On Wednesday, I was on board 4 as the University A-team made the (very) short trip to play Clifton B away. It's hardly unusual that the team's strength gradually declines over the course of the season, and despite being a B-team, our opponents were no pushovers, even having an IM on the top board. It was 187-209, 180-192, 168-173, 162-159, 156-151, 144-149. Still, everything to play for!
My opponent, grade 159, was Dominic Bennett. His last half-season was one to forget, and so he is rather lower than he has been previously. He has a very broad repertoire, which hinders such preparation as can be done for an evening league game at the best of times, but we got something I was ready for. An interesting game developed, and after I made a rare sacrifice it was starting to get interesting. I thought that by the end it had calmed down, but in the cold light of analysis, I underestimated my own play:
Things looked good for us until very late on, and so it was an unpleasant surprise to lose our unbeaten run only 5 matches from the end of the season, LLDDWD. My draw put us 2-1 up, and board 3 finished shortly afterwards, but board 2 went from pawn up with a possible tactical win to wrong side of a mating attack in only a few moves, and on board 1 a time scramble allowed their player to somehow grind out a win with R+P vs. B+3P. A shame, but it would be wrong to blame them: it's a team competition after all, and I for one could perhaps have tried harder for a full point. In many ways this game reminds me of a draw I had with Graham Alcock back in 2011 - after a good and uncharacteristic investment of material I emerged with a good position but bottled out with an early draw. I still don't give things up very often (indeed, I've probably got even worse since then) but at least I seem to choose my moments well, by and large.
This game illustrates some of the defining characteristics of my play. I suppose if you haven't figured the below out by now you haven't been reading carefully enough, so I'm not too worried by spelling it all out. I am fundamentally a bean-counter, hence my unwarranted pessimism after making an entirely correct exchange sacrifice - the knowledge that 5 > 4 blinded me to just how difficult white's position is, and I had a considerable time advantage by the end. Also it was a real struggle to resist the temptation of 15... Bxa4, grabbing an irrelevant pawn even when I knew it was bad; it kept looming large in my thoughts and demanding to be investigated again for some improvement. This is allied with a cautious side that makes me very fearful of attacks on my King, hence 15/16. g4 really worried me. Indeed it might be said that they are two sides of the same coin, for material is so much more tangible than initiative or time, but being greedy and wanting my King to never be attacked is a risky combination.
Anyway, take the raw result of a draw with an under-graded 159 as black and this was no catastrophe. I have been fortunate not to have had that many blacks this season for the University A-team (part luck, part active policy from higher up) but even for me a change felt in order.
The next league match for us is at home on Wednesday against the strong team from Downend, but in the meantime my just-concluded visit home for Mothers' Day weekend conveniently allowed me to play an U-160 county match for Surrey.
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