Bedford D first victory of the season

Being older than the sum of my team mates’ ages is a new one for me(!) but I am enjoying it a lot (although I’m sure our captain Andy will be playing in 2022). After losing our first match against the C team, we were eager to get our first victory against the Open University.

From where I sat, I could witness Evan’s game first hand and it didn’t last very long. I was aware that his opponent had played the Benko and then next time I looked Evan had a bishop on e7 supported by a pawn on d6 against an un-castled king! Mate was inevitable – see below for an entertaining vignette.

My own game was far more prosaic. I still haven’t got a decent defence against d4 so David Wells managed to get a favourable endgame, Q+2R+6 each (but my d pawn isolated) after only 17 moves. Unfortunately for David, he must have been watching too much Nepo as he managed to blunder one his rooks on move 19 – an early Christmas present for me, 2-0.

I didn’t see a lot of Ramsey’s game in detail but he did seem to be up against it for quite a while, down material from what I recall. However, it seems his opponent overreached and Ramsey pounced, skewering their queen against a back rank mate, 3-0.

Next to finish was Lucian. I’m afraid I saw hardly any of it but a glance at the scoresheet showed a lot of queen moves early doors so I can assume a fighting loss.

Theo was last to finish. The game seemed very complicated by the time I started watching, with action at both ends of the board with active queens and, even though Theo was a piece down, he certainly had some dynamic compensation and his opponent had to be careful not to lose. After much thrust and counter-thrust, he managed to construct a perpetual (ish!) situation and his opponent agreed the draw bringing the score to 3.5-1.5.

A good result to take us into 2022!

  [Event "Bedford D v OU"] [Site "Bedford"] [Date "2021.12.10"] [White "Evan Lewis"] [Black "Steve Wayne"] [Result "1-0"]   d4 Nf6 2. c4 {[%clk 0:00:00]} c5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 3. d5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} b5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 4. cxb5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} e6 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 5. Nc3 {[%clk 0:00:00]} g6 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 6. Bg5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} Bg7 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 7. e4 {[%clk 0:00:00]} e5 $2 {Black was already in trouble but this looks highly questionable[%clk 0:00:00]} 8. d6 {[%clk 0:00:00]} Qb6 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 9. a4 {[%clk 0:00:00]} a5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 10. Nf3 {[%clk 0:00:00]} Nh5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 11. Nd5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} Qb7 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 12. Be7 {why wouldn't you![%clk 0:00:00]} f6 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 13. Nc7+ {[%clk 0:00:00]} Kf7 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 14. Bc4+ {[%clk 0:00:00]} Qd5 {[%clk 0:00:00]} 15. Qxd5# {[%clk 0:00:00]} 1-0