| Bedford D | MK D | |||||
| Board | Name | Grade | Score | Score | Name | Grade |
| 1 | Steve C Pike | 163 | 0 | 1 | James NO’D Alexander | 157 |
| 2 | Andrew J Chapman | 160 | 1 | 0 | Paul Endersby | 119 |
| 3 | Richard McMorran | 138 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Colin Solloway | 124 |
| 4 | Lucian Cox | 112 | 0.5 | 0.5 | John McKeon | 115 |
| 5 | R David Cox | 80 | 0 | 1 | Steven Wayne | 100e |
| 2 | 3 |
Bedford D welcomed the other other D team in the league to an extremely busy North End club – the B team were also playing, various division matches were happening and even messrs Hill and Hickman were in spotted in the gallery.
Sadly, this good advert for chess in Bedford was not reflected on all boards of the D team, especially my own. Picking a very passive line against the English, I rather randomly castled long and mounted a caveman assault on the kingside. James played calmly and, although we reached a equalish endgame, his edge was manifest and he won well.
Lucian meanwhile was playing his usual expansive stuff. He always seemed to have a bit more space but next time I looked, it was K+N+P v K+N (!) and, although youthful optimism prevailed for a while, the draw was inevitable.
Despite sitting next to Andy, I did not really understand his game (not that surprising given that I didn’t understand my own). Against an open Sicilian, the pieces seemed to be operating at very long range. I was quite impressed that he had his knights on d1 and e1 after about a dozen moves! Clearly, it was too deep for me as suddenly it burst into life, Andy getting a much stronger position forcing his opponent to attack rather wildly rather than face a losing endgame – as often occurs, it was Andy who neatly checkmated his opponent who had given up defending.
David’s game was very messy to my eyes. It looked as though there were too many pieces on the board, an effect that was exaggerated by having an old, undulating (!) rollup board (who’s stolen all the boards?). It was a game where knights were supreme and Steven’s knights were better so he won! (I thi nk that was David’s summary?)
Richard and Colin seemed to be locked in a titanic struggle, Richard’s Dutch leading to a typical kingside attack. Exchanges and pieces were sac’d and sac’d back (I think) and it looked like the attack would succeed. When next I looked, Colin had K+R+4P against Richard’s K+N+5P but Richard’s pawn structure and activity was good and, with time becoming critical, a peace treaty was ratified.
Not the result we were hoping for but some good games and individual performances.