ECA 3 Chorlton 3

East Cheshire A team kicked off the season with a Charnley Cup home match against Chorlton.

Despite two of our top 3 players being unavailable and Chorlton fielding a strong team we held them to a draw and only went out on the board elimination tie break.

EAST CHESHIRE                                CHORLTON

S Tranter                    0    1                R Doney  (172)
K Newell                    0.5  0.5             D Lee  (177)
G Brindle                    1    0                A Elliott (160)
D Newell                    0.5    0.5            D Owen (164)
D R Taylor                    0.5    0.5        A Beresford (142)
T Rickards                0.5    0.5            P Harnett (138)


TOTAL                        3    3              Match drawn

Here is David Taylor's account:

Dave Newell drew first, and then Tudor. I didn't have much time to watch their games.  Then I accepted an offered draw, perhaps too hastily, but I had less time left than my opponent and the fairly blocked position looked as if it could go either way for whoever opened it up.

Then I had time to watch the others, and thought all the top three had good chances.  However, Steve succumbed to an attack on his king, sheltered behind two pawns with a rook to help, but his opponent took over the 7th rank and advanced a deadly rook’s pawn to finish Steve off. Kieran took a draw in a late middle game position with not much prospect of winning against a very strong opponent (177 on board 2). That left Geoff with the unenviable task of saving face even though a win, drawing the match, would still mean we lost due to the board elimination rule. His opponent seemed to view the whole thing as a bit of a joke, until Geoff’s fine endgame play took it down to a K R and pawns ending, in which Geoff’s rook was more active and his pawns more mobile. Finally, with both players needing the 10 second increments to stay in the game, Geoff managed to Q a pawn at the cost of his rook, with one other pawn left. Q and K against K  R and pawn, with both players having to move almost instinctively, was very exciting to watch. But Geoff avoided all the tricks and traps his now fully focussed opponent tried, and finally when he captured the pawn his opponent gave up.


Good start by Geoff and Kieran in the top 6!!