The OU came to Bedford looking for revenge, as we had hammered them 3-2 when we visited the canteen in November. Sadly they found it, in spades.
Lucian and David were the first to succumb. I didn’t see enough of their games to comment.
Next was Qais. His opponent, Pete Clarke, told me afterwards that Qais had played well, but went slightly wrong playing too quickly in some crucial positions.
Next was me. I had a lovely looking position after about 20 moves, but once again demonstrated little idea of what to do with it. Robert (Whiteside) slowly untangled his pieces and achieved some pressure, which ended with him sacrificing his knight for the three pawns in front of my king. It proved enough.
Toby played a complicated game with Black against James Alexander (grandson of the ’38 and ’56 British Champion and Bletchley Park stalwart C H O’D Alexander, so I’m told). For the last hour of the game he was fighting on a pawn down in an ending, and with much less time on his clock. He did so brilliantly, and the position had simplified to a R+P vs R ending that looked drawn when Toby unfortunately allowed his time to run out.
So, our first whitewash of the season, and hopefully our last.
John
But congratulations to Dad David whose name came out of the hat in the Saturday ‘Times’ chess solving competition. I assumed it is OUR David Cox.
Really unlucky Toby – you deserved a draw for your resilience alone!