Armed with the white pieces and a dribble of confidence this time, I was on board 5 once more against Donald Mason (194/2074). His recent form has been even worse than mine, but when you've been around 200 for the last 25 years you have the right to be taken seriously. He was definitely out to win, which shined through in our postmortem but also in a disastrous choice of opening. For me though the main feature of the game was how slowly he played - and that I just couldn't slow down!
Never mind that though, the big news was that we won 4½-3½ (WWLLDLWW) to qualify for the promotion pool and complete our top board's FM title as the icing on the cake. It was our third win by the odd point in six matches, and I've contributed in two of those; how nice to feel valuable, and not just a liability like last season. Since we play the second-placed team in the last round of the original pools it's now effectively a four-match shootout for a spot in Division 1...
Since I am usually a time trouble sufferer (and increasingly so as the years go by) it was a strange experience to realise even during the game that I was playing far too fast. A little too much blitz to try and get myself back in shape, perhaps. Or maybe a subconscious effort to avoid the nervous tension of a long struggle? Unfortunately, as anyone who has coached will know, spotting the problem is a lot easier than curing it! The game feels like an out-of-control juggernaut, and I can pinpoint where it deprived me of half a point: 19. f4 is a move that only works if it works, and needed a lot more time than I gave it. After that things became rather farcical but in the end I'd say a draw is fair enough. The other takeaway is that a good postmortem is well worth the time spent. You can learn a lot about the game, yes, but also your opponents.
From one team triumph to another, my next game was for the Surrey first team, in the SCCU Championship decider against Sussex.
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