A very near miss

With one round still to play, the LJCC Open was already down as a success. I'd won three interesting games, and I would finish on an equal score at worst, which would be a profit whichever rating system you use. But with one game of 2015 to go there was still that outside chance of a British Championship place - and some history to attend to.

I was playing the younger Anantha Anilkumar (175/1938) with black. That brought back bad memories of a horrible blunder in a won position in the 2014 CCF U-2000 Summer Cup - one of those games that you can never truly get over, and can only hope to forget. This seemed like the ideal chance to make up for that dark day. By a shallow reading, I almost managed it - but that would be to ignore the real story of a remarkable game:

A bit spicier than my usual fare, eh? Although this game was a competitive disappointment, and I largely played second fiddle, this is the sort of game you hope to be a part of when you go to the trouble of blogging your games. This sort of game does occur in my practice, but I usually need to be provoked, or run into an inspired opponent. Anilkumar certainly ate his Weetabix that day, and even I have to admit that it's a pity he didn't get the brilliant win he deserved, with 26. Qg2 or ideally 24. Nxh7. At the time I was bewildered; I didn't think that I'd done anything blatantly wrong, but my opening strategy was riskier than I knew, and that was compounded by leaving my king on the open g-file. Once I grab the f-pawn I seem to be as good as lost.

Psychology must be mentioned again, for when he faltered I was given a golden opportunity to grab the real prize. But I failed again, as in our earlier game, perhaps by getting nervous. The middlegame was all tactics, and I did well by my standards to get through - so 30... Be5?? is a shame. I could also bring up another blunder in the London Chess Classic Weekend Open in 2014. I would do well to convert an opportunity soon - three times the bridesmaid...  Nevertheless, it was a good three days' work. I won a share of the grading prize (though I couldn't help noticing that if I'd been a few months younger I'd have won the London U-21 Championship!), gained 20 Elo and managed to limit the earlier damage to my grade. My confidence was back, and so was my motivation - there were some moments of good play. Clearly, with the benefit of some rest, my near-180 strength in the first half of 2014 is still on tap.

Though I've had to rely on a leap year and Blogger's use of American time zones, I have - just - managed to meet my objective and put my 2015 chess to bed by the end of February. It only remains to do a quick half-season review before I can start to cut into the 2016 backlog.