Lost in the notes

And so onto round 4, where I had black against Andrew MacQueen (-/1854), giving me the opportunity to discover how bad databases are at dealing with irregular surnames. My opponent is based in Scotland, so it was hard to know where his playing strength really was. In 2014 he was graded 170, but I tend to operate on the assumption that I should be beating people of my own rating, because I'm still playing catch-up on the FIDE scale!

This game made a nice change from the first three, with some sharp mainlines to look forward to. Sadly that was about the limit of my knowledge beforehand! This time I did get my preparation in, but the game after that was a bumpy ride despite having a nice position for most of it; overall my pre-game approach was too ambitious. But at least it makes for some interesting variations in the notes...

I suppose I should probably apologise for the length of the analysis in places. If the reader isn't a Najdorf devotee then it must all be a bit tedious, but analysis is the road to understanding. All I was trying to show (and I satisfied myself, at the very least) was that even such sharp variations as this one have some inner thread of logic running through them; the lessons of one line can be applied to another, which points to White's best choice at move 14, and how I should try to solve the problems posed by the unexpected choice he actually made. Overall Black's position seems more reliable than I really believed at the time, but he must have no fear in pushing for activity above everything else. It's possible I've even managed the implausible feat of correcting Negi's analysis, though I wouldn't be surprised if I've missed something - opening analysis is never definitive, especially not from 160s.

The actual game was a bit dull by comparison (at least for me!) although I might have retained some attacking chances with 21... a5. The endgame was equal at worst, and I should have tried to make more of it - 28... g6 was the clearest opportunity.

Obviously the end was ridiculous, but rest assured I soon paid back the borrowed half-point with interest...