The last dance

Yesterday was the final CCF Superleague round of the season. Whilst five of the eight teams in the top division had a chance of winning the title, Castles were certain to finish last and were only playing for pride against the next-placed team, trying to improve on our 0/6 score to date. But it was still a landmark match for the club - its last.

I joined Castles at the start of my first full chess season, in the halycon days when I leapt at every opportunity to play and didn't let things like an hour-long bus journey put me off. Playing alongside people my own age was very different to other clubs, and I met some of my closest chess friends there. We even won a few trophies! Along with my matches for Sutton Grammar, the early years will always be my happiest memories of team chess - but those days are in the past now, and with the committed core of the club having moved on, in many cases away from chess, it has become harder and harder to field teams.

For this final match we had a grading advantage for the first time all season - 188-200, 183-134, 119-119, 124-113. I had black on board 2 against Richard Davis (134/1536) who I wrote when I last played him would be much stronger than his grade if only he could control his nerves. This game only underscored the point:

Our last match ended in a fully deserved 3-1 win (DWDW), finally giving us some pride after so many 1½-2½ defeats. My 186 performance in this league has been one of the few bright spots of the season, but I don't plan to find another Superleague team for next season - it wouldn't be the same. And so an important chapter of my formative years as a chess player closes. Over eight seasons I played 60 games for Castles and scored +20 =19 -21.

Frankly the game is only worth mentioning because of the context, but I think I did all that I could under the circumstances, and tried to learn from recent history. In lots of games over the last few months I've been too fixated on results - 'I have to beat this guy, look how much I outgrade him by' which warps objectivity. As the early queen swap shows, I reverted to the correct approach of playing what you think are the right moves and trusting that they will be better than what your opponent plays. The clock was never an issue, and whilst 12... a5?! was a lapse it's minor compared to things I've done recently. All this whilst my tactics rating on Chessity crossed over 2200 for the first time last week...

This weekend is the climax of the 4NCL season, which promises another three games. After that we will be into the off-season and I will start to turn my attention to the challenge awaiting me in Hull in the summer.