BCL Division 1 Thu 21st Mar 2024
| Board | Home | Bedford B | Milton Keynes B | Away | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (B) | 1967 | B Taylor, Alex | 1 – 0 | B Tweeddale, Eoin | 2090 |
| 2 (W) | 1952 | B Bodily, Richard T | 1 – 0 | B Bartram, Dominic | 2063 |
| 3 (B) | 1821 | G Dairi, Ramsey | 0 – 1 | P Elwin, Adrian G | 1952 |
| 4 (W) | 1767 | S Walker, Robert S | ½ – ½ | B Whiteside, Robert | 1917 |
| 5 (B) | 1688 | G McMorran, Richard | 0 – 1 | G Bowler, Andrew | 1747 |
| Total | 9195 | 2½ – 2½ | Total | 9769 |
The club was crowded on Thursday as everyone came to watch the B Team face MK “B” (or that’s what I thought until someone pointed out there were two other matches!). The team were looking to improve on their heavy defeat earlier in the season.
With the cramped conditions, I could not easily see all the games, so my brief thoughts may be totally wide of the mark.
I face Eoin Tweeddale on board 1 and had to contend with a Vienna Game which left me with a sold but defendable position. Both sides had chances with kings castled on opposite sides of the board and I managed to get my attack going first. Initially this only led to me tying up Eoin’s pieces, but a mating threat allowed me to win a queen for rook and knight. Coupled with latent mating threats on the back rank I was able to hoover up pawns and win the game.
Richard and Dominic had a wild game in the previous fixture, and things looked much quieter the bulk of the game. Richard had the advantage of space in the centre but nothing clear. After exchanges on the queenside, Dominic had a passed pawn, but Richard had counter attacking chances on the kingside. Once queens were exchanged Richard was able to force a pawn through the centre to queen and at the same time block Dominic’s pawn with his king. A blunder allowing Richard to win a rook ended the game.
Ramsey’s game against Adrian was as a level affair for much of the game out of a Dutch opening. Adrian told me afterwards that he managed to win a couple of pawns in the ending through a cheapo, and after that it was a question of forcing a pawn through to queen with the help of an extra bishop.
The battle of the Roberts on board 4 looked pretty level throughout with both sides having solid positions and no obvious weaknesses. Robert Whiteside did get a pawn on f3 which could have been useful for mating threats but was really no more than nuisance value. Once it came to a queen and rook ending with pawns coming off the board a draw was agreed.
Richard always seemed to be under pressure in his game. Queens came off early, but Richard had to struggle with weak black squares (at one point all his pawns were on white squares), but the real problem was his pawn on d7 which was weak and blocking the c8 bishop. I am not sure how the game ended, but white was victorious.
The overall score was 2.5 – 2.5, which was another great result for the team, especially as we were out graded by 100 points on each board.
Next up is Leighton Buzzard B and our chance to give the C Team as small a target to save themselves in their last match!
Alex Taylor, 22nd March 2024