Bedford A, ultimately, beat a heavily outrated Luton B team pretty comprehensively, although it wasn’t all plain sailing.
| Board | Rating | Luton B | V | Bedford A | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1751 | Gladysz, MarekB | 0 – 1 | G Ledger, Stephen C | 2119 |
| 2 | 1667 | Mirza, HumayunG | 0 – 1 | B Gardner, James | 2117 |
| 3 | 1654 | Jones, Dixon HG | 0 – 1 | G Dairi, Ramsey | 2043 |
| 4 | 1623 | Juhasz, AleksandarG | 0 – 1 | B Collacott, Nick | 2035 |
| 5 | 0000 | Handa, MannanG | ½ – ½ | B Taylor, Alex | 1921 |
| Total | 6695 | ½ – 4½ | 10235 |
With Alex replacing the double- booked Ravi, Ramsey was bumped up to board 3, to keep our colour sequences in order, and made short work of his opponent.
On board 5, a rusty Alex, recently returned from his overseas travels, didn’t seem to get much beyond a slight edge and when the pieces started to be traded off a draw was agreed rather than take too many risks to maintain winning chances.
On Board 1, I got a comfortable position from the opening and managed to straddle my opponent with an IQP that I could target.
When both rooks were traded to leave us with Q,B,N + 6P each, I was mildly concerned that there wasn’t an immediately obvious way to cash in my advantage for material but, soon after, the pressure paid off and, faced with the loss of a pawn and a very passive position, my opponent tried sacc’ing a piece but the hoped for perpetual just wasn’t there.
On Board 4, Nick won/was gifted a pawn fairly early on for minimal compensation and, not long after, was gifted a second pawn.
His opponent did hang on in there for a long time before this considerable advantage was eventually converted to the win in a rook ending.
On Board 2, James’ attempted Owen’s Defence ( 1…… b6 ) went a bit pear-shaped and his opponent seemed to have definite K-Side attack potential.
James, as James does, hung on in there, shuffled around and managed to avoid the situation getting too desperate. When the game got down to around 5 or 6 minutes each on the clock, both sides were shuffling around in a 2R+N+6 or 7P each, fairly blocked position. James eventually found a couple of pawn breaks, to open the position up, and promptly won an exchange and the game.
So a slightly flattering 4.5 – 0.5 win it was.
Steve Ledger, 05/11/2025.
Thank you for the write up. We’ve also posted a match report from our perspective on Luton Chess Club website.
Before the match, I and other Luton B team players tried to think of ways to even the odds. What if Bedford A team were to play blindfold? What if all five of us just played against your top board in simultaneously? Or most practical of all, since three of your team were delayed arriving, what if we started the clocks bang on 7.30 pm, asked security to not let you in until after 8 pm, then claim wins by default? But I expect that wouldn’t wash with the league controller, not to mention our own club secretary for unsportsmanlike behaviour.
Despite gulf between our respective chess skills, from our side at least, I we held out for as long as we could, enjoyed ourselves (I think), and maybe learned a thing or two. Hope we do better in the return match.
https://www.lutonchessclub.com/post/if-you-can-meet-with-triumph-and-disaster-luton-b-v-bedford-a