Spike, Author at Bedford Chess Club

As 2025 comes to an end James Gardner survived a scare against club champion Nick Collacott. Look at the crucial decisions at moves 16-18:

[Event "Bedford Club Championship"] [Date "2025.12.18"] [White "Gardner, James"] [Black "Collacott, Nick"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A01"] [Annotator "Fritz 17/Paul Habershon"] [PlyCount "51"] 1. b3 e5 2. Bb2 Nc6 3. e3 a6 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nf3 e4 6. Ne5 Bd6 7. f4 Qe7 8. Ng4 Nh5 9. Nf2 Nf6 10. g4 O-O 11. g5 Ne8 12. Nc3 f5 13. Nd5 Qf7 14. c5 Bxc5 15. Bc4 Kh8 16. Nxc7 $4 (16. Nb6 $1 {comfortably wins the exchange as Black's d5 response doesn't work.}) 16... d5 $1 17. Bxd5 $2 (17. Nxa8 dxc4 18. h4 { Black is only slightly better after} Be6) 17... Qxc7 18. Qh5 Ne7 $4 {Throwing away a decisive advantage.} ({The hard to see} 18... Bxe3 $1 {is winning after} 19. dxe3 (19. g6 Bxf2+ 20. Kxf2 Qxf4+ 21. Ke1 h6) 19... Qa5+ 20. Ke2 Qxd5 21. g6 Qg8) 19. Bf7 Rxf7 20. Qxf7 Bd7 21. Rc1 Qb6 22. Qf8+ Ng8 23. Rxc5 Qg6 24. h4 Qh5 25. Rc7 Rd8 26. Rxb7 1-0

Now James Gardner and Jack Hale lead Division One with 2.5/3. Although others have games in hand they have all dropped at least one point.

Paul Habershon

Author: Spike

Key moment in club championship as the two most recent champions clash.