Admittedly, the draw was in our most recent encounter, and after that I honestly thought I had solved the conundrum - keep things dull or hack him up, just don't let him get an attack going. Moreover, my last game with white against him was over two years ago, and I know a lot more about the Accelerated Dragon now than I did then. But this game followed the usual pattern; I tried to get a Yugoslav formation, black instead got some counterplay, I floundered and lost.
To draw a small positive, one cannot really attribute his victory to the opening this time; I got a nice position albeit not exactly of the nature I had intended. Indeed, if I had played 16. Qd3 I'd have gotten a winning position before move 20. Unfortunately I didn't calculate any further than 16... Rb8, a move that is easily refuted. Thus black fought on into the middlegame.
This is where things went wrong - I was just outplayed from a position that white should never lose if he is vigilant. I had no real plan (as opposed to some tactical ideas revolving around the e5 push) and lacked a bit of energy yet again (witness 18. Qe2?! and 21. Kh1?!, among others.) As before, lame play by me rather than brilliance by my opponent - but credit where it's due, he played as powerfully as ever once he got the initiative, and 25... Nxc3! was a nice concluding stroke. So in sum, nothing has changed from our earlier games...
To fit five rounds into two days, the third round at CCF weekenders starts at 6pm; many people take a bye. I vascillated, but decided that I needed to recover from this miserable start. But with the field reduced, my pairing would be a lottery, and I didn't get a good one.
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