Bedford A bounced back from their defeat to LB A, a few weeks back, with a convincing 4.5 – 0.5 win over a tricky Luton A side.
| Board | Rating | Luton A | V | Bedford A | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1948 | Nelson, Abiodun | 0 – 1 | Gardner, James | 2098 |
| 2 | 1938 | Hudson, Julian | 0 – 1 | Ledger, Stephen C | 2097 |
| 3 | 1878 | Vora, Samir | 0 – 1 | Hale, Jack | 2075 |
| 4 | 1866 | O’Brien, Thomas P | 0 – 1 | Collacott, Nick | 2011 |
| 5 | 1688 | Ozdemir, Kamil | ½ – ½ | Taylor, Alex | 1890 |
| Total | 9318 | ½ – 4½ | 10171 |
I was fairly engrossed in my own game and was also the last to finish so am pretty reliant on comments from the car journey home and our team Whastapp for this match report.
On Bd 1, James always seemed to have a small edge but was finding it hard to convert it to a winning position before his opponent, rather obligingly, blundered away a piece, a mishap he seemed none too pleased about.
On Bd 3, Jack played a fine game, against the experienced Samir Vora, building up a beautiful pawn centre, supported by a very pleasant bishop pair, before crashing thru. admittedly, some of blacks opening choices did rather invite Jack to attack him thru the entre but a nicely played game it was. According to the metal monsters, black should bale out with 23 ….. Nxe5 and give up the exchange for one of the central pawns. Certainly looks a better bet than what ensued.
On Bd 4, white punted the exchange, Panov-Botvinnik against Nick’s Caro-Kann but followed up fairly passively so something of a grind ensued, mainly revolving around mutually isolated d-pawns. Gradually, Nick cranked it up to win first B for N then win the d pawn then the game when W faced the loss of a piece.
On Bd 5, don’t think there were a great deal of fireworks here though things may have to’d and fro’d a little bit before a draw was agreed.
I was reasonably pleased with my own effort on Bd 2. I seem to have the Indian sign over Julian lately, wracking up a 3rd win with black in the last two seasons
against his favoured Nf3,g3,bg2,o-o,d3,nd2,c3 and e4 system.
Steve Ledger, 05/11/2026.