Bedford A maintained their 100% start to the season with a nervy 3-2 victory over MK A on Thursday 12th Dec.
| Board | Rating | Milton Keynes A | V | Bedford A | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2064 | Bartram, DominicB | ½ – ½ | G Ledger, Stephen C | 2125 |
| 2 | 2050 | Elwin, Adrian GP | ½ – ½ | B Arulnandhy, Ravi | 2065 |
| 3 | 2020 | Meichel, Eric BG | 1 – 0 | B Gardner, James | 2103 |
| 4 | 1921 | Smith, GrahamG | 0 – 1 | B Collacott, Nick | 1970 |
| 5 | 1906 | Whiteside, RobertB | 0 – 1 | G Habershon, Paul F | 1957 |
| Total | 9961 | 2 – 3 | 10220 |
Things started well as Nick won a nice miniature on Bd 4. Admittedly he was helped by his opponent, as I don’t like 6. gXf3 and 13. f3 is an awful move
but the finish was very nice. SEE GAME BELOW.
When this was followed by Paul punishing some rash (and very rapidly played) moves from Rob Whiteside, before surviving a brief comeback, to win on Bd 5 things looked very rosy indeed. SEE GAME BELOW.
So just a point needed from the top 3 boards but this was to prove far from straightforward ……
On Bd 1, I contrived to play my worst game for quite some time as I played some awful moves in the opening allowing some deadly pins to trap my K in the centre.
I suspect I was lucky to survive and that Dominic had better lines than picking up a pawn but allowing me to swap queens and head for an ending. At least I woke up eventually and dug in to fight and whip up some counter threats whereupon Dominic blundered and gave me my pawn back. I might even have been winning when we got down to R+B+2p each but, with 15 seconds on my clock to 5 minutes, I offered the draw which was accepted.
James and Ravi made a last minute decision to swap round on boards 2 & 3 and it didn’t work out that great 🙁-
James started off well and developed a nice position but he got short of time, Eric whipped up some counter chances and James was unable to find his way thru the complications in time trouble.
This left Ravi, who’d decided to experiment with a Benoni, to defend N+B+3p V R+B+2p with the pawns all on the same side of the board.
It looked a bit dicy to me but then I popped out for some ‘fresh air’ and when I came back the draw had been agreed when Ravi managed to free his king and swap the pawns off. So 3-2 to Bedford who are top with 4 wins from 4. No matches until we return with the Bedford derby in February.
Steve Ledger, 14/12/2024.