Club K.O. Tournament Round 2 Rematch!
Earlier I played yet another rematch against a very good player graded 143 ECF (1796 FIDE equ.) and he put the squeeze on me... we both play 1.d4 and are both solid players, the same style, but he's just that bit better...
I believe he played the Semi-Slav colours-reversed as I had the black pieces, I even got my dream QID setup but I lost a crucial pawn in the middlegame but didn't get enough counterplay and compensation, but I made him work extremely hard for his win
He deserved the win too lol, he's just too solid for me to beat - AND I have to play him AGAIN with black next week in the second section as it is a 2-life K.O. tournament!! I'll get him next week lol, here's tonight's game...
So you can see I put up a fight, I was even hopeful of queenside counterplay and a win at one point, but it was obviously a technical win as he had the central passed-pawn to push, that ruined my drawing chances.
Ah well, this is ace practice for when I'm constantly playing people over 140 ECF (1770 FIDE equ.+) in 6 months-1year's time, and this was still a fun game to play despite losing, I relish the challenge lol, and even knowing I have him again next Monday and am technically signing up for another loss; the day I decline a challenge is the day I quit chess - NEVER!! Plus I know I can beat him if I play my best. I will use more time on my clock next week too as we both still had over 40 minutes left each, so I'm gonna calculate a lot more deeply next week!
If you think about this game though, although it wasn't my best chess, I was still happy with how I played... But I just got squeezed slowly by a much better player, no shame in this loss at all. Feedback welcome.