East Cheshire A 2.5 Altrincham A 3.5

After our exciting match at Marple this home match was a bit of a disappointment. Despite being the stronger team on paper some unexpected defeats meant that we lost the match. Perhaps that talk of promotion was premature!

1. P Ramsey 0 - 1 Y Kolodiy (168)

Yaroslav is a bit of a nemesis of mine. I think my score against him is 0.5 out of 4. This time I played an obscure King's Indian sideline against his Four Pawns Attack. I managed to get a decent position but then allowed him to exchange off into a very difficult endgame for me. Despite my best efforts I was unable to hold the balance.

2. D Newell 0 - 1 K Lockett (160)

Dave had another good Bird's opening and built up a strong attack. However in time pressure Karl started to play some tricky moves and eventually Dave fell for a bit of a trap.

3. L Saar 1 - 0 T Tomkins (137)

This win was probably the highlight of the evening. Lembit played a symmetrical English and had a solid position. He gradually built up an advantage and then finished the time scramble in fine style, outplaying his opponent in the endgame.

4. K Holton 0 - 1 R Clucas (131)

Keven played his usual solid Queen's Pawn opening but was gradually ground down by his opponent and resigned in a position where material was even but his opponent had too many threats.

5. P Bamford 0.5 - 0.5 D Hughes (129)

Paul grabbed a few pawns in the opening and seemed to be consolidating into a winning endgame. However his opponent managed to get a pawn back and draw the game.

6. A Stokes 1 - 0 W McCartney (124)

Alan managed to win a pawn in the middlegame and outplayed his opponent in the endgame for a convincing win.

So not a great match but we have a while to lick our wounds and recover - next match is at home to Wilmslow on Feb 20th.

Marple B 3 ECA 3

East Cheshire almost beat a strong Marple side on Thursday night but sadly two blunders turned 5-1 into 3-3.

1. Michael Fernandez (177) 1 -  0 John Reed

John build up a big advantage against his young opponent's Kings Indian. However in time trouble Michael created some traps and sadly John fell into one of them.

2. Paul Kirby (178) 0 - 1 Phil Ramsey

The way things are going this season I am going to have to buy a Kings Indian T-shirt. My opponent was once again left with little to do on the Queenside while I attacked him on the Kingside. My opponent buried his King on h1 and I built up the threat of a winning Bishop sacrifice that he had to give up his Queen to avoid.

3. Glenn Trueman (166) 0 - 1 Tudor Rickards

Tudor is on fire this season! Playing against the Modern Benoni Tudor's opponent seemed to have some Kingside threats but Tudor calmly refuted them and won a piece. He then avoided complications and allowed his opponent to fall on his own sword in time trouble.

4. Sean Hewitt (164) 1 - 0 Keven Holton

Playing the Modern Defence against an ex-East Cheshire member, Keven calmly walked into a pin to grab a pawn and then consolidated down to a promising endgame. Sadly a blunder gave Sean the game.

5. Andy Jenkins (141) 0.5 - 0.5 Paul Bamford

Playing against a Scandinavian Paul wasn't able to gambit anything but played solidly enough to get the draw.

6. Terry Cowling (144) 0.5 - 0.5 Nick Flaherty

Both sides fianchettoed both bishops and in the resulting calm position Nick easily held his own.

An exciting match. If we keep on winning and beat Marple B in the return fixture we will have a chance of topping the league!