Glasgow Congress 2013

Round 1 Friday night, a horrible game full of blunders. I missed at least 2 easy wins, was losing at various stages but managed to save a draw in the end. The last few moves are all I can remember of the time scramble, there were more moves after that; the position was lost but I managed to draw it somehow.

Round 2 Saturday morning; very tough game. Spent the whole game in a worse position and was close to losing at some point, but managed to defend well and save the draw

Round 3 Saturday afternoon, my first game with white. Pretty equal all the way to a drawish rook and pawn ending, but my opponent played the ending badly and I managed to win a pawn and the game.

Round 4 Sunday morning; awful game. I played what I thought was a solid theoretical line against the Dutch and was amazed at how quickly my position collapsed. This was my first loss and brought me back to a 50% score.

Last round Sunday afternoon. Depressed (and pretty knackered) after losing the previous game, I didnt put much effort into this one against a junior rated 1000 going on 2000 (as usual). I misplayed the opening, got a worse position but luckily my opponent was pretty tired as well and we agreed a quick draw.

Overall Ive got to be reasonably happy with 50% in such a strong event (by my standards) but Im not at all happy with the way I played; the only time I had a significant advantage was right at the end of game 3, and frankly I was pretty lucky to end up on 2.5/5.