Home Team: Milton Keynes A | Away Team: Bedford A | ||||||
Board | Name | Grade | Score | Score | Name | Grade | |
1 | Gary Kenworthy | 202 | 1 | 0 | Michael T Botteley | 178 | |
2 | Graham E Borrowdale | 193 | 0 | 1 | Paul F Habershon | 177 | |
3 | Graham Smith | 188 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Andrew J Chapman | 175 | |
4 | Adrian G Elwin | 183 | 1 | 0 | Raymon Gompelman | 173 | |
5 | Eric Meichel | 158 | 0 | 1 | Qais Karimi | 140 | |
2.5 | 2.5 | ||||||
Played: 07/12/17 | |||||||
For once Bedford A were on the right side of an upset. Travelling to Milton Keynes without our two strongest players we were outgraded on every board.
Andy was first to finish, agreeing a draw in a middlegame where he had seemed to be under pressure with an inferior pawn structure.
Then Mike went for broke but lost a tactical battle.
The remaining games all went beyond 35 moves. I was very fortunate to win (see game) after Graham Borrowdale failed to convert a winning position. I even gave him a second chance when I fancied attacking his queen before picking up the exchange he had blundered. Unsurprisingly the clock was a factor in our highly inaccurate sequence.
Raymon desperately fought on in an ending a piece down but was inevitably doomed.
This left Qais to perform the heroics and draw the match. He reached a rook ending a pawn up, eventually getting to R+P v R and a potential Lucena position. When he ensured that the enemy king was forced two files away from the pawn I thought he knew exactly what he was doing. However, after a lot of experimenting, he somehow contrived to win by another method. Exciting stuff for the spectators and an unexpectedly drawn match. Perhaps we’ll get our first win after Christmas.
Correction: my report says the remaining games went beyond 35 moves, yet my game above ends after 34 moves. I omitted a repetition. White did not play 30 Rf2. The game went 30 Nf3 Qf5 31 Nh4 Qg5 (at this point I was fervently hoping Graham would repeat for a draw) 32 Rf2? Ng4 and we are on track to finish after 36 moves.
Nice to see that Paul still plays very well.