Hacking about

My return to employment is two weeks old - and since I was playing chess throughout last weekend, today is my first day off for some time. I'm not going to cover my jump to Ludicrous Speed for the UK Blitz Championship (after a slow start I played some good games near the end and finished on 8½/15) so you find me in Harrow, at the same venue as the Colin Crouch Masters in 2016, for another memorial tournament - a rapidplay in honour of Peter Poobalasingam, an FM who died last year far too soon. The turnout was very strong indeed, so even in a single-section Open I was barely in the top half of the draw.

Much like my last rapidplay, this was a yo-yo experience. My first opponent, Kagik Asryan, was ungraded; I faced a 3... Qf6 Ruy Lopez and didn't show very much until I won his queen on move 15. Then in round 2 I had black against David Grant (206), who was feared by everyone at Sutton Grammar since he always beat our top board! I played him at the 4NCL Team Rapidplay last season and choked into a repetition having dominated throughout; this was a more up-and-down game but in the end I was disappointed again:

Round 3 was another offbeat Ruy Lopez, this time a Norwegian Variation (3... a6 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Na5) against 114-graded Surjit Dhemrait. I'd seen it before and got a winning position out of the opening, so it was back up the boards to play FM Peter Sowray (222) - for the first time, oddly, given how much we both play; his long quest to break 2400 and complete the IM title is one of the more tragic sagas of English chess. After a drab time of it in the first half of the tournament he was desperate to spice things up, and got his wish:

My fifth-round game is the only white worth showing - a Rubinstein French against Athman Sivakumar (118). This is usually a dull variation, but I managed to liven it up by castling queenside and chucking things down the board, which worked rather well:

In the final round I got another white, against 196-graded Liam Varnam, but my third Ruy Lopez of the day proved to be utterly tedious. I forgot the theory of the Open Variation, bailed out into a level ending and was doing OK, but as so often happens I lost my way in his time trouble, and allowed his rooks to become too active. So I finished on 3/6 with a 169 performance. My post-British play hasn't measured up so far, but it has all been at fast time controls.

Much like the aforementioned trip to Golders Green, I felt that my losses were much more competitive than my wins, but that's not too surprising given the grade disparities. The games against Grant and Sowray were the most interesting for me. They both underscore the clichéd wisdom that the attacker has a disproportionate advantage at this speed, since the defender always has to see a lot more - and seeing things has never been my strength. In my wins I was allowed to take control very easily; stronger players know how to force the issue better.

Nevertheless, it was a fun weekend on the whole, albeit a very tiring one. Having recently got the schedule for my accounting qualification it seems I can wave goodbye to any hopes of weeknight games for the foreseeable future (even the Alexander Cup, which I'd hoped to make an exception for) so my next game should be a county match for Surrey's Open team at the end of the month.