If I followed this blog more closely...

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... I'd have been better prepared for this Opponent, as one of my fellow bloggers reported his game against him earlier in the season.

In my last post, I complained that my games were too often spoiled by blunders. This game certainly wasn't error-free (I doubt I've ever played a game where I would be happy to repeat every single move, much less one that was objectively without error), but both players avoided anything too grotesque - and I'm beginning to think that that's half the battle.

As Black, I mixed up my opening lines and was probably rather worse for a while - White's two bishops had me worried. The curious 21. Kf1, though, allowed me to exchange some pieces, after which I was presumably better due to the weakness on c3. (Sadly the game was late to finish and I didn't get a chance to ask Opponent for his thoughts. 21. Kf1 looks to me like the sort of move you play when you're not sure what to do, but maybe he had something concrete in mind).

White possibly should have made the endgame a bit tougher, but was beginning to run short of time. At 37... Nc3+ it took me far too long to convince myself that I would have time to queen before White did the same... I felt sure I must be OK, but we've all seen endings where miracle saves are pulled off by a single tempo; and I really didn't want to be a victim of one of those.

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