ECA 0.5 Marple B 5.5

Ouch! ECA came crashing down to earth on Wednesday night against a crazily strong Marple B team. With GM Keith Arkell added to their A team Sarah Hegarty was now their number 5 player and able to play for the B team. Even so we should have been able to score more than half a point but it was just one of those nights.

1. Phil 0 - 1 S Hegarty (195)

Despite my strange move order tricks the game headed for a mainline Sicilian Dragon. In order to avoid mainline theory I played some inferior moves and soon ended up under a severe attack. I gave up a pawn in order to swap off a dangerous Bishop and then suddenly my pieces came alive and I had a good position. I had the choice of swapping off to a decent endgame or playing an aggressive move with my Queen. Given my perilous clock situation I should have chosen the endgame but I couldn't resist the Queen move. This won my pawn back with a better position. However the game was complicated and in the end I lost on time in a major piece endgame.

2. John 0 - 1 M Fernandez (177)

This game was almost a carbon copy of John's previous match against Michael this season. John outplayed Michael in the opening and early middlegame and got a big positional advantage. However Michael managed to complicate matters and, short of time, John went astray.

3. Dave N 0 - 1 G Trueman (166)

Dave seemed to always be on the back foot against Glenn's anti-Sicilian system. Dave used up a lot of time to stay in the game and eventually missed a threat.

4. Lembit 0 - 1 P Kirby (178)

Lembit played a quite system against the Najdorf and got a lifeless position. Lembit ended up with a backward pawn on the C file and eventually succumbed to the constant pressure.

5. Dave B 0 - 1 N Garrido (130 est)

Dave played enterprisingly in the open and managed to keep his opponent's King in the centre at the expense of a pawn. However Nadio eventually consolidated his position and won another pawn.

6. Tudor 0.5 - 0.5 T Cowling (144)

Tudor played sensibly against the Albin Counter Gambit and got a nice position but Terry played some tricky moves and eventually Tudor had to bale out with a draw.

And there concludes our last home match of the season. We finish with slightly easier matches against Denton B and Stockport B.

Macc B 0 ECA 6

ECA registered their most comfortable win of the season on Tuesday night: 6-0 and no swindles!

1. Phil 1-0 A Brough (133)

My "confusion" move order did the trick. After 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 my opponent erred with 2. ... Nf6?! This allowed my to transpose to a good Queen's Gambit position with 3. cxd Nxd5 4. d4. Now White is going to play e4 and grab the centre. Black made things worse with 4. ... e6, blocking in his White squared bishop and I went on to win comfortably with a Kingside attack.

2. John 1-0 R Pomeroy (138)

On the Black Side or the Ruy Lopez John built up a comfortable position with the Bishop pair and control of the dark squares. However his opponent kept playing good moves and managed to put John under a bit of pressure. John kept his cool and won a couple of pawns in the late middlegame.

3. Dave N 1-0 B Woodhall (109)

Another Stonewall for Dave and once again his opponent didn't really know how to counter it. Dave built up a strong attack on the Kingside and his opponent had to give up a piece to avoid mate.

4. Tudor 1-0 T Robson (83)

Playing a slow King's Indian Tudor built up a huge lead on the clock. In the end Tudor was up a rook against a couple of connected past pawns but his opponent had no time to work things out and got mated.

5. Paul 1-0 D Styles (80)

Paul played the closed system against the Sicilian and manage to get a protected passed pawn on c6 which eventually won the day.

6. Nick 1-0 E Nathan (70)

Playing the Sicilian Nick outplayed his opponent in the middlegame, got a winning ending and ended it with a snap checkmate.

So a nice confidence building match in preparing for our title slug against Marple B next week.