All that glisters is not Golding

After that reverse, there was only one more game to go before the rest day. I was playing William Golding (119/1450), younger brother of Alex and James. I know them well (unfortunately it hasn't helped my head-to-heads!) and often struggle with such games, but, with white no less, I really had to win this one. Anything else would have destroyed my second week before it started, psychologically at least.

This game was played three months to the day since my previous win, and that interlude made my preparation difficult - I was seeing pitfalls everywhere, and actually sat down to play with a little trepidation. So his opening choice calmed my nerves, and it soon proved a costly mistake since he simply did not understand the challenges of the position:

"You look like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders!" someone said immediately afterwards, and they were probably right. It wasn't of the highest quality, and on a practical level I probably didn't need such unnecessary excitement, but it was a conclusive end to the drought.

I think the notes explained in enough depth why I disagree with the pre-game preparation that I was pitted against - 'know thyself', in a nutshell. True, it may look tempting to play the Winawer against me, since this was the first one I've won since the 2012 Surrey Megafinal! But I think that's more of a historical accident than anything. William meanwhile plays best in quiet positions, and is rightly undeterred by his brothers' teasing. But he still needs to understand dynamics when they arise: when I of all people offer a pawn then you really should be thinking twice! At the same time, there's a saying about pots and kettles - 15. Bb5+ showed me needlessly rushing the position, when 15. Rab1 would have been quiet but deadly. 16... Nh6?? is another move which he should have had goosebumps about, although it was already tricky by then.

So, into the clubhouse with 2½/6, but an uplifting end - and I knew that if I'd played only a few different moves, my score could have been much higher. For the rest day, I decided to enter the blitz: an easy decision once they tried to smoke me out as an arbiter for it. So my greatest achievement was avoiding the Ghasi-Pert dispute, though I did win one nice game when Robert Starley played a dodgy line I'd just analysed on here. I was a bit disappointed with my play (5-minute blitz is too fast for me; I do much better in CCF's 10-minute tournaments) but I only really wanted to shuffle some pieces.

The real show was back in town the next day, as I played what was undoubtedly the silliest of my 11 games in Bournemouth.