While my game on the Saturday had been dull, my game on the Sunday was anything but. I was faced with Michael Yeo, a dangerous attacking player armed with the White pieces.
I had played him twice previously. The first was a disastrous loss with White after 19 moves at the Frome Congress in 2005. The second was a curious game with Black from the Weymouth Congress of 2005. My opponent has played 6 Bg5 against my Najdorf, and my preparation had helped me reached a balanced endgame with an extra piece against several pawns after 25 moves. However, I then blundered trying to win, thinking that my position was clearly superior. This was because, although I had remembered the moves correctly, I had not remembered the correct evaluation, which was that the position was balanced! Following my weak move 25, I went on to lose easily.
In the current game, I following some theory that I had remembered, but in this case I remembered the wrong theory, in the form of the line not to play against my opponent’s system! Fortunately, my opponent failed to find the winning line on move 21, and I was able to escape into an endgame that I was able to hold.
I give the game below with some notes.
Sadly, the team again lost, although this time by the narrowest margin of 4.5-3.5. We lost a couple of games on boards 2 and 3, but did better lower down.