| Bedford D | Open University | ||||||
| Board | Name | Grade | Score | Score | Name | Grade | |
| 1 | Steve C Pike | 1840 | 1 | 0 | Dave Wells | 1705 | |
| 2 | Evan Lewis | 1746 | 1 | 0 | Steven Wayne | 1308 | |
| 3 | Theo Jenkins | 1576 | 0.5 | 0.5 | David Phillips | 1352 | |
| 4 | Lucian Cox | 1537 | 0 | 1 | Luke Singleton | 1318 | |
| 5 | Ramsey Dairi | 1 | 0 | David Webber | 1300e | ||
| 3.5 | 1.5 | ||||||
| Played: 09/12/21 |
Being older than the sum of my team mates’ ages is a new one for me(!) but I am enjoying it a lot (although I’m sure our captain Andy will be playing in 2022). After losing our first match against the C team, we were eager to get our first victory against the Open University.
From where I sat, I could witness Evan’s game first hand and it didn’t last very long. I was aware that his opponent had played the Benko and then next time I looked Evan had a bishop on e7 supported by a pawn on d6 against an un-castled king! Mate was inevitable – see below for an entertaining vignette.
My own game was far more prosaic. I still haven’t got a decent defence against d4 so David Wells managed to get a favourable endgame, Q+2R+6 each (but my d pawn isolated) after only 17 moves. Unfortunately for David, he must have been watching too much Nepo as he managed to blunder one his rooks on move 19 – an early Christmas present for me, 2-0.
I didn’t see a lot of Ramsey’s game in detail but he did seem to be up against it for quite a while, down material from what I recall. However, it seems his opponent overreached and Ramsey pounced, skewering their queen against a back rank mate, 3-0.
Next to finish was Lucian. I’m afraid I saw hardly any of it but a glance at the scoresheet showed a lot of queen moves early doors so I can assume a fighting loss.
Theo was last to finish. The game seemed very complicated by the time I started watching, with action at both ends of the board with active queens and, even though Theo was a piece down, he certainly had some dynamic compensation and his opponent had to be careful not to lose. After much thrust and counter-thrust, he managed to construct a perpetual (ish!) situation and his opponent agreed the draw bringing the score to 3.5-1.5.
A good result to take us into 2022!