Well, so much for Greece

Even though my chances of winning the BGP at the London regional today were strictly mathematical, what with there being so many good players at this one, I still played badly enough to demonstrate beyond doubt that I don't deserve to play in the world championship. Still, it was a fun day. The venue was a pub called the Bath House, just off Oxford Street and thus in the only part of London that I can find my way around without getting lost. It's another of those pubs with a history that boasts about it, although the fact that Karl Marx lived down the road doesn't strike me as particularly impressive. Nor does the fact that the lengthy official history on the wall of the meeting room admits that it has no idea why the pub was renamed the Bath House in the 19th century. It's never been a bath house or anything like that.

Anyway, an impressive 15 of us turned up at the historic silly-named pub, among them Graham, who unsurprisingly beat everyone. My game with him had an infuriating position that I sat staring at for ages, because I had what looked like it should be a really cool Stoner trap, but which just didn't work, and however I could try to play it, there just was no way to make it work. And a bit more staring later, I realised that there was also no other move I could possibly play except the X-square, so I had to play it anyway and resign myself to losing.

Not that I mind losing to Graham, I always lose to him, but then in the next game I made a really stupid mistake against Roy when I should have won, and then I also lost to Iain Barrass, who admittedly is much better than me and always beats me too, but I've been doing so well this season that it still annoyed me. And even more annoying, I didn't even get second place in the BGP! Geoff finished a horrible three points ahead of me, with David the clear winner. Not that you get anything for second place in the BGP, but I wanted it!

Actually, I don't really mind any of this at all, and I'm completely happy with the way the day went. I had fun. But it's also fun to lament about how badly I did.