[Ed – apologies for the lateness of this report – Ravi’s game, interesting as it was, was submitted in something akin to morse code making the transcription tricky! ]
Bedford A returned to the top of the Bedfordshire County League Division 1 on Thursday with a comprehensive win over Bedford B. The superior gradings of the A Team were reflected in the results.
The results in full:
| Board | Rating | Bedford B | V | Bedford A | Rating |
| 1 | 1968 | Bodily, Richard T | ½ – ½ | Ledger, Stephen C | 2119 |
| 2 | 1750 | Hale, Jack | 0 – 1 | Arulnandhy, Ravi | 2046 |
| 3 | 1947 | Habershon, Paul F | 0 – 1 | Dairi, Ramsey | 2043 |
| 4 | 1863 | Pike, Steve C | 0 – 1 | Collacott, Nick | 2035 |
| 5 | 1726 | Walker, Robert S | 0 – 1 | Taylor, Alex | 1921 |
| Total | 9254 | ½ – 4½ | 10164 |
First to finish was Board 1. Steve (White) played a pretty dubious opening (Nf3 d5, b3 Bg4, Ne5 Bf5, g4 ?! ) that allowed Black to, at least, equalise with ease. White’s plan of the double fianchetto and then snipe at Black’s centre failed to come to anything. Richard just outplayed Steve before rather wimping out with a 3-fold repetition in a much better / winning position.
The game on Board 2 between Jack and Ravi looked good for Ravi but a mistake gave Jack a way back in. It then exploded into life with both players queening pawns but Ravi’s attack was eventually just a bit quicker.
On Board 3, Paul had a torrid time against Ramsey, and was struggling from an early stage, to a prepared line. He did well to hold out for as long as he did, but the outcome was inevitable.
My (Rob) game on Board 5 against Alex seemed to be going well for me, as I gained the exchange. However, a couple of weak moves and I was struggling. An injudicious manoeuvre left my queen trapped.
That left Steve against Nick on Board 4. Nick (Black) dodged Steve’s “secret weapon to beat the Caro Kann” killer YouTube prep with a transposition into an advanced French structure. He had some opportunities to generate play against Nick’s castled king with a rook lift and Qg4 but, as Nick had swapped off his light squared bishop, it was not all that dangerous. In the end Nick managed to gain the open c-file and invade on c3 then swing over to h3 as Steve had injudiciously pushed g2-g4. Steve then ran short of time, couldn’t defend h2 and resigned.
Rob Walker, 1st March 2026