The final match of the Bedfordshire Chess League (BCL) was played last week at the University of Bedfordshire. Luton B Captain Alexandar Juhasz fielded one of his strongest team of the season, as did the visiting Milton Keynes B team,
All the games were close and the Luton team was clearly winning the match on boards 1, 2 and 5, until the clocks ran down, and the visiting team from Milton Keynes won 4.5 - 0.5. The saving grace for Luton, came from the University of Bedfordshire B team captain Tim Hayden, playing Black, who ended his game and the evening with a draw against Sumit Bhalla in a time scramble. (See picture above).
Despite the loss, every cloud has a silver lining. The loss for Luton B means relegation into BCL division 2 next season, with more evenly matched and enjoyable games.
The end of 2025-2026 BCL season league tables are below.
Luton A and B teams have played 12 matches and the University of Bedfordshire team played 14 matches. With 5 players each team, this means Luton Chess Club members have played nearly 190 rated games at classical time controls in the Bedfordshire League. This is the fourth year running in which the club has increased its number of league games played, and number of players in each team. Every player in every team who played this season. win lose or draw should be proud.
Credit is due to the team captains Kamil Ozdemir (Luton A), Aleksandar Juhasz (Luton B) and Tim Hayden (University of Bedfordshire) who have stepped up to the challenge to organise the club players in each team in every match.
Finally, thanks as always to the club secretary, Peter Montgomery, who tirelessly runs Luton Chess Club from the University of Bedfordshire library every Tuesday evening, supporting all the Luton players in the league.