Last year the only game I was at a disadvantage in the opening was against Sebi.  Had I allowed transposition into a Scheveningen, it's a balanced game - there is nothing better than to allow this transposition although to play the queen's knight to d7 is always interesting as is characteristic of a Najdorf (as is Pb5, Pe5).  Against Weirwindle I had a better way to play the opening position, because as the game developed near the end, I should play c3 and the heavy pieces come off and its a draw, white's 2 v 1 queenside advantage is nothing, and the same against Uly when I did play opening better, but failed to take my chance for advantage.  The problem for me last year was in technique, I had to take more time and use DPA better in positions that were all quite complicated.  Plus I rejected very acceptable positions in a few games without good enough reason, at the very least I should have taken more time, which in part cost me in half of my games when I made mistakes.  At the moment, I'm quite content with the state of my repertoire in the Scheveningen-Najdorf complex and in the KID.  It's not simple to find good new or rare ideas for Black in many of these positions, but in a few instances I have succeeded, but already deeply into very established lines.  And given I have studied some other structures deeply and have some good ideas for Black that seem quite promising for counterplay from analysis and literature, but often overlooked in practice, I will be playing some different stuff this year, which I have sometimes been playing over the board, too.  As I have not found ways for White to sustain meaningful advantage in the lines I intend, or kill off the game quickly in at least 80% of my repertoire, and in the long term Black gets good counterplay, then I am happy to give Paul a chance to improve on my analysis.  In the last year, I've built a comprehensive repertoire, so I expect to be prepared deeper than my opponent in many positions.  As I see it, Paul will either contribute to my theory in some very unexpected way, or I will make White prove a draw.  In my opinion a small space advantage in the opening for White comes to nothing given that Black takes the appropriate prophylactic measures, and the literature, practice, and computer-aided analysis seem to bear this out.  I went through all the games last year that were relevant to my repertoire.  I expect to greatly enjoy this game.  We shall see!

Matt, you sound very motivated to show a strong play in WBCCC 2012... that's good news! :-), indeed it would be great for the tournament -especially you're own one- when you could extract a (half)point out of this game vs. NATIONAL... i wish you good luck doing so!

Managed to get a losing position in 5 (!) moves.  It was a beginner's mistake I would not have made in an OTB game - too much material at my disposal and didn't really use my brain to assess his ideas.  However, I was overthinking things about similar positions and Black's principle plans and was disconcerted by a move order not familiar to me and reacted in an irrational way.  I was worried about getting a position that is worse than in the main lines, but that was exactly what happened!  A rare lesson but a good one.

TableBases are, and have been for several days!