The times they are a-changing

Much has happened since my last post. I've passed my first two accountancy exams, and two of the biggest chess events came to London. We'll get to the second of them in a moment, but first a few words on the World Championship. Carlsen-Caruana was a match I'd hoped to see for a long time, for in outlook they are poles apart. In the end though the spectacle was let down by the ridiculous format - a 12-game match just isn't long enough, and encouraged Carlsen to play very cynically for tiebreaks. I can't blame him for doing his job so effectively, but how he got there was a tragedy: classical chess is an endeavour and speed chess is a parlour game. I find it all very depressing, and it's not just lack of time that finds me not bothering to shortlist any games of the year - whilst Kramnik's efforts to enliven the Candidates were truly inspiring, for most of the time I just couldn't bring myself to pay attention.

Anyway, let us turn to the London Chess Classic. This was the first time since 2014 that I visited as a member of the public, and like my trip to Newham in October it was vaguely discomforting to see that the world had carried on without me. Trapped by those exams for most of the week (and genuinely so, despite multiple choice and a 50% pass mark sounding laughably easy) I was paying no attention until I turned up for round two of the Weekend Open last Saturday morning. Looking back I shouldn't have played so soon afterwards, but it would have hurt too much to miss it.

First up, white against Jonah Huang (-/1715), who had no games for the last five years and none at all in the database. Feeling unprepared in more ways than one, I played a typical game for the circumstances - a few sparks of genius, but many more regrets:

I am sure the whole tournament would have turned out very differently if I'd played 17. Rd5!!, but maybe that is asking too much of my first game back. I know that the hiatus was barely a month, but it feels like a lot longer! In some ways it was though; in the past I may not have been playing but chess was still the main thing in my life, whereas now there are other things competing for that mantle, so it takes longer to readjust. But adjust I will.

I've always found it amusing that I understand the black side of the Najdorf so well and yet am hopeless playing against it. Black's ideas loom so much bigger in my mind, and I was overawed by 17... Rg8 by visions of all his pieces swarming over me. I made a very conscious decision on move 9 to play for the here and now, which is why my cowardice on move 17 was so critical psychologically. Optically my position remained very good, but the trend turned against me after that. I lost my only chance to change the game again when I allowed time trouble to get the better of me with the mindless 28. Qxf6. The clock is always my greatest enemy after some time away.

The afternoon round brought the black pieces, and another opening surprise, but we'll get to that next time. Before then I have a few minutes left to wish everyone a happy Christmas. Hopefully I'll be back in time to cover the new year in a different post...