Principles and the red mist

 For round 3, I was paired with another newcomer to England, this time a student - Aitor Garcia-Ruiz (2009). I'd scanned the database for him on Friday afternoon, but didn't find much. I only knew that he plays the Najdorf as Black - it's a shame I didn't know more!

 I'm not sure what to say about this game, other than that I can be my own worst enemy at times:

 Believe it or not, there are some positives about this game. My intuitive judgements about what works and doesn't work were quite accurate - the delicate judgement required over ...b5, the inefficacy of Nce2, and that sacrificing on d5 isn't as stupid as it looks. That's encouraging, since I used to have no feeling for dynamics at all. However, that doesn't change the fact that you absolutely cannot play positions like this on intuition, and since I either cannot or will not calculate deeply, the only excuse for my getting involved would be some very deep preparation. But at the moment I never have anything noteworthy to take into battle.

 My main psychological problem is actually very simple: I'm scared of making mistakes. So the reader will realise that losing like a clown did not make me feel very good. Realistically, I could have given up after a dozen moves, and with the white pieces no less! Even worse, my big hope - that playing over a weekend, after some rest, would alleviate my problems in evening league games - didn't seem to be coming to pass. Over the hill at 21 years of age...

 So, would Sunday be any better? Yes and no.