A team boss the derby

                      Bedford B                          Bedford A              

1         1985  Taylor, Alex            0 – 1   Ledger, Stephen C 2145

2         1971  Habershon, Paul F 0 – 1   Arulnandhy, Ravi  2124

3         1962  Bodily, Richard T   0 – 1   Cox, Toby               2085

4         1938  Obi, Marc           ½ – ½  Gardner, James                2023

5         1924  Karimi, Qais           0 – 1   Botteley, Michael T         2010

                                                       ½ – 4½         

The A team were coming off a strong win for the derby, while it was the season opener for the B team,

My game against Richard was fairly smooth. We went into a fairly obscure line of the Morra gambit, where I felt I had a tiny edge. After ten or so sensible moves, it became apparent that Richard would have some difficulty untangling his many pieces on the back rank. In the time it took him to develop, I was able to get a winning attack.

Mike’s position held a lot of tension in the centre. When the action began on the flanks, he was better equipped to deal with it. He ended up winning material, and the game with it.

Alex took Steve into a Benoni, but quickly got a very cramped position. After both players spent a short while shuffling pieces around, Steve was able to take advantage of his spatial advantage and win an important pawn, which was enough for Alex to resign.

Ravi and Paul seemed to be locked in a fairly even tussle, with Paul holding control of the only open file, but Ravi holding a solid positional foundation. When the e and f pawns were thrown to the fourth rank, Ravi found some nice tactics to win material.

James got off to a flying start in his game. He quickly got a strong attack on Marc’s king despite playing the black pieces. However he missed one crucial tactic, which would’ve allowed his attack to continue. Instead, he ended up forced to exchange queens off. From here Marc was able to defend the position with class. The game ended a draw.

Toby Cox, 11th November 2022