And again

Following on from our comedy double-act at CCF in November, I at least had something to be hopeful about for the inevitable meeting in Wallington's club championship with Nick Edwards (167 on the January grades which came out the day before this game, to my 183). Since we are the top two seeds, and Nick always plays especially strongly in this event, it seems likely to have been decisive.

Needless to say, in a situation that tested nerves at least as much as chess ability, I came out second best. Despite landing some good preparation, I made some weird decisions, played too slowly and then fell apart when I had to blitz my way to the time control:

It's a long way back for me now, but there are still three rounds to go. Hopefully I will play with a bit more composure in those games! Even after playing some very bold moves in the opening and sacrificing a pawn, I wasn't assertive enough and couldn't cope with being forced to defend. 14. Rab1 and 26. g3 are the most painful examples of that, but clearly the final ten moves left a lot to be desired for both sides. In the end Black's brave decision to spurn a repetition was richly rewarded; I still can't do time trouble at all.

There wasn't much time to mope about feeling sorry for myself though, since Surrey's next county match fell a few days after this game.