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Since my sub-par performance in London, I've been trying to get back on track. I've had some success of this on Kurnik, playing some strong games and some erratic, pretty close to my normal state. In the most recent series I played three games against raistlin82 (Italian player Alessandro, forgive my memory lapse on the surname), who is usually in the 1700's. In the first two games I won pretty solidly (I think), if not by huge margins. The third game seemed sure to be the same halfway through-except nothing is guaranteed with me.

, and after winning with Cow-bat and Heath variations I tried Snake. All was on course until 18.f2, as seen above, which I knew wasn't best but I had messed up in the past. This time I played it correctly with 19.g3, a move I won't be able to play after the b3 he wants to play. Even better, after 20.g4 I play the correct 21.f5, realizing that after 21.f6 22.b3 I won't have access to that square.

Now most of the midgame becomes pretty easy, and by move 33, shown above, I've created an odd region that White doesn't want to play into with the northeast, and the west is also awkward to play into.

So up until now, all has gone well; strong opening, near-perfect midgame. Often my problem in winning positions is that I take the advantage for granted, and stop looking ahead. This was the case here, as my first instinct for the above board was 37.c7, which is likely followed by 38.d8 39.f8 and now I have access to b8 and h4. For some reason I decide on 39.g8, which is followed by the now-unpoisoned 40.b3. Now I have no access to b4, or h4 and, perhaps panicked a bit, continue to make poor moves. Alessandro responds very well to my errors and by his move 46 (pictured below) I'm losing badly.

Here I can't play h3, because g7 is clearly being planned. So 47.h2 and now while I lost my advantage by playing alternatives to simpler moves, it seems Alessandro starts doing the same. I expected 48.h8 and if I play 49.g7 50.f8 starts a path of total control over the south. Instead, 48.d8 49.f8 is still winning for him, but it looks closer. While I expect 50.h8, which still looks like an easy victory, his 50.h3 as seen below gives a glimmer of hope.

Now that I'm guaranteed access to a1, the b2-f6 diagonal could become the source of a swindle, or the b6-f2 diagonal also, as will be seen. I play 51.g7 and his 52.h8 is a draw! Now 53.h1 is obvious, and the error of h8 comes to his attention as 54.g1 would give me dominance of the north and a win. 54.b7 would be the draw here, but he played 54.b8. Of course, I don't want to cross the diagonal with 55.g1, so I play 55.b7 instead, as seen below.

Here the two swindles come into play. 56.g1 still gives me the top two rows, as does 56.a7 57.a8 58.g1. Alternatively, 56.a8 57.g1! and now white has no access to a7 and black gets parity. Alessandro chose the latter line, which was best at -2 for him.

As a footnote to this game, the b6-f2 diagonal swindle can be seen reversed if white plays 52.b8! instead of 52.h8. After 53.a8 54.h8 55.h1 (above) again the clear b2-h8 diagonal could swindle white, but 56.a7! controls the b6-f2 line and 57.b7 58.g1 gives white control over the west edge for a narrow win.

So while I won all three games, one was very lucky and very close, with a huge swing for both players. For me, that's just about right for a "good day”.