Bedford A continued their fine form this season with a comfortable 4.5 – 0.5 win over Luton A on Tuesday 25th.
| Board | Rating | Luton A | V | Bedford A | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2019 | Hudson, JulianB | ½ – ½ | G Ledger, Stephen C | 2125 |
| 2 | 1946 | O’Brien, Thomas PG | 0 – 1 | N Arulnandhy, Ravi | 2065 |
| 3 | 1750 | Singh, DamanjeetB | 0 – 1 | B Collacott, Nick | 1970 |
| 4 | 1613 | Juhasz, AleksandarG | 0 – 1 | G Habershon, Paul F | 1957 |
| 5 | 1665 | Jones, Dixon HG | 0 – 1 | G Hale, Jack | 1750 |
| Total | 8993 | ½ – 4½ | 9867 |
On Board 2, Ravi’s opponent played a Trompowsky but followed it up with a dubious looking pawn sacrifice that never seemed to get enough compensation and Ravi duly converted the win without too many problems.
On 5, Jack put in a very smooth & mature performance, steadily improving his position before sweeping in with a nice finish ( SEE GAME BELOW ).
On 3, Nick’s game, by his own admission, wasn’t the highest quality affair ! His opponent messed up the opening and Nick reckons he was winning after 15 moves but a mutual blunderfest then ensued which, fortunately, culminated in his opponent making the final, fatal blunder of a piece in an ending.
So 3-0 and match over it was.
On 1, Julian played a somewhat off-beat opening and I never felt entirely comfortable though I thought I must be doing OK and the computer agrees. Being ahead in development, I then opened up the Q-Side and Julian responded by opening up the K-Side. I’m not sure I was really at the races on the night and I saw several ghosts in the position and decided to force a 3-fold repetition. Stockfish duly pointed out several wins for me, right near the end, in a couple of nanoseconds. Irritating.
This left Paul on board 4 to seek revenge for a mishap in the Beds CC earlier in the season. The game was generally levellish or a small edge to his opponent but when I started watching they were down to a few minutes ( 2 v 5 sort of few ) each and white started playing some poor moves, as Paul eyed his exposed king , before collapsing completely and leaving his queen en-pris. So 4.5 – 0.5 it was.
Steve Ledger, 28/03/2025.