Snowed under

As anyone reading this at the time of publication will remember, Britain faced up to Armageddon at the end of February when some snow fell. Whilst two matches later in the week were called off, the CCF Superleague went ahead - unfortunately for me, the weather shoved me up to board one and the ever more familiar prospect of a game against Alex Golding (213/2230).

Our game at the London Junior in December held some positives for me despite the normal result, and I decided to try again for a preemptive strike in the opening. Here it wasn't one-off preparation, but we got a very strange position and I didn't figure it out before the inevitable clock-induced agony:

From a neutral standpoint, it was a fascinating game with some deep ideas both on the board and hidden in the notes - it's just a pity I lost! I broadly understood what was going on but I missed a few specifics, and to go down to something as banal as 21... Rad8?? was disappointing. It's true though that I was already starting to struggle, since I was playing some cosmetic moves rather than developing my pieces with purpose. In a closed position quality usually wins out over quantity. The chance will come eventually; someone who is so stylistically predictable can be exploited sooner or later. The clock has been my enemy lately, along with faltering tactical vision - more on that next time.

The next game, once the weather had abated, was for Wallington. I hadn't really wanted to play, but I had no chance of getting out of it given how bad our availability was. I also had the dubious honour of a temporary return to captaincy, but there was at least a small reprieve when our hosts turned out to be under strength.