Lost opportunities

 One aspect of the Berks & Bucks Congress that I was pleased about was the time control - a 5-hour session. That might sound strange given what I said about the British Championship recently, but for a weekender with two rounds a day it was very generous, and here we had the full 120 minutes to reach move 40! But the downside is that there as a very long wait between rounds. Even so, I could predict my pairing with some degree of confidence given how few draws there were - a colours-reversed rematch with John Wager (189/2117), who I played only a few weeks earlier in Warwick.

 A pre-tournament database check had told me he plays the Petrov, so I wanted to do something different. I almost went for the King's Gambit, and used it to draw with Alex Golding in a friendly game just before the round - but only by grovelling. So I went for my more serious idea, a return to the English Opening. The idea was to set up a slow position where I could just play, and take it from there. With hindsight, I don't know why I ever believed such an approach would work - history teaches!

 I met the fate I deserved, but there is a bigger oddity lurking in this game:

 The farce around move 41 is one of the stranger moments from my games - and one of the more embarrassing. Supposedly I am a qualified arbiter, so I really shouldn't be missing threefold repetitions in my own games! But you have to be concentrating. That aside, the position had been lost for a long time, and didn't get any better after that, but I could probably have resisted for longer. It was simply not possible to play with a clear head any more once I understood what had happened.

 It seems that I did not learn my lesson from the first game with Wager, for once again I allowed him to get just the sort of position he likes. In fact I went directly for it, an inexcusable lapse with white. 12. e4?! looks much uglier now than it did at the time - I think it arose from a desire to do something that doesn't mesh well with the English, and explains why I usually prefer classical systems. Even in these outwardly calm positions though, a tactical bolt is never far away, and the warning was there. Anyone can see that my Knight is short of squares on a4, but it was left to Wager to show me how strong ...Qb5 could be. My defeat in this game was not caused by any new problem.

 I could have hoped for more than 0.5/2 after the first day, but I knew better than to set a target for myself. I was looking forward to the Sunday morning game, which started fulfilling long-standing traditions even before it started.