I did thirteen and a half hours of chess this week, of which almost all was playing and analysing at this weekend’s Durham Congress.  I was the bottom seed in a strong Open section, and scored a disappointing 1.5/5, or 1/4 discounting my half-point bye.  Interestingly, each of my four opponents was called David!

I got a good position out of the opening in my first game, but spent far too long trying to find a forced win (which was probably never there).  For some reason I also thought that the time control was at move 30 rather than 36, and ended up blundering in time trouble in the lead-up to the time control.  In the second game I got a bad position out of the opening (which I didn’t know well), and although it seemed at one point like I may save it, I never fully recovered and resigned shortly after reaching the time control.  My third game was a King’s Indian Bayonet variation, and some move-order confusion gave me a nice advantage out of the opening.  Although my opponent fought hard and generated some chances to save the game, he eventually succumbed.  In my final game I played into an opening trap and lost fairly quickly.

I’m playing in a league game next week, and may play another game or two in April or May.  Apart from that, I won’t be doing much chess until the start of June when my project report, exams, viva and other fun will finally be completed.

Edit: I’ve uploaded the first and third of my games in response to a request.