Bedford C readied ourselves again on Thursday for the visit of Milton Keynes C, and we were already one up before a pawn had even been pushed. Milton Keynes were fielding several teams on the day which meant spaces were tight, and then Colin had to contend with a late dropout (anniversary dinner, apparently!) As a result Bedford were facing the theoretically dubious missing player gambit, and with the form we were on surely it would be trivial to convert the early advantage into a win, right? Right?
Cedric was first to finish. I saw very little of his game, laser-focused on my own board, but from what I saw/heard afterwards it was even for most of the game as material came off the board quickly, and then John found a decisive edge in the endgame which he duly converted, atoning for his teammate’s no-show and levelling the match score.
Callum got off to a rather better start, having to my eye what looked like the sturdier pawn structure and being able to pick off a couple of pawns. But he failed to capitalise on this advantage, his opponent John resourcefully levelled the material, and then the endgame came down to a pawn race which John won. Callum seemed a bit deflated afterwards – indeed, his post-match analysis was both brief and unprintable. As ever, the hardest task in chess is to win a won game – I’m sure Callum will brush this one off though.
My own game was quite the rollercoaster (see game below annotated by Ed – very instructive). Credit must go to Peter Gill for tipping me off beforehand that Dave was a Ruy Lopez/Italian Game specialist – the perfect victim to be ambushed by some Evans Gambit preparation. And ambushed he was – he told me afterwards he’d never faced the opening before. Credit to him, though – he invested a lot of time on his early moves and found accurate responses in a hair-raising position, not helped psychologically by the fact it was all in book for me and I could move instantly. Eventually we reached a position where I was two pawns down on material but about two pawns up by engine evaluation, and Dave ended up sacrificing a bishop to quell the pressure, hoping that two pawns versus a bishop would give him drawing chances in the endgame. In fact, I did squander the win, drifting lazily into a drawn position. Dave offered to share the point, and I almost accepted, but I’m glad I played it out because he blundered back on the very next move, and I went on to clean up.
Which left all the marbles riding on Nigel versus Colin. Nigel had done very well to reach the endgame with equal material against a higher-rated player and with the black pieces (which somehow he always ends up lumbered with). Colin also appeared rather short on the clock. However, he clearly had better space and piece mobility, and was the one pushing for the win. At one point I thought they’d agreed a draw, even though it looked like Colin was turning the screw, much to the bafflement of the gathering onlookers. But they hadn’t, and even as his clock ticked down Colin mopped up enough loose pawns to prompt Nigel’s resignation.
So that was the match. The team shouldn’t be too disheartened, it’s still been an excellent start to the season and we weren’t going to keep winning forever – and even today we went down in three tight endgames, everybody made a good fist of it. Roll on Open University in a couple of weeks!
| Board | Rating | Bedford C | V | Milton Keynes C | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1747 | Shields, Callum T | 0 – 1 | McNamara, John | 1615 |
| 2 | 1683 | Potts, Alexander | 1 – 0 | Wells, Dave | 1617 |
| 3 | 1446 | Walker, Nigel B | 0 – 1 | Solloway, Colin J | 1595 |
| 4 | 1300 | Hylton, Cedric | 0 – 1 | McKeon, John E | 1396 |
| 5 | 0000 | Graf, Francesco | 1 – 0(def) | N Default | 0000 |
| Total | 6176 | 2 – 3 | 6223 |