Deadweight

Our final fixture was against White Rose 2, who were already condemned. Although we were now down to just one GM, we were entitled not to be too worried since our substitute was the right side of 200 and we were clearly stronger: 242-198, 210-193, 208-202, 195-183, 181-192, 190-182f, 183-172, 181-157. Meanwhile King's Head needed an unlikely win, and West is Best were also up against it.

I had black against Imogen Camp (172/1822) for this final game of the season, who seemed a cautious player but not to be underestimated. She has done well in the 4NCL, and I am having to accept that those deathly dull 1. d4 lines which are so popular in our time are not easy to exploit. In the event I equalised easily but, as so often of late, that was when the problems began...

To start with the good news, everything slotted into place for the team. We turned around a few boards to win 4½-3½ (WWDDLWLD) whereas our two rivals both lost, so Division 2 chess is assured for next season. Amazingly the team still want to have me, which only goes to show that to err is human and to forgive is divine. Our captain pointed out that I almost always get good positions; in his view it is purely a matter of confidence.

This game is tricky to judge. On the train home from Telford I was feeling very down about it, because once again I'd bombed in a level but dry position. I spent too much time wondering what I should do, chose badly and then mishandled the tactics. Losses to people I would normally aim to beat are piling up in such games, and my aim for the weekend to push my rating back over 2000 and get an entry discount for the British Championship ended in abject failure. But analyse the game and I didn't do very much wrong - only 21... Qa8?? (of which the previous move was an extension) and 26... Rxd4??. The problem is that all White did was miss a tricky combination - it was a fairly accurate game on the whole, and I got outplayed. If you have the black pieces, what can you do?

This was the end of the league season, but there are a few summer specials coming up. Tomorrow I will be playing the last round of Wallington's club championship, but before that I took a trip to the West Country for a national-stage county match against Cornwall.