Making peace with the club ladder

I’ve been meaning to write about the club ladder for most of a month. The pawn break I’d been planning all evening turned out to lose a piece, which I saw as soon as I let go of it. The advice in a battered second-hand manual made perfect sense until I actually tried it.

The honest answer is that I don’t know why it worked this time. I was two pawns up and feeling pleased with myself about five moves before the whole thing fell apart. The club meets in a room above a hall that smells of floor polish and old coffee.

• Ask an old friend before assuming the worst.
• Stop when it stops being fun.
• Leave the time scramble alone unless there’s a good reason.
• Keep the old notes; they’re more useful than they look.
• Have another look at the King’s Indian next winter.

I’ll leave it there, since the King’s Indian needs my attention.