I was white against Peter Braham (144/1737) - 40 points down on my next-lowest opponent in the 4NCL this season. But, even with the experience of a game in the same line less than a week prior, it was a very bumpy ride. True, some careless play in the opening should have given me a routine strategic crush. But it wasn't the sort of position I handle well, and within a few moves I managed the impressive feat of standing seriously worse. In the end I did what anyone in my situation would have done: relied on providence to intervene:
The final score was a fairly comfortable 5½-2½ (DDDWLWWW), for our first win since January. I was the penultimate game to finish, and the last one was a nervy hold - it could have all been very different...
The position after 17. c4 is a dream come true for White: having killed off two thirds of the board he can focus solely on the sector where his pieces (and the enemy king!) are placed. But I had to face my demons and think about my 19th move; taking three minutes at such an important moment is simply inexcusable. It's bad enough when I can't calculate, but now it seems that I won't calculate. I was intimidated by the array of options, and took the coward's way out. As I've said many times before, you can't win a whole game just by putting pieces on good squares. I can't claim any credit for my subsequent escape, unless you count playing fast enough that Black slipped back into time pressure.
But they all count, and Downend had the win. By this stage we were only fighting with Warwickshire Select 2 and Barbican Youth; luckily for us, Warwickshire were run over comfortably enough by Guildford, and Barbican barely fell short against KJCA (still with their two GMs!) So this was the table before the final round, with the top four teams surviving:
1. KJCA Kings - Pts 10, GPts 29
2. Guildford 3 - Pts 9, GPts 28½
3. White Rose 2 - Pts 9, GPts 27½
4. Barbican Youth - Pts 6, GPts 26½
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5. Downend - Pts 6, GPts 24
6. War'ks Select 2 - Pts 6, GPts 22½
7. CSC Dragons - Pts 1, GPts 19½
8. Bradford Knights A - Pts 1, GPts 14
From a neutral's point of view, the last round was set up perfectly: Barbican played Guildford, Warwickshire took on KJCA, and we had White Rose. A draw or even a loss might be enough, since it would be hard for either of our rivals to get a result, but we would be heavily outgraded too. There wasn't much discussion in the end about whether I should play the last round, but I did allow myself to be bribed with another white first...
Downend is normally a very social team, but there was a bit of a muted atmosphere on Sunday night. The older players, and not only they, went to bed early. Others played Dominant Species into the small hours. I looked for secrets in White Rose matchcards. We would have chances of course, but I have to admit that I went to bed with the feeling of a man who is going to be hanged in the morning.
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