Last night I was up against James Ratcliffe, the club’s strongest junior player, in the Club Championship. Unfortunately from my perspective, I played a poor game and lost.
I had the Black pieces and the game started with a Sicilian Defence. I managed to equalize easily enough, but then made an unprovoked and unwise weakening of my king position, which led to serious problems. In what I correctly decide was a lost position, I aimed for complications; in the end this paid off in that my opponent allowed a tricky endgame in which he slipped up, giving me a position that could be held. However, both players were short of time, and I slipped up in my defence; I lost on time in a position that was by then a losing one.
I give the game below with some notes.