Thursday 18th February 2016
| BEDFORD A | BEDFORD B | |||||
| 1 | 195 | Steve Ledger | 1 | 0 | Steve Pike | 168 |
| 2 | 181 | Paul Habershon | ½ | ½ | Alex Taylor | 166 |
| 3 | 171 | Richard Bodily | 0 | 1 | Marc Obi | 163 |
| 4 | 170 | Michael Botteley | 1 | 0 | John Harbour | 143 |
| 5 | 170 | Ravi Arulnandhy | 0 | 1 | Joe Valerio | 144 |
| 2½ | 2½ |
Thursday night saw a top of the table clash as the A Team took on the B Team, whose Leicester City-esque season continues to surprise! After a hard-fought draw earlier in the season, the question was whether the B Team could go one better?
In the battle of the captains, it proved to be an early finish with, as the Ed said, a grandmasterly draw, or Alex possibly not having the courage to use a slight advantage more against Paul.
Meanwhile, on other boards, things were much more entertaining, and for much of the evening it was not clear who was ahead in the match overall.
On board 5, Ravi’s aggressive opening went slightly wrong allowing Joe to win one, then two, then three pawns and at one point an opportunity to go four pawns up. Despite Ravi’s best efforts to complicate, Joe managed to get through the time control and he was able to force queens off into a won king and pawn ending.
On the top board, the battle of the Steves went the way of Mr Ledger – a closed Sicilian led to black having pressure on both flanks which Steve L managing to convert into a won rook and pawn ending.
On board 3 Marc played Richard and in a complex game he eventually managed to win a pawn on the queenside, and then another in the ending. This left him two pawns up in a bishop ending and he was able to convert to the win.
This left the B Team 2.5 -1.5 up (sound familiar?) with just John’s game with Mike left. Mike had built up a strong position from the opening and left John seriously cramped in the middle game. To try to free up his position, John gave up an exchange to leave 2 bishops v rook and knight with lots of pawns on the board. John was always hampered by his bishops’ lack of mobility and Mike crashed through in the last couple of minutes.
So another draw which does nothing for either team’s title ambitions. For both teams the next challenge is Milton Keynes A.