The need for precision

 Back to my games then. We are in mid-November still, and next up was a game for Wallington in the Ellam Trophy - my first match for them in the main league this season, since I missed our opening win. We are still in the same (second) division as last year, but it's taken the name of the former third division in order to fudge the bye-laws; owing to a last-minute change we are down to 7 boards per team now. Although this makes my job a little easier, I remain unimpressed by it.

 Anyway, we were playing Surbiton 2, who comfortably lead the division as I type. Even though our GM was available, we were clearly the weaker team: 231-189, 165-184, 164-181, 168-169, 142-168, 136-166, 119-156. But mindful of my bad form, I had a couple of small tricks up my sleeve: I shifted my work hours forward a little in order to have an hour's preparation at home, and I went as low as I could in the board order. So I had black on board 4, against Graham Alcock (169). Our first meeting was a draw, but with the passage of time I hoped for more. Alas...

 An interesting game, despite its length. For a long time I've accepted the 'folk wisdom' that the 3... g6 Alapin is a little bit fishy, but from my rudimentary analysis I'm not sure how white can get anything serious. Maybe he has to take the Panov-Botvinnik transposition after all? In any case, it's obvious that the line can show its fangs to the unwary - white made the typical mistake of playing Nf3 too early, and soon got into huge trouble for it.

 However, even as a serial drifter I have to be amazed by how quickly it went wrong. I don't think it's possible to win in chess by always playing the second-best move, but that's what the task feels like when you don't have the cutting edge. It's just a couple of lazy moves (falling prey to my usual over-neatness, as witnessed earlier on move 8) that make the difference between an easy win and a disappointing draw.

 Wallington's 2-5 loss (WLDDLLL) may have been a bit harsh, since we also had much the better of the other draw. But the glory days of promotion are long gone now, and as we looked at the coming fixtures, survival was our main worry. Pessimism has set in everywhere, it would seem.

 The next week in my schedule saw two matches for Castles in three days, followed by a weekender in Bristol. The league games were both strange in their own way, starting with a Croydon League match against Crystal Palace.