SNCL Matchday 3

A day of mixed emotions at the Scottish National Chess League on Sunday. In the morning game, against an opponent rated 300 points higher than me, I reached a completely won position (despite missing a lot of things) - however, I had less than 4 minutes left on my clock against 45 for my opponent when he offered me a draw. Faced with such a huge time differential and being unable to see a clear winning plan I felt obliged to accept. Have a look at the clear (and pretty obvious) win I missed on move 44.

Compliments to my opponent for offering a draw in that situation, a true gentleman. In his position I would probably have played on and tried to flag my opponent, but that's because, as one of my team-mates correctly pointed out, I am a mean bastard.

The afternoon game went better. My opponent committed a positional mistake in the opening allowing me to lock up the centre and launch an automatic kingside attack which I finished with a neat sacrifice.

Although my team Inverclyde lost the morning match we won the afternoon match, leaving us securely in mid-table with no relegation worries ahead of the final matchday in 4 weeks time. http://www.sncl.org.uk/div3.htm