The occasion of my first ever graded game was in the Briant Poulter Schools League, on the bottom (sixth) board for Sutton Grammar's B-team against our counterparts from Trinity School. Really in terms of playing strength I had no place there at all, but I was in the right place at the right time when someone didn't turn up. (Once I started running the school teams a couple of years later, people were too scared to continue such truancy...) This was just as SGS started to become very strong indeed; once I had reached 6th Form they could no longer give us competitive matches, and we memorably won a 3-team match by a net 27-3 in my final year. But at the time of this match, our respective 1st-teams had spent two acrimonious years squabbling over the Division 2 title, and we really did not get on at all well - SGS-Trinity always promised an ill-tempered grudge match with at least one board going to the appeals committee. So losing here was not an option!
It's hard to say for sure given that there were so many ungraded players, but we were probably slight favourites on the basis of stronger top boards: 101-U, 96-U, 101-U, U-73, U-U, U-U. My opponent was Arangan Kirubakaran, who the grading database suggests was in the same year group as me (Y11, at the time of this game.) In the July 2010 list he got his first grade of 73, which I suppose is a fair estimate; we were probably quite closely matched.
The game is below; I had to tear up my old annotations and start again, for they were so superficial and ignorant as to be embarassing. There are a few instructive moments, but those of a sensitive disposition should look away now...:
Our 3.5-2.5 victory was the catalyst for a fruitful season and eventually 3rd place in the league; LWWDLW. Soon I won another game as reserve on the same board, then found regular employment in the C-team, and the rest is history. Probably the real breakthrough was when I entered a Richmond Rapidplay in March 2010, and came =2nd in the U-100 with a grading performance higher than most of our 1st-team players. These were exciting times; I hope you will forgive my nostalgia.
The game itself, unsurprisingly, is not of very high quality. Really it was only after I made a big jump forward in the summer, ahead of the 2011-12 season, that I started producing games I would be happy to publish. Still, for completeness and entertainment value this had to crop up sooner or later. It is ironic that I have come full circle with my openings and returned to what I did here (this was the end for it though; in my second B-team game a few weeks later I started 1. e4 and never looked back) but certainly I play it very differently now - 8. Bg5 and 9. Nc3 display a dogmatic adherence to the principle of rapid development, but also that I had no idea of what the pieces should actually be doing, nor how my pawn structure was relevant (the idea of a pawn break with c4 was entirely alien.) I certainly would not blindly shove all my flank pawns up the board, and now I doubt I would even notice the possibility of 16. Bxc6?, much less actually play it. In the end I was saved by playing the Rook ending less badly than my opponent, and improvising the winning method for K+R vs K under the pressure of the clock, the match situation, and everyone glaring at me.
But really, all of this is irrelevant. The game is in the past, and it should be left there. It serves to show only how much use one can make of 4 years, even when studying for GCSEs, then A-Levels and finally the early stages of a degree.
I seem to be saying it every month at the moment, but I really am thinking of playing the rapidplay at Golder's Green this Saturday, if only because there is a U-145 section. If not, then in the middle of the month I will be in action either at the e2e4 tournament in Gatwick, or the Jessie Gilbert Festival at CCF.
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