Activity decides again

 The second round at BUCA was at least somewhat easier than the first - from top seeds to bottom as we took on Southampton. Our success in the tournament as a whole seemed to depend on our bottom boards being in good form, and it looked like that should make the difference here: 197-198, 176-179, 177-147, 156-106. I was playing with black against Stephen Gow (106) - it didn't escape my notice that since I came into the event defending a grading performance of 180 over the first 5 games of the season, such a pairing could only damage me. But complaining didn't seem a good idea!

 White played a disreputable line of the Grand Prix Attack in this game, and I was never presented with any opening problems. Though a missed tactic decided the game very quickly, white's position was already very bad. Particularly striking is the difference in piece activity, in the game and the variations alike:

 Though we had chances to win, we had to be content with 2-2 (DLDW), and all results were possible near the end. At the time, I was not particularly impressed with my win; I felt that I hadn't really understood the game and was reliant on his blunder to win. Looking at the game in more detail, it seems that I had a good feel for the position even if I wasn't seeing in great depth the moves to confirm my obvious advantage.

 Having said that, I passed over some of the simpler methods. It's always tempting to just stick a Rook on the d-file and throttle white; as Fritz shows in many variations, he is surprisingly powerless against this. The variation after 18... Rfd8 is probably my favourite, although the pawn sacrifice after 16. Ba2 is also instructive. White's game has gone wrong not because he has made some gaping tactical error that can be immediately exploited - the disaster is strategic in nature, in that he has shut down his own Kingside attack (10. e5?!) and allowed all his minor pieces to be shunted into positions where they have no influence on the game. So black can take his time, since white can't muster anything in response. I was too worried about g4 ideas.

 Still, it's surely good to bounce back from one's first loss of the half-season by winning in 19 moves with black. Round 3 finally gave me a game against an opponent of similar strength.