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Bristol Congress - Sunday

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Meadows
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Round 4 of the congress!Sunday morning I was feeling pretty good.  True I had dropped a point with my 2 draws, but I had faced the two highest rated and done alright.

There's me in the middle of round 4.  I'm the one in the pink.  That's right, I'm clearly the centre of attention here.  (I'd like to thank Eddie in advance for not complaining about me using his picture!  Oh, and for his interesting advice about a gambit line in the Caro-Kann Advance! 4. g4!?  Another interesting fact, thanks again Eddie, the guy sat with his back to the camera in the brown jacket is Bobby Fischer's opponent in the first of his memorable games!)

Round 4 I faced a chap I played in a Rapidplay a few weeks before.  Caissa smiled on me that day (or she wasn't looking) and I managed to place 1st  in the minor (5+ 0= 1-) but guess who was my one loss.  In that game I had played as white against his Sicilian, gained a slight edge, exchanged pieces off which nullified my advantages and then decided to take a drawn game to a loss.  Determined not to do the same again, watch as I get an advantage as white against his Sicilian, exchange of pieces to nullify the advantage, then blunder to a drawn game.  Remember, when setting yourself goals, you must be specific!

As one of the spectators who found amusement with my round 2 swindle pointed out, it wouldn't be right of me to complain about this disaster of a game after all of the luck I'd had up until then.  Entering into the last round I was still a little low on motivation.  I haven't analysed it too deeply because of that but I would recommend flicking through it for the ending, many of the Open players thought it was amusing to see it played out.
So that concludes the congress from my point of view.  If you've been keeping track I finished on 3/5pts (1+ 4= 0-) which I was quite pleased with, especially since I can say I didn't lose a single game! 
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading these blogs and playing through the games.  With my deal with brfc to blog my games settled, I'd like to recommend his blog, go check out his games, they're more decisive than my 4 draws and a swindle!