Luton Chess Club has grown every year since it's revival at the University of Bedfordshire. For the 2024-25 Bedforshire County Chess League (BCCL), the club has ventured a third team, Luton-C, lead by captain Des Welton. The objective for Luton-C is give new and developing players the opportunity for serious over the board chess games. Luton-B now becomes the ambitious win at all costs team for the club in division 2, lead by last seasons winning captain Dixon Jones. Both teams opened their campaigns with a match against each other this week at the University of Bedfordshire.
Luton-C fielded the following line up: 1.Humayun Mirza; 2.Tim Hayden; 3.Daven Patel; 4.Des Welton; 5.Qasim Zaidi a new and exciting junior player to the club. Luton-B fielded the following line up: 1.Marek Gladysz; 2.Samir Vora; 3.Dixon Jones; 4.Aleks Juhasz; 5.Milen Stanchev, also new to the club with an impressive performance at the Cordon Trophy last month. On paper, Luton-B out rated Luton-C on every board by around 200 points. The evening traspired as follows.
Board 3, Dixon Jones v Daven Patel. This was a Queens Pawn game, in which Daven played an early gambit with Black. It's clearly an opening he's been working on because according to Fritz, the position gave Black a slight advantage. Dixon is a wily player, and recovered to regain a slight advantage with White. The game became a battle on the Queenside. Dixon had a pawn majority, but Daven had more active Rooks and played a nice trap pinning, winning a pawn and trapping White's Rook. At this point, Dixon saw the danger, offered a draw and Daven, spooked by his own success, perhaps prematurely, accepted on move 25. Luton-C 0.5-0.5 Luton-B.
Board 5, Milen Stanchev v Qasim Zaidi. This was the match game with the most intrigue. Face to face were two newcomers to the club with no league match experience, but both played decent casual games on club nights. And Milen had dazzled winning 3/4 at the Cordon Trophy last month. This game was Caro-Kann exchange. It looked as if White was trying to pile pressure on the Queenside, but the Knight to b5 instead of the Bishop was mistake and Black countered his Bishop, smashing Whites pawn structure. Milen battled on, trying for one last trick against an inexperienced opponent, but Qasim was not to be denied and delivered mate on the 68th move. An impressive debut by the junior. Luton-C 1.5-0.5 Luton B.
Board 4, Des Welton v Aleks Juhasz. This was the match game with the widest gap in rating and it was always going to a big ask for Des to be both master of the board and commander of the team at the same time. Nevertheless, he seemed to be playing a solid game, playing a Reti opening and keeping pace with Aleks into the early middle game. Then a miscalculation, when an exchange of pieces overlooked an intermezzo cost White a piece and Aleks just kept piling on the pressure before Des resigned after the 23rd move. Luton-C 1.5-1.5 Luton B.
Board 1, Marek Gladysz v Humayun Mirza. Marek was the outstanding team player for Luton-B last season, and I'm rated 200 points below. Sun Zsu's Art of War, "If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is of superior strength, evade him." I correctly predicted I was going to face the English Opening, and prepared a four Knights set up with Bishop on b4. Marek created double pawns for me on f7 ad f6 but this was not as bad as it appeared, as I was able to double Rooks on the g-file and put pressure on the centre with minor pieces. But I was constantly aware of Marek as superior chess player, and Sun Zsu's advice. I proposed a draw after 28 moves which was accepted. Luton-C 2.0-2.0 Luton-B.
Board 2, Tim Hayden v Samir Vora. Former Luton chess club player Tim Hayden was marking his return to league chess after an interval of decades. It was his misfortune to come face to face with the only player in the league last season with a 100% winning record. Tim played a sensible Queens Pawn Opening, only to be challenged on move 1 by Samir's dubious "Englund Gambit". Samir exhanged his Bishops for Knights on both flanks, leaving White with doubled pawns on both sides. In this game, Blacks Knight pair was superior to Whites pair, which Samir methodically exploited by gaining material, the exchange and passed pawns. Tim gamely battled on before turning over his King on the 67th move. (see picture). Final match result: Luton-C 2-3 Luton-B.
Congratulations to Dixon and his team on winning their opening match of the season. Kudos to Des and his team who put in a respectable performance, despite being outrated on every board.