Glad to be gone

 Over the last few years, I suffered an appalling run of congress results that made me seriously consider giving them up altogether. Since the previous December I had apparently cured that - but now I feared the malady could be back. But the final round is a strange place, so I had hopes.

 I was facing John Garnett (179/1956) with white. Since I finally got a little advance notice of the pairings, I could do a few minutes' preparation - but it only convinced me to try something 'new'. The experiment worked after a fashion, but I still wasn't handling sharp positions with any assurance whatsoever...

 I've never had any truck with the anti-theoretical approach to the opening - you should play the moves you think are best, within the limits of your comfort zone. And 3. e5 is definitely the most ambitious, so it's hardly a surprise that I should come back to it. Armed with a few ideas now, I think it could do a lot of damage.

 Hopefully the nosedive in the second half of the game was just a reflection of my terrible form, rather than an inability to play these positions. 13. Bxe7? was reflexive but a very bad misjudgement, 16. Ne4 was hopelessly rash, and 18. Qe3?? was ridiculous. Considering that my games lasted 30, 23, 23 and 22 moves, there was certainly something wrong.

 That, at long last, 3 months after the event and 2 months after I started blogging it, brings November to a close. Results-wise, it was a fair recovery from October, but my play still left a lot to be desired. Thankfully there was a long break ahead of me, but not before one more league game.