Bedford C headed for Milton Keynes to play the OU in our last match, with every reason to be confident given that we heavily outrated them, and they had not managed to win a single match.
My opponent on board 3 was Elliot Long, a relative newcomer to Bedfordshire Chess. He handled my Roy Lopez without difficulty, choosing to exchange Queens early, and with a slightly arid position in which Black was according to my chess engine ever so slightly better, we agreed a draw. (Readers please suppress your groans!)
Meanwhile Robert (Wilson) had managed to get the better of Steven Wayne’s Caro Khan, going a pawn up with a better pawn structure. However he miscalculated and came out of a series of exchanges having lost a piece. He soldiered on but Steven unleashed a devilish double attack on Robert’s Queen and back rank from which there was no escape.
At that stage, so far as I could judge the remaining boards, a win was far from certain. Alex and Dave Phillips were down to the major pieces with Alex pressing but still plenty to do. I think Dave must have wrongly calculated that he could escape the pressure with a clever tactic, but it misfired badly and within a few moves he was two rooks down.
That left Richard who was gradually accumulating pawns before he finished off with a fatal pin of David Webber’s Queen.
So it was down to Callum and Peter Hawes on board 1. Peter had got his King’s rook stuck in the corner (I’m not sure it ever moved!) with his King on g8, whilst Callum bore down on h7. As usual Callum left his own King with little cover – but Peter was too preoccupied with defence to take advantage. Eventually, unable to break through against the King, Callum switched to the centre where Peter, despite a stubborn defence, eventually dropped a minor piece. A few years ago Callum was playing on the lower boards, and by no means always winning. This season, playing board 1, he has won 6 of his 7 games, losing only to Steve Pike in our first match.
The only team that can catch us on points now in Div 2 is Bedford D who inflicted our only defeats! However to win the division they will need to win almost all the individual games in their remaining two matches given that our game score is 25.5 – 14.5 and theirs is 16 – 14. A Bedford team winning Div 2 will be great but whether we really want promotion is a different matter!
Peter Hawes 0 – 1 Callum Shields
David Webber 0 – 1 Richard McMorran
Elliot Long 0.5 – 0.5 Peter Gill
David Phillips 0 – 1 Alex Potts
Steven Wayne 1 – 0 Robert Wilson
1.5 – 3.5
Peter Gill, 2nd April 2023