"I don't know how you did it!"

My biggest adventure connected to this month's 4NCL weekend had nothing to do with chess. After holding a driving licence for 10 months, and owning a car for four (even if it had spent more time than I'd have liked at the local garage with haywire electrics) my journey to Daventry was virtually the first time I'd ever driven alone, so I was thinking far more about motorway slip roads than covering on a high board for the KJCA players afflicted with exams. I made it there (and back) with no incident, which made me more euphoric than I really should have been and did a lot for my confidence in that field. Which only left the chess...

On Saturday we were playing The ADs (Antediluvians, if you've ever wondered), who also largely hail from Kent but, as the name suggests, are anything but a junior team; meanwhile I was once again the oldest player we put out to face them. We honestly don't get too bothered by it, but we were the outsiders for sure: 189-213, 188-200, 185-212f, 175-196, 189-185, 176-191, 175-172, 158-179. I had white on board four against Ian Snape (196/2110) who is well-known in this part of the world; he has been around 200 forever but never quite made the FM title he probably deserved. Sharp and well-prepared, he has nevertheless has plenty of big wins to his name.

The last time I played his team at the 4NCL, I had just lost this game against his CCF Superleague team and he greeted me with "well, I don't know how you did it!" Two years on I could only ask myself the exasperated question once again:

KJCA were hammered 1½-6½ (LWDLLLLL) - whilst not a very representative scoreline, it did a little to ease the burden of squandering such a good position. After the disappointments at Olympia, it was the last thing I needed - evidently I can still outplay ~200s with some assurance, but when my confidence ebbs my technique is the first thing to go.

As explained in the notes, no-one has yet sat down to properly figure out the Four Pawns Attack (in public anyway) but it's certainly the most boom-or-bust way to face the Alekhine. Risky of course, but for Black as well as White; if he doesn't fight hard early on then he can get a catastrophically passive position, which is just what happened to Snape (13... Bxf3 being the worst offender from a philosophical point of view). Before long I was a pawn up with a better position, which as we know is when the real game usually starts for me. I lost this second 'game' within a few moves, which is no surprise - even after a quarter-hour I didn't see the threat to my hanging knight! That said, the sequence from moves 18-20 was more significant, reflecting a problem of attitude. It's not that I took my foot off the accelerator once I realised I was winning; I was scared of throwing it away... which makes it so much easier to do just that.

Sunday's match was against one of the teams we were aiming to beat, and as such made my experience a lot more miserable than this. There were crumbs of comfort in this game, but I can't say the same about what came next.