Before this game, which was played last night, I wondered how many games I had played against Peter Harbott in various competitions. Looking in my database, I found 28, of which 15 were in the Horsham club championship, 6 in the club knockout (3 in one mamoth tie in 1999), 1 in the club knockout plate, 4 in the club quickplay knockout, and 2 in the Mid-Sussex League in matches between Horsham 1 and Horsham 2. As I have only recently started recording games played at faster time limits, there were no doubt more of those; also, I am not sure that I have any of my club games at classical rates of play pre the 1998-9 season. If we exclude the quickplay games, the overall score over the remaining 24 games was 15 wins to me, 6 wins to Peter and 3 draws.
Be that as it may, the game last night was fairly typical of our encounters. The general trend of the game was in my favour, as Peter’s passive opening gave me a slight advantage which I gradually built on. Both sides made a few inaccuracies; from my perspective, my mistake on my 26th move, which allowed White a chance to turn the position in his favour (although not decisively) was annoying. However, after he missed that chance, Peter soon folded and resigned when a piece down in an endgame.
I give the game below with some notes.