The misery continues

Next up was Castles' opener in Division 2 of the Croydon League. This is a competition that suits us well - there is a team grading limit, and matches are only 4 boards - but we've only come back to it now that someone has the time to run a team. Inevitably, that luckless someone is me.

Our first match was away against CCF B, and it might be the most parochial inter-club match I've ever played in. We were playing an 'away' match at our home venue, the Castles team consisted of three current CCF members and one lapsed member, and on board 1 I was playing someone else from Wallington. That was Nick Edwards (164), a solid but dangerous player as I've discovered to my cost in the past. Then as now, I met him whilst afflicted with woeful form and an outgraded team: 168-164, 134-169, 126-168, 125-94. It seemed likely that I would have to win to order. Instead, my painful course in how to defend the quieter Slav lines continued:

 The price of defeat was a 1-3 team loss (LLLW) and deepening gloom. It's a frustrating game when you're always within touching distance of neutralising white's position, only to throw it all away in one move. Unfortunately it's the kind of blunder that I'm making with alarming regularity at the moment, as future games will also show.

 That said, I have to concede that I never fully equalised. The Exchange Slav is easily derided, but in the right hands it really packs a punch! Botvinnik's argument was that white's extra tempo is most valuable in symmetrical positions, and that this was a totally risk-free line in what can be a chaotic opening. Considering the match situation and the opponent, Nick made a very good choice. Yes, if black plays the right moves then of course white gets nothing, but precision is required, and I have never displayed it. It only took a couple of inaccuracies, embarking on a long-winded Knight circuit and playing ...e5 much too late in the day, and suddenly I was walking a tightrope. My sluggish play meant time trouble, which contributed to the very damaging 25... Rxb3? and the cataclysmic 28... Be8??. And then it was over.

 After another loss, I was rapidly becoming disillusioned with weekday-evening chess. So I looked forward to a chance to set the record straight, in my first regional stage county match for the best part of 3 years... aptly enough, on Halloween.