HM
The seventh seal. Milton Keynes C v Luton A
Last week, Luton A playing away against Milton Keynes C, sought their seventh out of eight wins this season.
With Captain Dixon away for the match, the notes from the match are from the Luton players brief messages to me post match from boards 1 - 5.
Board 1: Julian Hudson 0.5 - 0.5 Dave Wells.
Julian played a little tentatively and didn't feel in the races tonight. His opponent, Dave Wells played well and Julian thinks may have missed a win. An endgame was reached with White two Bishops covering two pawns on his side, against Black Knight and Bishop guarding his own two remaining pawns. Draw by reptition after 68 moves.
Board 2: Colin Solloway 0 - 1 Tommy O'Brien
Colin had the White pieces against Tommy for the second time this season, and again, tried London System. Tommy played an early d6 against it and was again successful, keeping his clean sheet for league match games this season.
Board 3: Peter Montgomery 0.5 - 0.5 John McKeon
Peter was playing his first league game of the season, since generously giving up a team place for other players to enjoy matches. The game was a symmetrical set up. Peter thought he might have had a small advantage at the end, but it was opposite coloured Bishops so took the half point for the team. Afterwards, he ran the game through Fritz, which told him he could have applied a bit more pressure but was never more than half a pawn or so ahead with correct play. Peter now spends his time training the junior players at the club. I hope this game will see the return of the man who vanquished Viktor Korchnoi!
Board 4: Matthew Jacques 0 - 1 Samir Vora
This game was tougher on Samir than it needed to be. Martin got a good position, but spend a huge amount of time trying to find something better than good. Then he had to rush to meet the time control, and Samir took advantage of that. The first time control, 35 moves at 1 hour 10 minutes was breached by White who had only reached his 30th move by then. (Perhaps this doesn't happen often). But Samir didn't understand that the clocks will add time, even if 35 moves haven't been played, and failed to claim the win on time, and played on for another 30 minutes unnecessarily! Martin may well have won, or or got a draw, if he wasn't so short on time. An endgame was reached and there was a lot to calculate. Samir says he didn't play too accurately, but accurately enough to finally win. Perhaps we should take up Adrian Elwin's advice to take a league clock home and try it out without the pressure of a match game.
Board 5: Alexandar Juhasz 1 - 0 Michael Page
This was a good win for Alexandar which is the featured game of this match below. I ran the game through Fritz and was going to be lazy and post the AI engine comments, but I much prefer the human take, whether or not it is accurate.
Alexandar Juhasz v Michael Page
Match Result: Milton Keynes C 1 - 4 Luton A
This match is the seventh seal, and just two matches, Luton A remain on top and have an eye on the division prize. But a lot can happen between now and the end of the season on the 25th of April.