A smashing game (?!)

I'm an idiot. No, I'm an idiot twice over.

Yesterday we played Harrogate C in the league. Being the lowest team (of a big strong club) they weren't likely to have any really strong players and are in fact propping up the bottom of the table so we expected a win, though were missing one of our strong players (cup-tied by the chance to see Spurs playing locally). I like Harrogate, so went over there early to do the parkrun, then some shopping and lunch. That bit went well enough.

Anyway, back to the idiocy. As part of my re-vamping of my opening repertoire, I have looked at some nice lines in the QG Slav, including a fun win on chess.com. However, I never bothered to learn properly or look it up before Saturday. What an idiot.

Harrogate held a big 4NCL Congress last weekend. I didn't play because spending two solid days playing just doesn't mix with marathon training when I need to fit in long runs. Also, though I like Harrogate, I didn't want to spend too much my life driving there and back. However, I did notice a few Harrogate players in the event, and even the lower grades had their games on-line! I even texted other team members to say hey, you can look up some possible opponents.

For some reason, it never occurred to me that Glenn Mulholland (rated 1640) could be my opponent. Had I thought, I could have noticed....that he plays the Slav as black. And that would have prompted me to look up my openings. But I didn't. What an idiot, mark 2.

So, I promptly forgot my analysis, had to wing it, got it pretty badly wrong....and my opponent was so shocked by my moves that I stumbled to a quick win.

Meanwhile newcomer Bill on bottom board had already lost in a battle of the youngsters. Don't know how it went but suspect his opponent was an under-rated up and coming youth being given an easy game (which was our plan with Bill!). However Liam and Steve both won with aplomb on #4 and #5, then Charlie did his tactical thing to win a piece and the game, and Mike did his grinding-out thing to wear down his opponent. And we ended 5-1 which is a satisfactory day out. Still pushing for a high finish in the league.

So, all's well that ends well. But I need to go back to the books...