An undemanding man, I wanted only to complete an unbeaten term (last season, I fell at the final hurdle not once but twice) especially since I had black on board 4 against a strong team. So it was a little traumatising to see that I was playing Tyson Mordue, a 196-graded FM! He seems to be more interested in coaching now, but of course you don't get the letters in front of your name without being pretty good. Though his heavily prosaic annotations on the South Bristol website are excellent, he is a sharp, tactically-orientated player, and this is something I think you can only keep in shape with practice. Besides, whilst this pairing was a surprise to me, I had at least taken it seriously enough to prepare for the possibility. Even so, I was taken aback by quite how easily I held my own:
This time South Bristol got revenge for our swindle last season, and pulled off almost a carbon copy to leave us beaten 2.5-3.5 (WDLDLD). For a while it looked like we would pull off 'win with white, draw with black' perfectly, but it was not to be. So two unwelcome lost points, but we do seem to be back to being a respectable division 1 team.
This was the first time I've gotten something from an OTB game against a titled player - and when it came, it was surprisingly easy. I got the impression his mind is on other things, but even if he hadn't made an inaccuracy black seems to equalise just like that - an important conclusion if true, though evening league games don't shape theory and with good reason. It's a bit odd to choose the Najdorf and then go in for a line that leads with best play to an equal ending, but I think black's more ambitious alternatives are too risky. In must-win games, black has opportunities to deviate earlier.
To me, neutralising their highest-graded player with black in 21 moves, and completing an unbeaten term at last, seemed like a pretty good deal - so I was astonished that my lack of ambition came under fire afterwards. It's not like I even had an advantage in this game! But of course, six draws from seven games is more than I would like. Hopefully I managed to prove something to myself: until very recently I have almost never been able to hold 175+ opponents, but now I have done it three times in a row with more conviction and a stronger opponent on each occasion. I've ticked the unbeaten-term box, we're clearly not going to win the league and I won't be around if we're relegated: next term it will be time to start winning against people like this!
I say 'unbeaten term', but I'm going home early enough to miss our final two matches before Christmas (one of them will probably be postponed anyway.) My next games will be in the Open section of the London Chess Classic Weekender in a week's time - it's a bitter disappointment that Bristol's term is too long for me to play the Super Rapidplay or FIDE Open, but with free entry for U-25s I can't complain that much. Anyway, my opponents tend not to acquiesce to quick draws so easily when playing for themselves so hopefully my games will be more fulsome than of late!
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