The new season kicked off for the C and D teams last Thursday, with the C team having been relegated last season (much to my chagrin) and the teams having been heavily reshuffled accordingly. As a result, it was good to see many player making their debuts not only for the C and D teams but for Bedford Chess Club as a whole. Definitely there are players who are going to improve rapidly – it’s an exciting time for the club.
My own game on board 2 was the first to finish. (Always useful for a captain to be able to give his full attention to the other boards!) Always an offbeat player, George played a very strange-looking gambit that probably isn’t covered in any opening textbooks, which I declined; we then got into a classic opposite-sides-castled position. He charged his pawns down against my king, but his own king was left with a lot of empty space around it, enabling my queen to infiltrate to devastating effect, forcing a back-rank skewer and his resignation shortly thereafter.
Around the same time, Cedric and Kryzsztof finished their game on board 4. Kryzsztof seems like a pretty strong player, and perhaps future matches might see him playing on a higher board, so it was a tough assignment for Cedric. Apparently he calculated and played through a long forcing line, only to fail to realise until the moves hit the board that his bishop was hanging at the end of the combination – this is something every chess player has done! After he went a piece down the game didn’t last too much longer, and so the overall match score was back to 1-1.
The next result in was the bottom board, where the youngest of Bedford’s young guns, Daniella and Rishik, were squaring off. Judging by their game the future of the club is in good hands; they were even all the way to the endgame, where Daniella sneakily left a pawn hanging to lure Rishik into a fork. He took, but then she realised that he could wriggle out of the fork with a check and remain a pawn up! Rishik confidently converted his advantage into a win, showing the technique of a much more experienced player, and putting the D team ahead. It was a tough loss for Daniella who acquitted herself very well and will only get better with more match time.
Peter and James met on board four in what looked like a cagey game. Peter won an early pawn but his own extra pawn was backward and weak and he couldn’t make it count; James defended stoutly and the position ground to a halt. Peter, unable to make a breakthrough and with his clock ticking down, offered a draw, which James gratefully accepted to keep the match alive.
This left the top board as the decisive match, and I must say it was a bit of a heart-breaker. After an even game for the first thirty moves or so, Callum miscalculated and ended up a rook down, only for Jack to err in time trouble as soon as he’d got into a winning position. The ensuing position was materially equal but Jack’s more exposed king gave Callum the resources he needed to eke out a win. Jack showed great promise – they say that the hardest thing in chess is to win a won game, and Jack will definitely get there. In the end Callum’s victory meant that the overall match score was a tie.
Overall, if the purpose of this match was a test of our plan to field competitive teams of roughly equal strength in Division 2, then I’d say it was a resounding success! And of course for the C team, after only one win the whole of last season, things can only get better.
| Board | Home | Bedford C | V | Bedford D | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1765 | B Shields, Callum T | 1 – 0 | G Hale, Jack | 1801 |
| 2 | 1706 | B Potts, Alexander | 1 – 0 | B Griffiths, George | 1557 |
| 3 | 1562 | G Grimditch, James | ½ – ½ | B Gill, Peter S | 1650 |
| 4 | 1462 | G Hylton, Cedric | 0 – 1 | B Kapustynski , Kryzsztof | 1600 |
| 5 | 0821 | G Dairi, Daniella | 0 – 1 | G Madhadi, Rishik | 1295 |
| Total | 7316 | 2½ – 2½ | 7903 |