Bedford A defeated a strong LB A team in a tense match on Thursday to maintain our 100% start to the season.
| Board | Rating | Bedford A | V | Leighton Buzzard A | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2125 | Ledger, Stephen C | ½ – ½ | Tukpetov, Evgeny | 2286 |
| 2 | 2103 | Gardner, James | 1 – 0 | Sharp, John R | 2173 |
| 3 | 2065 | Arulnandhy, Ravi | 0 – 1 | Kenworthy, Gary | 2092 |
| 4 | 1970 | Collacott, Nick | ½ – ½ | Law, Stephen | 2000 |
| 5 | 1957 | Habershon, Paul F | 1 – 0 | Valentine, Brian J | 1872 |
| Total | 10220 | 3 – 2 | 10423 |
On board 1, I came into this match with, I think, a magnificent 0 from 5 record against Tukpetov, had my 5th black against him and was a bit under the weather from a cold/one of the various winter bugs doing the rounds so, needless to say, my confidence was not high. The game began e4 c5 Nf3 Nc6 Nc3 e5 Nd5 !?!? so we are both making it up from move 4 onwards. My thoughts after the game were that he steadily outplayed me, built up a strong attack against my king but then missed a couple of things ( when he had 35 minutes and I had about 45 seconds ) before cashing in his advantage to win an exchange but missed that I had a perpetual at the end of the sequence. Chatting after the game, he seemed to think I was mostly OK though and the Metal Monster seems to agree and it was actually me that missed the biggest chance to force a win (!) near the end. Still, nice to get on the scoreboard at last.
On board 2, James punted 1. b3 and secured a valuable and satisfying win, see the first game below.
I didn’t see or hear much about board 3 but when I briefly spectated, once I’d finished, Gary had a fairly huge position which he duly converted.
Nick’s game on board 4 was, apparently, a bit of a dull affair and the first game to conclude.
Paul bought home the bacon for us on board 5 when Brian blundered in a decent position – see the second game below.
Next up, the current top two (100% teams) clash as we visit MK A next Thursday
Steve Ledger, 06/12/2024.
“The Mighty Hippo”(!)