It was all change at for Luton this year's season opener for the Bedforshire Chess League, the Cordon Trophy. Always well attended, teams from Luton, Bedford, Milton Keynes and Leighton Buzzard chess clubs compete over four rounds of 20 minute + 5 second increments rapid play games. All games are rated, but it's also a fun evening of warming up for longer play league chess matches. This year, we had all new teams from Luton, led by club secretary Abiodun Nelson.
Abi, leading Luton A, fielded our strongest team in years: Board 1, fresh from his impressive performance at the British championships last month was Abiodun Nelson; Board 2 was last year's club champion, Tommy O'Brien; Board 3 was the new club champion, Eustace Onyeji; Board 4 was the vanquisher of a FIDE Master, Kamil Ozdemir.
Luton B had a few late drop outs, so ended up a scratch team of and duly named, Odds and Sods from three different clubs: 1. Humayun Mirza / Joel Moncy (Luton); 2. Rob Walker (Bedford); 3. Brian Setchfield (Bedford); 4 Dave Philips (Milton Keynes).
As expected, the big guns from Bedford and Leighton Buzzard were to take the top places, with Bedford A and Leighton Buzzard A joint winners, closely followed by Bedford B. Last year, Luton A finished lower than Luton B. Not this time. Abi, Tommy, Eustace & Kamil all has plus scores to push Luton A into a respectable 4th place, ahead of Milton Keynes A & B. The Odds & Sods team finished bottom, but more importantly, our new player Joel Moncy gained valuable over the board experience which he will no doubt put to good use at longer time controls at league matches this season.
Thanks to Bedford Chess Club for hosting this event, and for Adrian Elwin for running the Trophy. And for Julian Hudson for the photograghs and moral support.