A good result at the club

That's chess over for another year, and now I'm spending all my time writing cards, wrapping gifts and cleaning the house.

My year of chess has often been mixed and a bit of a struggle many times. I will write a proper summary of the year soon - and I know I need to finish the story of the Preston tournament as well.

Today, however, I will talk about my game at the club on Wednesday which was probably my best game of the year. Ending on a high note, you might say. It was a Huddersfield league game, Netherton A v Netherton B. Needless to say I was in Netherton B, with all the other bottom-of-the-pile dravers, up against the club's strongest players. On board 1 we had Jonathan, a sound gardener with a big bushy orange beard, up against Peter Shore graded 190. On board 2 we had Kareem, a young Asian boy who plays too fast, up against Nick Edwards, another very strong player. On board 3 we had me, an in-and-out performer to say the least, up against Richard Desmedt, arguable the most experienced player in the entire country. Richard plays tournaments more or less every weekend - 39 last year - and is always high up on the British Chess Federation "most games played" list. He played I think about 200 rated games last year. His grade is 151, compared with my 99.

We were utterly outclassed on the other three boards as well. It was a serious mismatch. As I sat down I reflected that we were heading for a 6-0 whitewash, though this was avoided by the fact that their board 5 player never showed up.

Richard Desmedt is a really nice chap, always very friendly and chatty. I have seen him at a lot of the tournaments I've been to this year. Playing him, however, was not going to be an easy proposition. I just decided I was going to make it as hard for him to win as possible. I was determined not to be the first person to lose, and also to try and last out to the time control. Make him work for it.

He played 1. e4 and I replied with my usual Sicilian. He plays the Morra Gambit, so I was able to direct the game into a position I well know, by declining the gambit with 3 .. d5. That was the first bit of good news, because I'm much happier in openings I know fairly well. It was a strange game, maybe lucky for me, because, as he said afterwards, he was in a strong position - positionally better, as the computer later confirmed, but he couldn't make anything of it and soon found himself a bit tangled up.

He missed a trick - I think he should have sacrificed Rook for Bishop and a passed pawn, but he didn't see that, retreated, and soon enough I had won material - Rook for Bishop and pawn on my terms, and I had a nice position. Things were looking fine. I was running a bit short of time and I well know my propensity to balls up good positions against even rubbish players, never mind 150s - so I decided to offer him a draw. After consulting his captain, and discovering that Netherton A had won all the other games, he gracefully accepted.

I was the only person on our team not to lose and got a lot of very nice comments from the other players on both teams. It was a big feather in my cap to get a half against such strong opposition. Sure, it wasn't the most serious game of the year, and as I said Richard is a nice bloke and in a more serious game would probably have fought on material down and won, but the fact remains that people like him don't just give draws away for nothing. It must go down as my best result of the year, and provides encouragement for the future.

Here is the game for anyone who is interested

Desmedt-Bailey
Netherton, 9 Dec 09

1 e4 c5
2 d4 cxd4
3 c3 d5
4 exd5 Qxd5
5 cxd4 Nc6
6 Nf3 e5
7 Nc3 Bb4
8 Bd2 Bxc3
9 Bxd2 e4
10 Ne5 Nxe5
11 dxe5 Ne7
12 Be2 o-o
13 o-o Be6
14 Qa4 Bd7
15 Qc2 Bc6
16 Rfd1 Qe6
17 Rd6 Qc8
18 Rad1 Qc7
19 h3? Nf5
20 R6d2? e3!
21 Qxf5 exd2
22 Bb4 Re8
23 Bd6 Qd7
24 Qf4 Qe6
25 Rxd2 Qg6? (Qxb2)

draw agreed.