Thursday 25th February 2016
| BEDFORD A | MILTON KEYNES A | |||||
| 1 | 168 | Steve Pike | 1 | 0 | Graham Borrowdale | 183 |
| 2 | 166 | Alex Taylor | 0 | 1 | Adrian Elwin | 181 |
| 3 | 163 | Chris Hill | ½ | ½ | Graham Smith | 170 |
| 4 | 163 | Marc Obi | 0 | 1 | Robert Whiteside | 161 |
| 5 | 143 | John Harbour | 1 | 0 | Lucchesi Reynolds | ??? |
| 2½ | 2½ |
Bedford B hosted Milton Keynes A in their latest Division 1 match, looking to continue their good run.
The first game to finish was John on board 5. Having expanded on the queenside he won a pawn, subsequently the exchange and finally the game!
On board 1, Steve appeared to have a solid position against Graham Borrowdale out of Queens’ Gambit opening and did not seem to be in any difficulty (having practised the first 10 moves against Graham 2 weeks earlier in the county individual! – Ed). Graham tried an unsound combination thinking it won a pawn, but in fact allowed Steve to win material. He was then able to convert this to a win.
Board 3 saw Chris facing Graham Smith, and after the opening seemed to be under severe pressure with one of those horrible positions where you just seem to be waiting for you opponent to crash through. However, some inspired defence and a neat tactical trick allowed him to draw with a perpetual check.
So with the score 2.5 – 0.5 could the team push on to victory? The signs were looking good – Alex had come out of the opening with pressure against the black king on the B file and it appeared the black had little counter play. Meanwhile Marc had managed to reach a queen and pawn ending with good chances of winning, or at least not losing.
Chess is a funny game, however. In slight time trouble Marc managed to push his passed pawn at the wrong moment, allowing his opponent to simply take his queen! Meanwhile on board 2 Adrian had managed to open his position up and Alex missed a relatively obvious tactic, leading to his position collapsing.
So yet another 2.5 – 2.5 draw, but definitely “one that got away”!
Alex Taylor 28/02/2016