Wrapping up

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The season proper came to an end some time ago, and I notice that I have a couple of games left over that I've not yet posted. Here's the first of them; the other will probably follow fairly shortly, so that I don't have to leave a loss at the top of the blog...

Crushing though this defeat was, for some reason I didn't mind it too much. I think it's that I'd much prefer to lose by completely misunderstanding the position and coming up with a disastrous plan, than by blundering away some material (which is more often my way). 14. Nd2 was the start of a bad idea, mistakenly playing for 16. f4. A couple of moves later and it's clear that White has only improved of all of Black's pieces, and that it will be just a matter of time before the final blow is delivered. Full credit to Opponent, though, who finished off nicely from there.

As I say though, I'd prefer to lose by executing a bad plan in a relatively unfamiliar type of position. It seems like this sort of loss ought to be a general lesson that I can remember for future games. In contrast, the repeated appearance of decisive blunders in my play suggests that "don't give your pieces away" is a moral that neither I nor my opponents can really grasp.

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