For the fifth time in a row, I saw out the chess year in the anonymous grey tower block that is the University of Westminster's Harrow campus, playing in the London Christmas Congress Open, which is also the London Junior U-18/21 Championship. Partly it's because Hastings is too much of a commitment (although I really should play at least once) but I also had a really good tournament last year, hitting a 178 performance and almost qualifying for the British Championship - and that was after a terrible run of form in the preceding months. This time it was quite the reverse, and if anything I was aiming for more! However, I was handicapped by a cold, which I have had since the end of the London Chess Classic, and still lingers as I type. The problem wasn't that I was bunged up and unable to concentrate; at some stage each afternoon I just ran out of energy, which shows in the games.
In general, the mornings were better though, and I started with a fascinating game against Jim Burnett (197/2110). If you look in the database, you'll see that his openings are a little schizophrenic: as White he is a steady 1. d4 man, but as Black he goes into hair-raising things like the Noteboom Variation and the Winawer Poisoned Pawn. Luckily, I had the white bits! Avoiding the carnage of the mainlines, I was able to outplay him in a very interesting ending:
And that, boys and girls, is why you should analyse your games! You can learn so much more than by settling for your impressionistic thoughts at the time. After the game, I thought I'd just got lucky: I'd had to give up the exchange for some play, which Black subsequently underestimated. But it's nowhere near as simple as that, and there is plenty to be learnt about opposite-coloured bishop endgames here.
First though, a few words on the opening - 8. Qxg7 will always be the acid test, but I make no apologies for playing the duller 8. Bd3 instead. You have to play your strengths, and mine absolutely do not include calculating irrational variations. A queenless middlegame with chances for a slight pull is much better for me: not even the bookworms have to play the top move in the database every time!
Anyway, after one of my bishops was hunted down, we soon arrived at the opposite bishop endgame. With perfect play, I suspect that the decisive mistake is right at the start - 26... e4?, weakening his dark squares in the centre. 26... d4! is correct, keeping my king out and only then turning to active counterplay, which should allow him to hold. In the game, a strange feature of these endings came to the fore: material count is absolutely not important if you can activate your pieces, as I discovered moreorless by accident. Once Black flouted another cardinal principle, activation of the king, with 34... Kb8?, the contrast between the two armies was too great, even if some annoying tactical oversights gave Black chances to break the bind. The destination of the game was logical, even if the route was not.
A great start to the tournament then, and a very strong player put away quite convincingly in the end. However, having played at mid-190s level since late October, I perhaps need to stop seeing such results as too special - we will see this later on. In the meantime though, momentum is a precious thing which I would certainly need for another tough game in the afternoon round.
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