We've played twice before, and in both games I was summarily wiped off the board - the first was way back in late 2010 in the U-125 section of the Caterham Congress, but the second can be seen in the blog archive here. In both cases, I played the white side of an Accelerated Dragon, didn't know enough in the double-edged Yugoslav lines, and paid for it spectacularly. Those defeats were humbling but gave me a good understanding of his play - from looking at other games I long ago came to the conclusion that he loves to attack and plays incisively in sharp positions, but collapses with little resistance when attacked and doesn't understand quiet positions. Since then I've advised numerous people to heed this when playing him, but they always ignore me and lose! Now I had an opportunity to practice what I preach, and whilst I was proved right, I let myself down technically:
Winless after all then! This is a very original problem for me, especially if one factors in the draws as a filler in the Summer Cup - already I have 6 draws from 7 games, and in the preceding year I only drew 15 games from 64! Whilst I seem to be missing something at the moment, maybe it isn't as bad as it seems - I have been very close in at least 3 of those games. I had a similar run a couple of years ago, snapped it by losing a couple and then flourished for a while afterwards. I finished here with a 144 grading performance, and my FIDE rating slipped even lower to 1755. Amusingly, I scored a strong 4.5/7 at the blitz on Monday, and my only rated game from Golders Green was a win, so my rapid and blitz ratings are my highest ever, at 1786 and 1783 respectively.
In the immediate aftermath of this game, I was happy enough with it - the Grünfeld is not an opening with which I'm very familiar but I accurately rebuffed his Queenside pressure without trouble, and assumed control after he predictably lost patience. However a closer look darkens my opinion. Psychological justification or no, passive play is rarely correct and something's not right if you feel obliged to play ...Qd8 and ...Ne8 in succession, with the overarching goal of returning both pieces to their previous squares over the next two moves! More to the point, this was a very lazy game on my part - perhaps because of his poor time management, I rushed a little without considering variations fully. I played 10... Qb6 without examining any alternatives or even the consequences of his predictable reply, stopped looking at 15... Ne4! after one (poor) move with no appreciation of the tactical undercurrents, and likewise rejected 20... Rad8! in view of a weak one-move variation. Finally I turned down another chance to win a pawn with 24... Rxc1+ because I didn't consider alternatives in a line I'd refuted, and so got the wrong move order. Apart from that, I played alright...
Really this is not a game to be happy with at all. To continue the chessboard policeman analogy from round 1, 18. e4? is a fully-fledged insult to my positional understanding; in a quiet position like this, taking on an isolated pawn for nothing in return is just Wrong. Usually tactics are able keepers of the peace, and indeed over the following few moves I had multiple opportunites to punish him, which I always managed to reject somehow. Overall this game just chimes with the others from the tournament - whilst I was better able to keep a coherent plan in mind than in the past, I was only patchily aggressive, displayed inadequate technique in better positions, and lacked a killer instinct. Most pressingly, I never seemed to be able to concentrate fully, and the resultant slips always came at inconvenient moments. Quite why this should be so, I'm not sure - it's not something I usually suffer from. By my standards I've been rather quiet since Easter; the pending resumption of league chess may well do me good.
Where I will be playing next isn't obvious. I may soon play my first game for Castles since last April; the CCF Superleague's appearance regulations have finally been revoked and the first game in mid-September is before I return to university, but now the squad size is capped so things remain up in the air. If it's not that, then Bristol University are beginning an exciting venture into the 4NCL this season, starting with the Rapidplay Championships in early October.
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