My Seventh Game of the 2013/14 Season - a WIN with 1.b3! :)

Today I played one of the most technical games of my life! Strong positional ideas from both sides, attacking and counter-attacking from both sides, tactics constantly on the knife-edge throughout the tense middlegame!

To an expert+ player it may not seem like much but every member of my club watched me win and praised the game which is my most important opinions due to them being my team-mates and being constantly picked for both squads every game. It was a great morale boost - even my opponent said how strong I played and was easily much stronger than my official grade of 122 ECF - my opponent also played a VERY good game and and I even told him it felt like I was playing and attempting to crush a 140+ (1770+) level player so for "just 111 ECF" (was 120 ECF (1610) last season) my opponent played a very accurate game and we both said how it was a really tense but enjoyable game and quick after-game analysis showed I maybe had a small advantage for most of the game. I could be wrong but I have no engine... but after the handshake and mutual appreciation for the game played, sportsmanship is an important thing, and as everyone left I could hear our game being talked about so it was obviously entertaining watching us in severe time trouble! 

It was a shame we both got into time trouble - This game should have had the opportunity to be played out further. Pity it was only g/90 not g/120 that would have made a huge difference. I go into detail in my annotations, any constructive feedback is welcome! 

I am now on 5/7 this season and still unbeaten with a current performance of 145 ECF (1810) but my real grade would probably be closer to 135-140 ECF (1730-1770) if fully recalculated and ALL games taken into consideration. This game has given me a much-needed confidence boost in my improving abilities and to play on for the win and not accept draws even in severe time trouble 

Next game is in 1 week