And yet the line in question was a Grand Prix Attack! I got into it with a small move order accommodation and was looking forward to outplaying him from there. But I never quite hit my stride, being sloppy at the key moments and shying away from the main winning attempt in the endgame. In fact, I was lucky to escape with a half-point, and it could easily have been much worse:
It all seems a bit too casual. Whether it was the anaemic 11... b6?!, the complacent 14... Bd7?!, the absent-minded 23... Bf6?? or the irresolute failure to play 31... Rxc2!?, the whole game was littered with bad decisions. Gray was a party to the crime too, with 13. a3?!, 21. Re2?!, 24. Kh2?? and 25. f5?! all lacking energy, balancing everything out to make a draw a fair enough result. Well, the quality does tend to drop off in long tournaments with no rest days.
For me, the two slips to home in on are my 14th and 31st moves (taking the latter as close to a tantamount draw offer which duly came a few moves later). First, 14... Bd7?!. As I said in the notes, this was a very greedy move, trying to combine queenside play with kingside defence and counting on White not using the very obvious drawback. Not taking your opponents seriously is the worst sin a player can commit, and I fully deserved the misery I had to endure in the middlegame. Later though I took over the ascendancy when White dithered, and found myself debating the exchange sacrifice on move 31. If I was playing for anything I hope I would have pulled the trigger, but on this day in history I couldn't do it. I'd lost enough in this tournament already, and an extra half-point didn't seem worth the risk.
The seventh round was the long-overdue turning point, but not one I'd have hoped for.
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