Waste not, want not

Once upon a time, county matches were the closest thing I had to nailed-on points. I never really figured out why - perhaps because my style was messier then, and I could navigate confusion better than other sub-140 players. But it's strange to think that almost 4 years have passed since I last won a county game. I hoped to put that right in the national quarter-final of the U-180 section, in which we played Warwickshire.

Particularly in the higher grading bands, county chess is dominated by the Southern and Northern powerhouses - Surrey, Kent, Middlesex, Yorkshire and Lancashire. Perhaps that's why this competition is gradually declining; it's just not interesting for anyone else. I was on board 12, but would have been on 5 for them; their board 10 wouldn't have made our team.  With that comforting thought, I sat down to face Gary Hope (151) with, you guessed it, the white pieces.

This game can be added to the long list where I didn't react well to being drawn out of book in the opening, even if the position was objectively good for me. But I did get an advantage several times over - only to squander it each time thanks to a string of positional and then tactical mistakes:

Surrey won 11½-4½ - although we always had our noses in front, it looked set to be somewhat closer than that when I left, so I was surprised by the score. Later I heard that it could have been even more one-sided, if we hadn't delivered a KBN-K mate in 51 moves...

Disappointment and frustration have become close companions in the last few months (just look at the recent post titles) and here they were again. The Norwegian Defence was new to me, and my attempted solution didn't measure up: I reasoned correctly that I would have to play boldly and try to refute it, but the necessary energy just wasn't there. However, Black was very forgiving (7... d6, 10... Rb8, 11... Bd7, 13... Be5, 20... Re7 and 22... Rb7 all have their flaws), and I can't say that I didn't have my chances in this game. But the only bold moves I played turned out to be rash - 17. f4? and 23. Nc6?. In particular, I underestimated how much use Black could make of the e-file, and overestimated the f4 advance. Not for the first time, either. Analysing your games is all well and good, but if you have no time to absorb the lessons...

At last, for the first time since the middle of October, I am on the point of being up to date: the next game to be posted is the most recent one I've played. Perhaps it's an exaggeration to say that the semi-final against Lancashire is a match that will live in infamy, but it was certainly controversial.