I can be boring!

 Although the B section had not finished as I'd liked, there is always another game round the corner. This time it was only a few hours to wait until the final round of Section C, where I was in technically in contention for a prize even if I couldn't actually win one. When you consider that I was only playing as a filler, it's quite remarkable that they looked for another one when left with an odd number rather than stand me down, on the grounds that I might as well finish the tournament and was threatening the top places. I can't imagine many other events doing that.

 This time I had white, and I was playing David Gray (67/-). This was almost certainly not going to be as difficult a game as the other ones in the tournament, but I try to take all of my opponents seriously - and the course of the game proves it. Offered the chance to win a pawn at the cost of exchanging Queens and being stuck at the board for a long time, I didn't bother looking for a quick brilliancy, and just ground him down. Being gifted a piece sped up proceedings but I was not going to leave any room for doubt:

 Well, it makes a change from the Classical KID! Not an exciting display, but as I said in my previous white game - if needs must then so be it. I've always felt that without objectivity a chess-player is nothing, so once I convinced myself that 8. Qxb6 was the best move I was hardly going to play anything else. It's interesting that my white games were quite smooth, whereas my games with black were often a total mess. Before rushing to conclude that I'm trying too hard, on the basis of 3/3 with white and 1/4 with black, it's worth noting the difference in opposition strength. Clear positions seem good for my results, but so does always playing under the 40-point rule.

 Although I only took outright third, and so wasn't in the prize places even for argument's sake, my 3.5/5 (including the half-point bye) gave me a 169 performance - my best ever slowplay tournament. Unfortunately, given the often extreme grading disparity, it's not clear what lessons I can apply to try and make my congress results a little less mediocre than normal. Lessons from my play across the tournament as a whole are more obvious: calculation can't be fixed overnight (though it seems to be an issue of organisation, at least in part), my play in the endgame continues to be completely random but badly in need of attention, and if I am going to insist on heading for messier positions than I like in search of winning chances as black, then I should at least be well-prepared.

 With this game finished, my work as a filler was done and it was time to start annotating. A daunting prospect with seven games, but here we are! I haven't played since, so I am up to date again. The Golders Green Rapidplay at the weekend is a possibility, otherwise I should be playing for Castles in the CCF Superleague Cup next Monday.