BCL Division 1 Thu 16th Mar 2023
| Board | Home | Bedford B | Leighton Buzzard A | Away | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (B) | 1985 | Taylor, Alex | ½ – ½ | Kenworthy, Gary | 2169 |
| 2 (W) | 1971 | Habershon, Paul F | 1 – 0 | Hunt, Peter | 2011 |
| 3 (B) | 1962 | Bodily, Richard T | 0 – 1 | Law, Stephen | 2055 |
| 4 (W) | 1938 | Obi, Okwose Marc | ½ – ½ | Williamson, Kevin J | 1953 |
| 5 (B) | 1924 | Karimi, Qais | 1 – 0 | Watson, Dominic | 1804 |
| Total | 9780 | 3 – 2 | Total | 9992 |
The B Team faced another stern challenge at home to Leighton Buzzard A, but looked to avenge their narrow defeat earlier in the season.
Two games finished relatively early. Qais always had a comfortable game as black on board 5. Queens came off early and Qais was able to use his queenside pawns to blockade white’s bishops and then used his kingside pawns to gain space on that wing. After establishing an immovable knight on e3 his position was solid and after white tried to break up the queenside, Qais marched his king up the board winning material and the game.
Richard was up against Steve on Board 3 and tried a new variation. All was level, albeit complicated but then Richard made a mistake and the next time I looked Steve had two queens on the board (albeit momentarily!). This lead to Steve winning a rook for a bishop and having massive pressure on the 8th rank. This ultimately proved decisive and the game was won.
Board 4 saw Marc take on Kevin and this game seemed pretty balanced for much of the evening. Neither side seemed to be able to get much of an advantage, and after queens came off Kevin had control of the e file, but did not seem to be able to do much with it. A draw was agreed. In post-match analysis between Richard and Kevin, it appeared that Kevin did miss an opportunity to win material at one point but it was overlooked!
On Board 2 Paul was up against Peter. After a sold Petrov opening both sides has lost their d and e pawns and castled queenside, so the position looked level. Peter then decided to be aggressive and sacrifice a queen for a rook and knight, which appeared to give him some attacking threats, but nothing decisive. Paul calmly won a couple of pawns on the kingside and managed to get his bishop to d3, which disrupted the black attack. Peter then allowed Paul to fork his rooks with his queen and he duly resigned.
I was up against Gary on Board 1. After a Reti opening the position looked pretty level and although Gary had some threats down the centre, I managed to force him to accept an isolated pawn on d4 and wedged a knight on d5. Various exchanges later, it was down to a queen and pawn ending and the position looked pretty drawish. I did offer draw (knowing it would be turned down) as Gary tried to improve his position, but was hampered by his slightly exposed king. I missed a guaranteed draw, but did enough to hold on (although possibly Gary was winning in the final position).
A fantastic 3-2 for the B Team goes a long way to removing any relegation fears and definitely knocks Leighton Buzzard A out of the title race.
Alex Taylor, 17th March 2023