Small margins

Like it or not, I'm still here. Even a third London Chess Classic spent behind the info desk couldn't quite finish me off. In fact I even managed to complete my induction into the Arbiters' Secret Circle whilst I was there, so although I have the usual crushing post-Olympia cold, let's jump back to Telford in mid-November for the 4NCL like we'd never been away.

On the Sunday we were playing against Warwickshire Select 1. Whilst they weren't anything special on the top boards, their depth made us look very ordinary: 210-197, 205-211, 187-203, 174-200, 180-206, 182-197, 176-193, 181-129. But Downend could always thwart a match card like that on a good day, and the previous day gave us every cause for optimism. Indeed, we came very close to winning this one too. Unfortunately, after making a big contribution on Saturday, I also made a big contribution on Sunday...

I was playing with white against Chris Shephard (206/2208), who became a very strong correspondence player back when that actually meant something. Perhaps that's why he's only played in the 4NCL and occasional senior events lately. After an exchange of ambushes in the opening I got to a comfortable position, but losing concentration at a bad moment was all it took:

Losing from a perfectly sound position after 6½ hours and causing your team to lose by the odd point (DDDLLDDW) definitely counts as a low. And after wheeling out a Ruy Lopez as an anti-Sveshnikov, it had all started so promisingly!

Whilst I can't claim to have had any special insight into the very complicated middlegame, I was being assertive, which is more than my opponent can say. The computer charts a very gradual drift from +/= to = before my fateful oversight on move 37, but I still felt that I was outplaying him since I believed that I knew what to do. Analysing games has its upsides. But my loss was founded on two moments: the 'banker' move 28. Nxe5?!, which seemed prudent at the time but really was just wimpish, and then 37. Qd2? - time-trouble panic, when 6 minutes plus increment for 4 moves was not really that taxing. I had plenty of time to reflect on this as Shephard figured out how to win.

Mercifully, not every game lasts 92 moves, and the three I have played since then don't add up to much more when combined. If I'm fast then I might get them all done before the year is out. Firstly was another county match, which proved eerily similar to the equivalent fixture in the U-180 division last season.