Just for fun

 It is quite unusual for me to enter a tournament on a whim, at the last moment. But that's what I did for the rapidplay at CCF on Saturday, throwing my hat in the ring only on Friday night. It's a refreshing feeling to be able to do this now: in recent years there were always issues of time and money.

 Once again, their aspiration to run multiple sections was foiled by a low entry, so it ended up as a single-section Open with 22 players. Although this certainly helped my eventual result, it's still a bit frustrating, since I had the usual yo-yo experience with my opponents (93-185-126-167-192-121-117) and played no-one close to my own grade. Whether it was this strength imbalance, a very conscious decision to enter for fun, or the time control, it wasn't difficult to produce some interesting games. To my amazement, it seems that I have the time to present a few of the more exciting games.

 After predictable results in the first two rounds, I played Lana Boztas (126) with white in round 3 - for the second time in less than a fortnight. This game was very similar to its predecessor, a Dragon where black's counter-attack never got started, with the inevitable result:

 This post isn't entirely an ego trip, so I will gladly publish my loss in round 5, to 192-graded Kevin White. An inauspicious opening soon morphed into a fascinating battle of statics vs dynamics, and in the end the game was won by neither - the victor was the clock. But it was an enjoyable game for all that:

 Finally, my last game of the day, against David Wallis (117). If not for a crass tactical mistake in the opening, this would be close to a model game for the 6. Be2 Najdorf: white's play looks sensible enough, and then suddenly he has a lost position! Besides, a game that wins me £20 must have some value...

 Over the last few years, I gradually resigned myself to the thought that I really am much worse at rapidplay than at slower time controls. But I seem to be getting somewhere at last, since my performance at the first CCF Speed Chess night was 171, and I clocked 159 here. The key, I think, has been to regain my old ruthless efficiency against lower-graded players; in the past there have been a few too many accidents, but I had 4 clean kills here and was never in any danger. But you can easily look like a very strong player in such circumstances, so I have to reserve judgement until I play people around my own strength.

 My two losses were to strong opponents; in both cases I had black and suffered in a Catalan-esque position, but at least I was in the game, especially against White. The main problems with this tournament were my usual erratic tactical performance (though I did no wore than my opponents) and, more significantly, time management, which decided my round 5 game and greatly accelerated the end of round 2. For the most part, this wasn't drifting unnecessarily into time pressure (I actually played quite quickly in most of the games) but rather losing my composure when the inevitable happened: in tightly-fought games at this speed, time trouble is simply unavoidable, and I couldn't deal with it. This is a known problem for me, and I'm not keen on just accepting Nunn's diagnosis of avoidance at all costs - if you do that you're starting every game a few minutes down on the clock. On the bright side, there was plenty of fighting chess on display, and so far the signs are promising for this to be a much bloodthirstier season than the previous one.

 There's been no let-up in the games so far, and the next one was also something out of the ordinary for me.