Leighton Buzzard A | Bedford A | |||||
| Board | Name | Grade | Score | Score | Name | Grade |
| 1 | Gary Kenworthy | 211 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Steven C Ledger | 194 |
| 2 | Stephen Law | 178 | 1 | 0 | James Gardner | 187 |
| 3 | Peter C Clarke | 183 | 0 | 1 | Paul F Habershon | 175 |
| 4 | Kevin J Williamson | 168 | 0 | 1 | Ravi Arulnandhy | 170 |
| 5 | Peter Hunt | 173 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Darren Reed | 167 |
| 2 | 3 | |||||
| Played: 28/01/20 |
Bedford A extended their lead at the top of Division One with this tight defeat of the current champions. They were missing their Russian and we were without our Lithuanian.
I didn’t see many details of games other than my own. First to finish was Board 5 where Darren thought he had an advantage then agreed a draw when he realised he hadn’t. Board 2 was a highly tactical skirmish which reached a level ending, but when I next looked James was resigning. Steve had an extra passed pawn in a double rook and bishop ending but it was going nowhere so a crucial draw was agreed. I did not have a good opening as White (see game) but there was suddenly at move 26 a tactic which neither player had seen the move before. Ravi’s vital game was last to finish, a feast for the spectators. After castling on opposite sides Ravi staked everything on an advanced passed d pawn and back rank mate threats. With little time left Kevin possibly missed the best defence and Ravi then just about had every counter attack covered. It would be great if he could post his game – he has done (below)
Considering that at the end of last season Ravi and I both lost against Leighton Buzzard when we needed just half a point more to win the league, this was quite a zeroes to heroes evening.
Paul Habershon (Acting Captain), 30th January 2020