLW, so only our board 7 scored something other than 0% or 100%! Unsurprisingly, our 3 double-winners were those who have continued to play -  the 2/2 from our board 2 was particularly impressive, although his 137 slowplay grade is more indicative. A fun afternoon in any event, and the nicest result - the biggest obstacle to getting this match played was the justifiable fear that it wouldn't be a contest!

 Evaluation of my play must be coloured by the fact that these were rapid games played in rather less than strict tournament conditions! But a mixed picture - the opening went pretty well in the first game, but my KID rustiness soon resulted in me losing the thread. His typical aggression led to the gloriously unnecessary 17. Ncxb5; I recovered my bearings, and then in our trademark manic position, time trouble left everything up in the air. Both sides lost control more than once, but when the smoke cleared it was me with a mate in two on the board. How right Tartakower was to say that "the winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake." The second game was a totally different affair - my play was a little too wild this time, and as early as move 9, he had a win with ...Nb4. But it was missed, and not long after his Achilles' heel, tactical vision, struck in dramatic fashion and it was all over in a mere 14 moves. Both of my opponents are in their final year, and exams start to loom ever larger in the mind at this time of year; I daresay chess was not at the forefront at this time. But I'll take it.

 A final note on the openings - I quite liked my game in the King's Indian Defence, one of the 'old friends' to which the post title refers, and since I've noticed that I play unusually badly in sterile positions, I wouldn't be surprised to see it make a comeback in a serious game some time, loathe though I am to abandon the Nimzo-Indian experiment after only two games. The Caro-Kann Advance needs rather more work, since I've never played it before; still it would be nice to have something as an alternative to the Fantasy Variation. Time will tell.

 After vascillating for weeks, I finally decided today that I will play in the FIDE-rated Open section of the CCF Easter Congress tomorrow and Saturday. It isn't especially strong for an unrestricted section, so who knows what could happen? Then on Monday I will play in the Surrey Congress Rapidplay, and the evening blitz back at CCF. So plenty to look forward to!