Betrayed by my own brain

A very interesting first round of the Slow Swiss #3 tournament ended with me short circuiting my brain; resigning in a drawish position because I mistakenly thought it was mate on the next move...

Now, this is a really, really big mistake by me - one that I should really not have made. Next time, I will think it through thoroughly.

Apart from the silly resigning, my main problem was not making things a bit easier early on, and not moving axb5 of which I had plenty of opportunities to do. When I finally made that move, it was at a ridiculous moment; really bad timing.

My opponent commented that he was nervous, not having played this kind of game on the internet before, but he did a really good job, I thought. The one major mistake he managed to rectify well, captialising on my mistakes later in the game and equalizing nicely before being handed the victory on a plate :-) Oh, well! Live and learn...

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