Steadying the ship

 Suitably downcast after my two losses at the 4NCL, the Monday immediately afterwards seemed a good opportunity to redress the balance, as I manned the bottom board for the University's trip to Clevedon. On paper one of the weaker teams in the top division, they had made a good start to the season and managed to hold us to draws home and away last time. So I was happy to get a strong team out - 186-190, 196-166, e190-156, 180-161, 160-187, 159-151. In part that was helped by one of our ex-players giving us a lift and sitting around for 3 hours - that's dedication!

 For my part, I was paired with Paul Spiller (151), as I was on both occasions last season, registering a draw and then a win. This time I had black, though of late that wasn't much of a cause for concern. In any case I was hoping to play a sharp line of the Alapin Sicilian which I saw he was ripe for. I got it, and at least stopped the rot, though my play remained rather imprecise:

 I hesitantly took a draw, but in the end we prevailed 5-1! DWWWWD gives a rather distorted picture though; boards 4 and 5 came down to blitz finishes and both could have easily been lost; their board 2 came close to holding an unlikely draw as well. But the match-card never lies, and we could be satisfied with finally getting both points out of them.

 This time I avoided defeat, but I doubt I played very much better than the day before. As before, I feel I got a happy position out of the opening - although neither side was familiar with the finesses. It would be tenuous to say I was ever markedly better, but I suppose that only means I couldn't collapse as spectacularly this time! Impetuousness gave me a weakling on e6 to nurse for a little while, but evidently my opponent had no real interest in playing for a win. He said he's only won for the B-team this season and it's not hard to see why! Still, I like the opening line - sharp, and giving black chances to play for a win. But sharpness usually implies a need for precision, which perhaps wasn't the best recipe.

 Nevertheless, easily drawing with black after a loss is the conventional wisdom, so not all bad. That said I would like to start winning again soon... when, it remains to be seen. Both of our remaining league matches this term are at home, and I try not to take up a board for those (but with student organisation, never say never!) so my next game could be in Surrey. That still doesn't narrow it down - Castles and Wallington both have looming matches that I'm hoping to make, I might play the Christmas Congress at CCF, or I might return to the London Junior just after Christmas. Wherever, hopefully I can pick up the pace!


 PS: Since everyone loves a miniature, our rout on board 3: G. Delay (e190) - D. Peters (156) 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Bc4 g6 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8. e5 Ng4 9. e6 f5 10. Qd4 Qb6 11. Qxh8 Qxf2+ 12. Kd1 Nf6 13. Bh6 1-0