On Ilkley Moor again (part 2)

On with the show. Round 3 was another highly rated player, who appeared to know what he was doing in the opening. 

By round 4, there were two of us trailing on zero and we met in this round. I was pleased with how I played the opening, won a pawn and had a good position, but then lost the plot as I got increasingly short on time, finally helpmating myself.

Well it was a good battle even though I came off worst.

Round 5 I was up against a rapidly improving junior, who was about 200 points higher than last October when he lost on board 4 against our team in the Yorkshire league (standard speed). Despite being the lowest rated in the division, he was sitting 1st equal on 3.5/4 having drawn with my first opponent and beaten the others.

He bashed out his moves at lightning speed and spent half the time watching his other rival for 1st place. I made one big blunder which he missed, then established a strong advantage but....blew it in time trouble again.

So there you have it. 5 losses, but I had good winning advantages in all of the games, and the average rating of my opponents was about 1900 which is a lot higher than I usually play. So I'm not that disappointed, but I definitely need to manage short time controls better, especially when there's no increment!