The expansion of Luton chess club will depend upon the development of new players who fancy their chances playing serious league games, with the ambition, but not necessarily the expectation being in a match winning team. Such was the case earlier this week, at the University of Bedfordshire, where Luton C team hosted their home fixture against the stronger and more established Bedford C team.
Captain Des Welton is rotating players to give everyone in the club a chance to play in the team. For this match, he fielded 1.Humayun Mirza, 2. Daven Patel, 3. Qasim Zaidi, 4. Sergiu Pop & 5. Des Welton. The visitors, lead by their skipper Alex Potts, arrived with 1.Ramsey Dairi, 2.Alex Potts, 3.James Grimditch, 4.Mahmoud Dairi but defaulted on board 5. Despite having one game in the bag before the match began by default, we were nevertheless outgraded on the top three boards, and were not expected to win the match. What happened next came as quite a surprise.
Luton C 1-0 Bedford C
Board 2.James Grimditch (1562) v Qasim Zaidi (1250e). Qasim looked to be doing quite well in the opening, White tried to undo the pin on his Nf3 after Black's Bg4 by Qd3 but the Queen looked misplaced on this square. White countered with a pin of his own on Black's Nf6 with Bg5, and Qasim played the natural Be7 to relieve the pin, but Bf5! would have hit the Qd3 and gained a tempo. James jumped in with Ne5 and then Qasim played the aforementioned Bf5, but this was now in the wrong order and after a flurry of exhanges, White gained a piece for a pawn. James was able to press on and hold the advantage for a mate on move 67. A tough experience for young Qasim, from which he will learn and improve.
Luton C 1-1 Bedford C
Board 1.Ramsey Dairi (1856) v Humayun Mirza (1626). As soon as I saw Mahmoud show up with his prodigious son, I knew this wasn't going to be my night. True, Luton players Marek Gladysz and Tommy O'Brien have managed to draw their games, and Julian Hudson and Ocavian Arsenie have even won their games against Ramsery Dairi, but these are the club elites with 1800 - 2000 ratngs, whereas I'm a jobbing club player at 1600. Here's how my game went.
Luton C 1-2 Bedford C
Board 2.Daven Patel (1439) v Alex Potts (1706). Now the team are really up against it. Daven is playing an opponent almost 300 elo points above him and we needed a win to keep our chances alive. Daven has been dramatically improving this season, with a draw against an opponent 200 points higher in his previous league game. But this was too much a gap to bridge, surely? Watch.
Luton C 2-2 Bedford C
Board 4.Sergiu Pop v Mahmoud Dairi. Much as we'd have liked to, we had no time to applaud Daven's stunning upset above and all gathered around board 4 for the deciding match. At this point of the evening, Sergiu had reached a Rook and Pawns endgame, but it wasn't looking good. Mahmoud was three for two pawns Kingside and it looked like he had a breakthrough Queenside. But running out of time, Mahmoud stumbled and the Queenside pawns were exchanged leaving a drawish Rook and pawns ending Kingside. Under considerable pressure having to play accurately and with an audience, Sergiu managed to manoeuvre his King into the guts of Black's position, followed a forced exchange of Rooks. Material was equal but Sergiu was on the side of board that eat his opponents pawns and when Mahmoud relised, he resigned.
Match result. Luton C 3-2 Bedford C.
Congratulations to Captain Des and Luton C team in their defeat of the stronger Bedford C team. The result lifts the club development team off the bottom of the league table.