How do you prepare against a team of five chess players, two of whom are rated over 2100 Elo, two of whom are over 2000 and the fifth over 1900; 400-500 Elo points higher than your own team? How long could any of us realistically last against a team that already trounced the best of Luton A team 4-1 last month. On Tuesday4th November, it was time to find out how the second team, lead by Captain Aleksandar Juhasz would fare against the Bedfordshire Chess League Champions, Bedford A.
Board 3. Ramsey Dairi 2043 v Dixon Jones 1654. Having been thrashed twice before by Ramsey when he was rated 1800, then 1900, I was grateful not to have to play against him again now he's over 2000 Elo. Dixon tried a Mediterranean variation of the French Defence, perhaps to take Ramsey out of his opening book. This might work against middling club players like me, but Ramsey was having none of it, and quickly opened up the Kingside before the Black King could hide. Dixon played aggressively and managed to even gain a material advantage, but Ramsey's attack was too ferocious and by the 21st move, resigned. 1-0
Board 5. Alex Taylor 1921 vs Mannan Handa 1536. Mannan, a junior and new to league matches this season was impressive against Alex in this game. There was a battle to control the a-file, which ended after the heavy pieces were traded off. The pawn structure became locked, minor pieces traded, and with two Bishops bouncing around the board going nowhere a draw was agreed after 40 moves. Well done Mannan. It wasn't going to be a whitewash afterall! 0.5-0.5
Board 4. Aleksandar Juhasz 1623 vs Nick Collacott 2035. Captain Aleks has been encouraging to all players, and despite the overwhelming odds in division 1, has ambitions for every player and the team. Here he had to battle against a skillfully played Caro-Kann and lost a pawn early on in the opening. Nevertheless, Aleks gained the initiative and equalised the position albeit not material early into the middle game by putting pressure on Black's uncastled King on the e-file. Unfortunately, White was unable to maintain equality after Black castled. Another White pawn was lost further into the game and Black gamely battled on until a Rook and pawns endgame and with two passed pawns to stop, Aleks resigned after 49 moves. 0-1
Board 1. Steve Ledger 2119 v Marek Gladysz 1751. Steve opened up with a Nimz-Larsen attack. Marek responded with a Queenside pawn set up so the game looked like a Nimzo-Indian with colours reversed. The seemed even, at least on material into the middle game, even after White saddled Black with an Isolani. The battle around Black's d-Pawn continued into move 21, but then Black misplaced his Knight onto d4, (Black's Bishop needed to retreat to protect the g7 pawn in front of his King). White missed the discovered attack on g7 and grabbed the isolated pawn. Black, now a pawn down sacrificed his Knight for a pawn but this compounded the previous mistake. Steve was able to force a trade of Queens and would have won with a Bishop and pawn advantage so Marek resigned at move 49. 1-0
Board 2. Humayun Mirza 1667 v James Gardner 2117. Best chance of an upset in the evening was on my table against the famous YouTuber of whom my son knew about before I did. A little fame can work against you though, as James is well known, I did some homework, consulted my library, and studied the Owen Defence. Which was the opening he played in the evening. Although I was out of book quite soon, the general principle I followed was to attack on the Kingside with the Queen and Bishop. And so by move 14, I'd reached the position below.
Unfortunately, I'd run of skill, courage and ideas, and played the tepid 15.Bf6? which allowed Black to trade off the Bishop controlling the dark squares and snuff out White's potential for attack. Luton's A team player Tommy O'Brien was observing and after the game suggested 15.f5! This modest pawn sacrifice allows White's Rooks and Knight to enter the fray with Black King and Rook trapped and no counterplay. The trouble was I was playing a 2100+ player without the tactical nous to see any of this. The game continued with an exchange of Queens, at which point I offered a draw which James declined (Of coure he did - he's rated over 450 Elo points higher). So on we went, my locking up the pawn structure as best I could, James maneuvering Rooks, Knight, King Queenside, Kingside, and every side to break open. Eventually, at less than five minutes each on the clock, James broke down the door with a pawn break Kingside, and I couldn't hold on any longer. Resignation at move 59 in a lost position and 20 seconds left on the clock. 0-1
Match result: Luton B 0.5-4.5 Bedford A
Despite the heavy defeat, we all gave the unforgiving minute sixty seconds worth of distance run.