An Agrajag moment

 If BUCA provided a bit of glitz and glamour, my next game a couple of days later was a return to the meat and potatoes of the club player - flailing around in the local evening league as my team tries hard to stay up. On the 24th February, Bristol University went back to our erstwhile home venue to play Horfield B, one of the other teams floating around the relegation zone. We had five matches left to go after this one, so anything was still possible, but our run-in looked very demanding so we had to build up points whilst we could - this was probably the best remaining chance.

 However we were missing people, and I was on board 2; the grades were 212f-177, 164-166, 159-174, 128f-176, 148-161, 130-U. This wasn't the time, but the usual disclaimer about our grades applies. I had black against Kajetan Wandowicz, who plays almost every opening under the sun but was at least being consistent in using the Barry Attack at the Bristol Winter Congress played just beforehand. From past experience, I believe it to be nothing for white. He played it again here and found me ready, so the usual trade of dubious position for surprise value didn't apply: he just had a dubious position. A controlled performance made my advantage bigger and bigger, eventually picking up a pawn.

 And then came some fooling around...

 Although we gave ourselves some breathing space with a 3.5-2.5 win (WLWDWL) I was disconsolate afterwards - "oh no, not again" was precisely what I was thinking as I watched my patiently-crafted advantage collapse in front of my eyes for the umpteenth time. Eventually you start to wonder why you bother - it's no fun to play good games and never get rewarded for them. White is of a similar grade to me, but I outplayed him comfortably - here is yet more evidence that my conversion traumas are really holding me back. The real pain is that I was ahead on the clock almost throughout - 3 minutes against 10 on move 35 should be game over, but as soon as white got even remotely active I just disintegrated. It is the same every single time and, for reasons that are obvious enough, I can't do anything about it right now.

 I am writing my dissertation by day at the moment, but my evenings are proving unusually industrious at the moment. The next post is just about done, and will be up tomorrow - and that's not my April Fools' joke!

nb, 02/04: If the reader chances upon this post after its day of publication, then I would advise looking at the next post as well for an explanation...