Not a great day at the Munster League. In my first game I got a good position and played well enough for a while. Then I went all in for an attack that didn't work and ended up in a losing endgame. I think a crucial moment was when I captured on a4 with my king. This allowed him to trap my king on the a file. Instead the computer suggests b3 as an alternative way to capture the pawn without getting my king trapped.
In the second game I had a repeat against my opponent from the last round last year. This went into the same opening but I was more prepared this time and got a much better position (technically any position would be better than horribly checkmated on the kingside). One interesting moment was when my opponent captured on e5. My heart sank as I thought I was either dropping a bishop or losing loads of pawns. I said to myself that as the line losing the pawns was so bad, I may as well analyse the line that dropped the bishop. Then I realised that it couldn't be captured as Re8 would trap the queen.
After that I got a good position and was possibly better when my opponent offered a draw. Given my bad run against higher rated opponents I took the offer.
Unfortunately the B team lost both games although with Adare getting thrown out our odds of survival next year have probably improved.
→ posted on November 26, 2017