Bedford derby action

The first of the season’s Beds Div 1 local derbies ended in a resounding 4.5 – 0.5 win for Bedford A although, it should be said, that we rode our luck a bit to win by such a convincing margin.

BoardRatingBedford BVBedford ARating
1949Botteley, Michael TG0 – 1Ledger, Stephen C2125
1953Bodily, Richard TB½ – ½Gardner, James2103
1941Taylor, AlexB0 – 1Arulnandhy, Ravi2065
1856Dairi, RamseyG0 – 1Collacott, Nick1970
1745Walker, Robert SG0 – 1Habershon, Paul F1957
Total9444½ – 4½10220

As per usual, my focus was on my own game so I didn’t see a lot of the others but from what I gather :-

  • My own game (see below) turned into quite an interesting one, I guess, where I was eventually more or less forced into sacc’ing a piece which then turned out quite well.
  • Board 2 didn’t appear to have too many fireworks and I thought white was maintaining  a small white edge  when I occasionally glanced over. 

The final position, with Q,R,R,minor piece + pawns each seemed a little double-edged as W had passed a & b pawns, albeit on a2 & b2, but most of B’s pieces were attacking an e pawn whilst most of W’s were defending it and a draw was agreed.

  • On board 3, Alex returned to the B team fold, as Mr Pike was unavailable, but it wasn’t that triumphant a return as Ravi won eventually.
  • On Board 4, Ramsey went  for the throat, castling Q-Side and flinging his g & h pawns up the board as Nick’s K remained in the middle. Nick managed to whip up some counterplay on the Q-side and Ramsey missed a tactic in time trouble, netting Nick an exchange and a pawn and, ultimately, the game.    
  • I think Paul’s was the smoothest effort as he always had the advantage and when I joined to watch he was a pawn up in a same coloured B ending, which was duly converted.

As nobody else deemed their game worthy of publication / didn’t send it to me then my effort is below :

Steve Ledger  V  Mike Botteley, 07/11/2024.

I always find Mike a tricky and resilient opponent and, as I said the last time I annotated a game against him (!), it’s not worth doing any sort of prep as you never know what he will play !  Usually it’s something slightly off-beat so, this time, I thought I’d play him at his own game and try something different myself 🙂-       hence 1.b3 …  

Steve Ledger,  11/11/2024.

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