A cagey start

As promised, we now move on to the e2e4 Gatwick International, with which my blog comes full circle: it was at the same tournament five years ago that I first started published all of my games with annotations. I'd like to think that that's a large part of why I returned to Gatwick a much stronger player than the teenager who delighted at a 144 performance in 2011, but of course I am simply 5 years older too; this time I was using annual leave from work rather than school half-term to play, and I could afford the indulgence of staying at the hotel - which turned out to be a master-stroke. But at the start of the tournament, coming in off of some indifferent league form, I had no suspicion of what was about to unfold...

It all started mundanely enough with my first-round game. The event was run on an all-play-all basis, merging with another group as a Swiss for the last two rounds due to withdrawals, so the pairings for the first 7 of the 9 games were known in advance (albeit it would have been nice to have had more notice.) I had to wonder if the arbiters were being mischevious when I saw who I was playing on the Wednesday afternoon: Jonathan Bryant (168/1811). I know him very well, since he sits next to me in the CSC office!

Of course, honour was at stake in this game, and with all but one of my other opponents graded 175 or more, it felt like a particularly important opener. In the event, losing this game was unthinkable for both sides, and so neither side lost. But I had to show some solid defence after being surprised in the opening:

This game continues my 100% drawing record in the Exchange Semi-Slav - and to think that Arkell has such success from the White side as a winning weapon! White only has one idea, the minority attack, but he doesn't compromise himself enough for his life to depend on it working. So far it hasn't hit home against me once, but I've only had token victories. The important thing is for Black not to be hypnotised by the b-pawn, and seek active counterplay. My ...g5 plan looks crude, but ultimately worked well. Despite some misjudgements (19... g4 being the most grave) I had the chance to play for more than a draw by going into a single-rook ending; my failure to do so is a point which will come up again later.

In the meantime, I had an unremarkable but satisfactory start under my belt. However, the following morning's game, which pitted me against an FM, promised to be a sterner test.