While Sue’s been busy writing on our road trip I haven’t forgotten about my Game of the Month (actually I had but Sue emailed me to remind me!). I decided to choose one of my own games. Overall the tournament was a bit of a disaster from a rating point of view, losing to Chris Wallis, an Aussie FM already put me in a big rating hole. I can’t have many complaints about the game though –  my only serious mistake was declining to go into a drawn endgame instead choosing an unclear option, after which Chris played perfectly. The long time control certainly seemed to suit him. I also finished the tournament with a loss to the tournament victor Darryl Johansen. The Australian GM has had a good patch recently, also winning the Australian Championships. Again I got too ambitious, I miscalculated something when sacrificing a piece and should have simply repeated position for the draw (an option I had twice). Again after declining the draw my opponent played very well and didn’t give me any more chances.

However the tournament wasn’t all bad. From a social point of view it was great to meet up with our Kiwi friends and spending time in New Zealand again was very pleasant. I also played a couple of nice games – the one below won the Best Game prize, sponsored by Grant Kerr.

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