Don't try this at home

Already then we come to two-thirds distance in the British Championship, and my round six game with black against the Scottish IM Andrew Muir (218/2291). He was briefly based in Bristol when I was first a student, and was sat a few boards up in my very first match for University A, but I didn't know much about him.

Muir plays the Botvinnik Semi-Slav with both colours, but I wasn't in the mood to back down (and didn't have anything else!) so the opening was predetermined. As it stands the Botvinnik is one big forced draw, but that was an acceptable outcome here. Nevertheless it was very stressful going over everything: the position is so concrete that the only way to play it as Black is by pure memorisation. One wayward move and the whole thing explodes in your face. Then again, White faces the same problem...

More so than any other opening, the Botvinnik comes with big health warnings attached - it is a good thing for my nerves I only get it about once a year. If you don't have a good memory, advance warning and access to the notes then stay well away. There's no better way to take the fight to White though, and my results with it attest that the objective evaluation shouldn't be of concern.

This game's status as an important landmark is secure, even if all I had to do was reel in the point once we reached the end of theory. It may not look like much given that Muir resigned only 11 moves later, but it felt like a huge ordeal at the time and I'm very pleased to have polished it off so accurately. Positions where everything is hanging and exact calculation is needed are the ones I find most difficult of all, so winning cleanly was a positive sign.

Now back on the warpath for 50%, I was surprised to get a comparatively gentle pairing for round seven. It was an opportunity I had to take with both hands.