Milton Keynes B 2.5 – 2.5 Bedford B – report added

Milton Keynes B Bedford B
Board Name Grade Score Score Name Grade
1 Richard Freeman 171 0.5 0.5 Andrew Chapman 175
2 Phillip Ekhaesomi 164 1 0 Alex Taylor 164
3 Francesca Matta 166 0 1 Steve Pike 162
4 Robert Whiteside 167 0 1 Marc Obi 161
5 Ray Holland 149 1 0 Ravi Arulnandhy  157
17/11/2016 2.5 2.5

The B Team played its first away match against MK B on Thursday.  On paper the two sides were evenly matched and so it ultimately proved.

Playing against Philip, who played in his usually rapid fashion means that the comments on the other games are not as detailed as normal!

On board 1 Richard and Andy cancelled each other out.  Andy’s slight pressure on the f file was cancelled out by Richard’s pressure down the centre and a grandmasterly draw was agreed.

My game on board 2 was a painful one.  For pretty much all the game it was a question of clinging on and having done so reasonably successfully, I forgot that knights move backwards and walked into a fork on my king and rook.

Ravi on board 4 had an interesting game with kings castled on opposite wings which lead to him having a strong attack. Unfortunately, befuddled by the new time control Ravi managed to lose on time in a strong position to leave the team 2.5 – 0.5 behind.

Fortunately, Marc and Steve were faring much better.  Marc opened up a strong attack against his opponent’s king and managed to go into the ending two pawns to the good.  On the brink of winning a third, his opponent kindly gave away a knight instead to seal a win for Marc.

Steve’s Grand Prix attack led to him winning a rook for a bishop (moronically failing to spot the two move combination that won a piece instead which would have avoided 40 moves of torment – Ed).  Careful play was required in the ending, but having avoided any accidents he picked off his opponent’s remaining pawns to leave a clearly winning game to tie the overall match.

Next up a stern test against MK A.