Wilmslow 0 ECA 6!

ECA finally reached top gear on Monday night with a 6-0 whitewash of Wilmslow:

1. S Shepherd 0-1 P Ramsey

I played a rather dubious Queen's Gambit Exchange and after the opening my opponent had the initiative. However he allowed me to trap his Knight but played on as I was low on time. In the time scramble that ensued he ran out of time just before me.

2. K Moran 0-1 J Reed

A smooth Black win for John:

3. C Mills 0-1 D Newell

From Dave: I completely outplayed my opponent in the Birds opening and won a piece in the early middle game. Then ended up in complications with his 2 passed kingside pawns advancing towards me and decided to give up my extra bishop, reaching a completely drawn rook v rook and knight pawn ending, my opponent having the pawn. He was unaware that it was drawn and spent a lot of time trying to find a way to win it, in the end one second too long as his flag dropped. Makes up for the completely drawn game I managed to lose on time at Altrincham a few weeks ago.

4. C Jackson 0-1 T Rickards

Tudor won a pawn in the opening but ended up in a difficult position. However he kept battling until his opponent lost on time.

5. A Weinberg 0-1 K Holton

Keven played the opening rather passively and ended up a pawn down. However his opponent got rather carried away with pushing pawns and Keven managed to gobble a few up, leading to a comfortable win.

6. T Horrocks 0-1 D Broadbent

From Dave: My opponent was ungraded with est grade of 50 which is ridiculous - he played extremely well v my French and managed to mount a menacing attack. Under pressure, I once again seemed to find all the good moves and his time advantage slowly evaporated. Near the end, he had < 1min v my 2mins. It was his move but for some reason he pressed the clock before moving. I immediately stopped the clocks and asked for 2min to be added to my time. No one had any idea of the rule so I eventually played on because he was thinking of his move whilst both clocks were stopped- so he was being advantaged by the clock freeze. His flag fell soon after I restarted his clock.