| Bedford D | Milton Keynes C | |||||
| Board | Name | Grade | Score | Score | Name | Grade |
| 1 | John Harbour | 150 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Colin Solloway | 141 |
| 2 | Qais Karimi | 136 | 1 | 0 | Peter Rawcliffe | 137 |
| 3 | Ben Pike | 104 | 1 | 0 | John McKeon | 124 |
| 4 | Diego Alvarez-Merino | 91 | 0 | 1 | Geir Nielson | 103 |
| 5 | Ben Cox | 75 | 1 | 0 | default | |
| 09/03/2017 | 3.5 | 1.5 | ||||
The evening started with MKC’s board 5 failing to arrive, sadly leaving young Ben without a game. The club was the busiest most of us have ever known it, with 17 serious games plus friendlies taking place.
I was in a bit of trouble after self-pinning my queen, but managed to untangle after which we repeated the position and agreed a tame draw.
Qais had a decent-looking position from early on, and it was soon over after he managed to invade the 7th rank with a rook.
Relatively old Ben on board 3 attacked with gusto, as he likes to do. The position was on a knife-edge for a while, but fortune favoured the brave and he finished with a pretty mate using a knight and bishop in the middle of the board. (I think it was only on a knife-edge for the first 4 moves John – after that, it looked pretty good! – see game – Ed)
Diego had said to me in an email “I am going to play more solid structures in these long games rather than going too early into the battle.” Predictably he ended up with a passive position, dropped a pawn and then worked hard for no reward. It’s a tough game!
All in all a fine win for the D team.
John
Tony captured the drama:
