(Ghosted by the editor as John was actually concentrating on his game rather than strolling around getting distracted!)
Bedford D made up for their 5-0 drubbing in December at the hands of MK C with a convincing 3.5-1.5 victory last night.
Without regulars Mac, Jan and Qais unavailable, some changes were required so Blagan Jeremic and Steve Pike made their D team debuts. Details in order of completion:-
- Blagan, who was missing a Croatian Christmas to be there(!), was the first to convert with an aggressive display against Nielsen. An early Ke7 by Black was symptomatic of the game which concluded before 9.30 with White pawns on a6 and b7!
- Steve’s attack against Solloway was not entirely convincing but checkmate on move 21 was still a nice way to start 2016 – the rather clumsy moves leading to that pretty conclusion may be viewed here.
- Neil was always better (I thought) in an irregular (so irregular, it was a McCutcheon!!) French-Winawer and forked Heath’s rooks neatly when they took up strange positions on the queenside. This advantage was then exchanged off into a winning pawn endgame with aplomb and we were 3-0 ahead before 10pm! Here‘s the game.
- Ben had been struggling with a declined (hardly sporting!) Benko gambit and reached a horrible R,R,N+7Ps each endgame with his knight stuck on h5. Once Wells got his rooks on the 7th, there was very little left to discuss.
- John played an attacking, expansive game (no really!) and got a fantastic position against McKeon. Doubled rooks on an open d-file led to a clear pawn advantage and the position still looked overwhelming, but something went a bit wrong and suddenly Black’s active queen looked threatening. With Russian roulette approaching, discretion proved the better part etc. and John offered a draw.
A great result and some interesting games.