| Bedford B | MK A | |||||
| Board | Name | Grade | Score | Score | Name | Grade |
| 1 | Qais Karimi | 167 | 0 | 1 | Richard CP Freeman | 182 |
| 2 | Alex Taylor | 168 | 1 | 0 | Phillip Ekhaesomi | 164 |
| 3 | Nick Collacott | 170 | 1 | 0 | Robert Whiteside | 160 |
| 4 | Marc ON Obi | 160 | 1 | 0 | Peter Edwards | 157 |
| 5 | Toby Cox | 164 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Ali Kheyrollahi | 155e |
| 3.5 | 1.5 |
Bedford B hosted Milton Keynes B, looking to avenge their defeat earlier in the season.
My match was the first to finish. An early exchange of queens left me with some weak doubled c pawns, but a little more space. Phillip then overlooked the fact that I could pin his knight to his king and he could not prevent the loss a of a piece for a pawn. It then was a question of simplifying the game and Phillip advanced his king, only for me to mate with the g pawn.
Marc always seemed to have the edge in his game against Peter. An attack on the kingside led to the win of the pawn which Marc held onto in the double rook ending. After the exchange of one pair of rooks, Marc won a second pawn, and then powered through to win the game.
Nick and Robert faced each other on Board 3. A Caro-Kann opening saw Nick have a good solid position and he then opened up the centre after the exchange of queens. Nick won an initial pawn in the centre and then another, and his more active rook and bishop then allowed him to win another. Despite being very short of time, Nick forced a resignation.
Toby looked to be in control of his game for much of the evening. He had great pressure down the f file and his opponent’s pieces were all tied up. In the ending Toby won a pawn on the queenside, but Ali then countered and activated his rook and bishop, which together with a passed e pawn looked to be well on top. Toby clung on and accepted his opponent’s draw offer.
Qais and Richard’s game was very unclear. For much of the game the black queen lived on h6 and the white queen lived on a3. Qais tried to generate something down the open g file, but Richard managed to activate his queen and move into a rook and knight ending a pawn up. At the end it was a knight and 3 pawns v knight and 2 pawns, and although it looked very drawish, Richard kept pinning Qais’s king and knight back, and eventually managed to win another pawn and the material difference proved decisive.
Overall 3.5 – 1.5 to Bedford B, which moves them to within a single point of the A Team at the top