My last game in this year’s club championship was against Phil Stimpson. It proved to be an unsatisfactory game for both players, who both had chances to win, but failed to take them. In the end it was a draw, which left me with an overall score of 5/7 in the competition, which was good enough for second place.
I was White, and the game started with Phil’s favourite Scnadinavian Defence. Although I didn’t choose the most incisive approach, I still ended up with a promising position out of the opening. Phil tried to stir things up, but made a serious error; fortunately for him I failed to exploit it! The game then turned in his favour, as I made a significant error soon after. I tried to wriggle out, but Phil kept up the pressure, until he started to run short of time; eventually, after a few errors that made winning rather trickier, he decided to bail out with a draw offer, which I naturally accepted.
I give the game below with some notes.