My First Game for the County - my 3rd Consecutive Draw!!

Today, Saturday 11th February 2012, I played my first game for Oxfordshire's U150's (1850 FIDE) team. It was held at Magdalen College School in Oxford, a venue where I had many great victories as a young child... the match was even held in a room where I have won games before!!

We played against Buckinghamshire, and I played on board 16 (bottom board lol) with the white pieces. I haven't done too well with the white pieces recently, I definately need to make some tweaks to my game if I am to progress...

So, another draw... my last 3 rated games have all been draws - but this was a draw against a lower-rated player (92 ECF) so not my best chess by a long-shot! I haven't run it through Houdini yet but I know where I went wrong... taking on c6 with the bishop was a huge blunder, I spent ages calculating possible lines out and missed the obvious reply. I went against my gut instinct to play my positional chess, retreat the bishop and find another way to grind my opponent down, but I listened to my head not my heart, and once again it's got me in trouble!

But - once I was down material I started playing really well - managed to create threats that resulted in an almost-forced repetition of moves, the draw was offered to me and I didn't hesitate in taking it! So, I basically escaped with a draw when I should have won.

Another way to look at it is like this - out of my last 7 rated games, I have only lost once... and that was to a higher-rated player, so I guess it's not all bad!!