A senior moment

Last Monday I permitted myself the small luxury of having a day off for a weeknight game. That was partly to be in good shape, partly because I'd spent all weekend working as an arbiter at BUCA (what other tournament has a FIDE-rated blitz until 1am, followed eight hours later by the AGM?) but mainly because last Monday also happened to be my birthday.

I play on that day strangely often, but with good results, so I didn't mind having black for the toughest CCF Superleague match of the season, against "RSJ". They won the league at a canter last season, and with both strength and depth it's easy to see why: 184-211, 175-196, 141-188, 123-167 is another way of saying 'every man for himself'. I was on board 2 against John Duggan (196/2112), a careful player who has almost nothing in the database. The only judgement I made was that he had obvious - but maybe misplaced - faith in his endgame ability. I can usually read players accurately, but once in a while it makes me look very stupid; this topsy-turvy game was an unfortunate example.

Birthdays really do get less special as you get older, it seems. RSJ's top board also headed up the opposition in my next game, and could only ask me how I did it. (Although I couldn't resist asking him the same question; he should never have let us escape with ½-3½!) The endgame is deceptive, but it still required a horrible lapse of concentration to actually lose it. Unfortunately these things happen when you are not at your best.

The whole game consisted of lost opportunities. My audacious sixth move didn't get challenged, which gifted me a comfortable game right off the bat, but I failed to unwind properly over the next few moves and got into some slight bother, especially once I didn't look deeply enough to find 18... Ne4!. Then Duggan inexplicably allowed his knight to be driven back to g1, only for me to hastily simplify and then give one pawn away followed by a second. My 4NCL captain has a theory that taking the day off doesn't help for weeknight games since you can't switch off your body clock, and this game did nothing to prove him wrong.

That made three losses in a row - to three 190s, true, but I still felt very moody with the Richmond result alongside them. Surely the magic of the preceding months couldn't have gone just like that? I've always been vulnerable to wild swings in form for no clear reason, and I really didn't want to have another tailspin now. Thankfully, it seemed the damage was mostly done by one-move oversights, which seemed possible to explain away as stress or tiredness at Kidlington, the 4NCL, Richmond and here despite what I said in the last post. It was a comforting formula anyway.

Under the circumstances, another enforced Saturday appearance at the 4NCL - this time far, far to the north in Telford (just outside Birmingham) wasn't what I wanted at all, but I finally relented and agreed to play. Downend's place in the relegation pool was assured, and I was told it was "just a training match" but for me it could be critical.