The old man and the c-file

It's been more than three years since I last had a grading advantage of 60 in a slowplay game - and actually even longer since I converted such an advantage. So I wasn't sure how to feel about my second-round game in the Wallington club championship; even in a game like this I felt doubts and pressure, although that's probably a useful defence mechanism against getting too overconfident.

I was playing with the black pieces against 120-graded Geoff Hurst (not that one), one of our oldest members - a perfect gentleman, who I don't recall ever seeing out of a suit, but also profoundly hard of hearing, so we've all become used to his booming voice abruptly cutting through a club night. The game saw one of the stereotypical openings of the wizened club player, which eventually boiled down to a fight for the one open line in the position. Through single-minded obsession, I finally won that fight:

This game stands together with some of my wins in the club's rapidplay competition, in showing that at our lowly level it's by no means necessary to find a flashy combination in every game to win - just knowing what you should be trying to do can go a long way. True, the tactical details do need looking after, but I can cope with the simple stuff (hence 25... Bxd3 and 28... Nc6, which accelerated the game considerably.) The deeper ideas, as the computer reveals on move 13, not always...

Despite my tardiness of late, I'm now only one game short of catching up to the London Junior Open played last week. It's one to both look forward to and dread - another Wallington derby, plenty of fireworks and above all a late contender for farce of the year...