The acid test

After five straight days of chess, an evening league match seemed like the last thing I needed. Why couldn't I just bank the nine games I'd just played and get some rest? But Castles need full attendance in the CCF Superleague to be competitive, so there I was. This time we took on Pawn Curry. Last year we really should have exploited their under-strength team, but it wasn't our night, and certainly not mine. Both teams were stronger now, and it would be harder: 176-178, 167-178, e137-140, 97-136. Away from the opulent conditions of Gatwick, now I would start to see if that tournament was more than a one-hit wonder.

I had white against Anantha Anilkumar (178/1922), which history suggested was a pairing I'd wanted to avoid. On the other hand, my play in our two earlier meetings deserved more than a lucky draw, and someone had told me that he wasn't focussed that much on chess at the moment. If I didn't fall asleep from exhaustion, then I reckoned that I'd have decent chances. It turned out that just hoovering up the queens was enough:

It was more of a ghostly grind than a monster mash, but still a surreal game fitting with the date; it even gave us a match win by 2½-1½ (DWWL). And it was the first time I'd won in this league for over two years!

Anilkumar has always been into his theory, and confusing myself into a position that he clearly knew was very scary. Thankfully, just like against David Spence the day before, I charted a decent course, which is not something I've historically been able to do. Trading queens wasn't a deliberate strategy, but I certainly wasn't going to turn down the opportunity when it came. What happened next suggests that he doesn't find schematic thinking as easy as concrete variations (look at the game linked above!) whereas I have the opposite problem. I still don't fully trust my technique, but I just put my pieces on natural squares and then he resigned. To be fair though, he was obviously not playing at his best. I guess I'm not the only one who gets tired in the evenings...

Even so, I know how to approach my next game against him, and it was a nice post-script to the Gatwick tournament that takes my live rating to a whisker over 1900 for the first time. (And not before time, either.) I'm now briefly up to date, but I'm away this weekend at the opening rounds of the 4NCL, and there a few more games to come before this year's pilgrimage to Olympia - so there should be more posts shortly.