A walk on the wild side

 I make it a point to always play a slowplay tournament over Easter, and this time it was rather difficult to choose, even if the Surrey Congress I played in last year only ran its rapidplay this year (alas, as shall be seen, I did enter that!) I took ages to decide, but finally at lunchtime the day before it started, I plumped for the FIDE Open at CCF. I wasn't interested in playing an unrated U-170 (the prizes there are OK, but nothing more, and I always underperform when highly seeded), the alternative tournament was further away and more expensive, and the section I was in had a long enough tail for me to hope for at least a respectable score.

 Indeed, out of 26 initial entrants, I was seeded 18th. Thus I played the 5th seed in round 1, Laurence Ball (183 ECF; 2081 FIDE.) I'd expected to play my eventual round 3 opponent instead so didn't really bother to prepare beyond noticing that he was a theory-averse 1. d4 player a couple of years ago, and assuming that by stereotype he would play a stodgy game. Maybe he underestimated my strength based on FIDE rating (1773, before you ask) and tried to win lazily, but I could hardly have been more wrong! In any case, we caught each other in fighting mood and the game soon exploded into a cascade of ultra-sharp tactics - in the end, ratings told and I made the fatal slip, but not without causing him difficulty:

  What a mess! Ball set the tone as early as 4. h4!? and continued to play in caveman style in the opening. For all the subsequent confusion, it shouldn't be overlooked that my position after 15 moves was a commanding one, and it was poor technique to allow white enough counterplay to confuse the issue and eventually overwhelm my hapless King. 20... Nd7? is when things start to go nuclear, practically begging white to sacrifice something. Whilst I was able to find a string of good moves to ward off the immediate threats, eventually I cracked under the strain, and missed the admittedly difficult 27... Bh3!!, which seems to hold a draw. Having said that, he had a much stronger alternative on move 26, so he would likely have won with best play from both sides.

 Sometimes I do regret lacking the temperament to play a quiet, strategic game, and all too often finding myself in positions like this where even Fritz can get lost in the confusion. But it was a theme that permeated the tournament - I was trying too hard to force the chaos, and tended to bite off more than I could chew in so doing. As this game shows at times, I am not the best calculator, even if short-range tactics are the closest thing I have to a forté, and so I am not really playing to my strengths when I do this - controlled aggression is the key, which I like to think is how I play when at my best.

 Round 2 was that most unusual of things - white in a French where I very nearly lost to someone graded 53 points below me.