Bedford A V Leighton Buzzard A, 12th February 2026.
| Board | Rating | Bedford A | V | Leighton Buzzard A | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2119 | Ledger, Stephen C | 0 – 1 | Tukpetov, Evgeny | 2294 |
| 2 | 2117 | Gardner, James | 1 – 0 | Sharp, John R | 2145 |
| 3 | 2046 | Arulnandhy, Ravi | ½ – ½ | Kenworthy, Gary | 2148 |
| 4 | 2035 | Collacott, Nick | 1 – 0 | Law, Stephen | 1963 |
| 5 | 2043 | Dairi, Ramsey | 1 – 0 | Valentine, Brian J | 1837 |
| Total | 10360 | 3½ – 1½ | 10387 |
Bedford A moved back to the top of the Beds League table following a 3.5 – 1.5 cliffhanger victory over Leighton Buzzard A last night.
First to finish was Ravi, on bd 3. Ravi felt he was a bit better at the end but with a time disadvantage thought it prudent to take the offered draw.
Next up was my good self on bd 1. Having finally drawn with Tukpetov the last two times we played, I was slightly more confident than usual, especially when he played a fairly tepid opening NC3 to d5 to takes a bishop on e7, with my pawns on e5, d6, c5 so a pretty bad bishop, all in the first 6 moves.
Then he did Tukpetov-things for a while i.e Playing little moves very quickly, whilst I ate up my time, whilst maintaining a small, niggly edge.
I certainly should have managed to draw it but a neat manoeuvre with his rooks managed to infiltrate my position and whilst I nearly managed to burst out and force a levellish Q-ending he managed to make it into a very good Q-ending for W and duly converted it. So, 0.5 – 1.5 down but 3 decent positions albeit behind on the clock in all of them.
After finishing my own game, Ramsey seemed to have the best of our 3 decent positions, an exchange up in an ending. In the time it took me to pop down and get a pint, and say hello to Neil Cannon, before returning Ramsey had converted the point.
Nick’s game on bd 4 was an Averbakh Kings Indian, and fortunes fluctuated considerably (as computer evaluations on humans tend to do in these sort of positions when we fail to play “perfectly”) as the players castled on opposite sides and then both flung pawns forward. Steve Law seemed to have a very tempting looking N-sac, crying out to be played, but decided against it before coming up with the strange looking gxh5 (rarely a good idea!?) which allowed Nick to infiltrate much quicker. This advantage was then duly traded for a good pawn up in an ending, which Nick converted in clinical fashion despite being down to his last minute.
So 2.5 – 2.5 with James V John Sharp to finish. Also a game of fluctuating fortunes, this went right down to the wire with both players playing the last 7 or 8 moves on increments only ( when I started watching, James had 12 seconds to John’s 1 minute and James severely tested my nerves by playing at least two of his moves with 1 second left !!) before John Sharp lost on time in a lost position.
So a nerve shredder of a 3.5 – 1.5 victory it was.
Next up, Bedford B V Bedford A in a fortnight 🙂- ( The B team do have LB A to play before then as well )
Steve Ledger, 13/02/2026.