When Saturday comes

As well as things had gone up to now, one thing nagged at me: I had no real idea what had caused this quantum leap! I'll hazard a guess after posting the final round, but there is always the nagging doubt that it might just be phases of the moon. So the prospect of four more games didn't actually appeal very much, since I felt great pressure to keep up the pace.

In particular, round six against Nigel Morris (134/1455) with white was a must-win game, which in recent years has often spelt trouble for me - this was easily the round which gave me the most pre-game nerves. I had to laugh at myself afterwards, as he dared to improvise in a 6. Bg5 Najdorf and got wiped off the board in barely half an hour:

That left me with a long rest before the seventh and final game of the all-play-all, in which I had black against Chris Rice (179/2030). With even more draws to his name than me, not all of them very long, I had the cheek to try my luck as early as move 11. I'd judged it rightly, although only I would accompany it with a prepared TN:

From my point of view, it was a fully satisfactory day: I only needed 30 moves and one hour to to score 1½ points on the board, and my solitary move outside preparation triggered immediate resignation. A de facto rest day at this stage shouldn't be underestimated, and I had indeed got to the end of the APA group without losing a game. My 5/7 was outdone only by the FM I drew with in round 2.

But there was still Sunday to come. We now merged with another 8-player group for a two-round Swiss to finish off; my heroics meant that I was almost certain to play the top two seeds in the other group, who were both around 200. Whatever happened, it would still be a superb result, so I hoped to play with a bit more freedom.