Extraordinary escape for Bedford A at Northampton

With only half an hour of this match remaining it is no exaggeration to report that Northampton were winning 4-1. Unbeaten Bedford A, supposedly cruising to the league title, were about to suffer a humiliating reverse against the bottom team. Northampton have had a miserable season, losing every match, including one by default, Although Bedford were without Ledger and Botteley, this should have been a routine victory, especially as Northampton lacked their star player, Ross.

Here is the debacle in order of finished games.

Bd 5: a fairly quick victory for Marc playing in only his second Beds. League match.

Bd 4: Richard blunders a piece early on and is completely lost for virtually the whole game. His opponent misses a mate in one and in the ending Richard somehow manages to reduce him to two knights and a pawn for which Richard can sacrifice his last piece. A lucky draw.

Bd 2: Paul goes into a minor piece ending where he thinks his bishop is better than the opposing knight. He is then outplayed by Branko who makes good use of a Q side passed pawn to win on the K side.

Bd 4: Steve has long had a positional advantage but blunders and has to sac the exchange to avoid being a piece down. He goes into an ending with B and five pawns v R and three. Eva misses several chances to return the exchange with a trivially won K and P ending and eventually Steve gets a passed h pawn far enough forward to force her to take a perpetual check.

Bd 1: so the match is poised at 2-2 and the focus switches to Ravi. He has outplayed his opponent from the opening but cannot find a quick kill in what looks like an overwhelming attack. Gradually the tables turn and Ravi is well behind on time in the rapidplay finish. In a major piece ending Ravi (White) has his queen on h6 and doubled rooks on the f file  threatening mate on f8, but Black has been keeping it covered while winning a pawn and advancing a passed pawn to the sixth rank. Ravi has one minute left to his opponent’s ten. Black has temporarily taken his queen’s eye off f8 to deliver a check and then inexplicably advances his pawn to the seventh. Rf8+ Rxf8 Rxf8 mate!

If Leighton Buzzard win their remaining matches Bedford A need two points from their last two matches to win the league. However, against a resurgent Bedford B and finally at Milton Keynes A we will have to play a lot better than this.

Paul Habershon 06/03/2015