Lancaster vs. University Match

Monday 1st December, I played my first game representing Lancaster University (where I now study). The match was against Lancaster A in the local league; so a 4 board team match!

I got the opportunity to play on Board 1, which gave me Black against Colin Fisher. Colin is blind (my first game against such a player) so I had to speak my moves, and make his moves on the board when he spoke his.

The game was a rollercoaster - the advantage swung back and forth. To be honest, I was pretty disgusted with my play as a whole, especially looking back on it afterwards, but in the end I didn't get beat, and a draw with Black isn't a bad result against a player with a slightly higher grade.

The time control - all moves in 75 minutes.

So, we had a draw offer from him that I probably should have accepted, and then a draw offer from me that he certainly shouldn't have accepted! As I said, disgusted with my play (although the opening period went smoothly enough, missing Qh5 the only blip) but the result is all that counts - taking my mini-run of serious long play games unbeaten to 8 - I'm trying to become hard to beat without sacrificing too much dynamism.

I should mention my teammates on boards 2,3 and 4 mopped up - a big win for the University 3.5-0.5!

Thanks for reading!