Friday saw us travelling north to the Blackpool Chess Conference - probably the largest weekend chess congress in the country. We always say that there are no easy games at Blackpool, and yet again this proved to be the case. With a grade of 101, John had to play in the intermediate section this year (under-120) whilst I stayed in the minor (under-100).
On arrival, almost the first people we met were the Isle of Man group. It was good to meet up with them again and here the progress on the Isle of Man congress.
John's first game was against a grade 112 and he managed a draw. I was drawn, again, against the same opponent as I played on Saturday morning in Exeter (and who I may be playing in an inter-club match on Thursday). This time I was white and was determined not to go pushing pawns without good reason. The result, I went the exchange up, then a bishop up, then blundered the bishop back. I turned a draw down, partly because I was cross with myself for losing the bishop, partly because I was still the exchange up, and partly because John was still playing and I didn't want to sit around waiting for him. Apparently, we went into an ending which, with best play, was drawn. I, of course, was unaware of this and eventually went on to win with under 3 minutes left on my clock. This for someone who never gets into time trouble was quite an achievement. So, as the round ended, we headed off to our hotel, rather later than we would have liked, but both pleased with our results.
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