BCL Division 2 Thu 12th Jan 2023
| Board | Home | Open University | Bedford D | Away | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (B) | 1585 | B Hawes, Peter | ½ – ½ | B Pike, Steve C | 1844 |
| 2 (W) | 1562 | G Webber, David | ½ – ½ | B Evans, Andy | 1553 |
| 3 (B) | 0000 | G Collins, Nigel | 0 – 1 | G Dairi, Ramsey | 1499 |
| 4 (W) | 0000 | N New Player | 1 – 0 | B Griffiths, George | 1455 |
| 5 (B) | 1272 | G Wayne, Steven | 0 – 1 | B Grimditch, James | 0000 |
| Total | 4419 | 2 – 3 | Total | 6351 |
Bedford D started 2023 with an incredible win to go top of Division 2.
I must confess to coughing and spluttering through the evening and leaving early so this account is a little speculative – feel free to correct me in the comments below!
George played his game at 100mph as ever so my observations of his game are him losing a pawn early on and then, not much later(!), getting swamped by his opponents pawns in an endgame!
I’ll pretend my own efforts were affected by the annoying cough I seem to have picked up from somewhere, and this is probably true although I really could have played with a little more ambition. My metal friend believes my relatively expansive play against a fairly passive Petroff were OK as far as they went but I went astray in the critical endgame transition phase and had to settle for forcing a draw by repetion.
Andy’s game, to my eyes at least (and his when we briefly discussed it after), seemed a little precarious. Swapping bishops on g3 led to his opponent opening the h-file against Andy’s castled king which looked quite problematic. For whatever reason, David Webber saw it differently and focused his attention elsewhere and the game ended peacefully.
Ramsey was playing with his natural freedom and his opponent had elected to swap queens badly leading to a pawn defecit which Ramsey converted smoothly (see game below).
This left the match all square (not quite sure it happened in this order but I’m going for drama!) with board 5 to decide things. James had lost a pawn in the opening and, from my observations, looked to be struggling in the middle game. Entering the endgame 3 pawns down, things didn’t look hopeful – to my shame, I put my coat on and headed for my car and a hot toddy!
Imagine my surprise to receive a midnight email from Andy to tell me the match result – I leave the reader to enjoy the game below!
A great win for a very resilient D team, long may it continue!
Steve Pike, 14th January 2023