Stockport 4 East Cheshire 2

East Cheshire A kicked off their season on Tuesday night with a tricky Charnley Cup tie against Stockport. With six of their seven strongest players in the team this was not going to be an easy night. However, we had a decent team as well. Could we create an upset?

1. A Smith (204) 0.5-0.5 John

John was relieved to get his favoured White pieces, possibly less so to see a Dutch on the board. However, careful play allowed him to reach an endgame only a doubled pawn down and with time running low for both sides a draw was agreed.

2. P Cawley (185) 0.5-0.5 Steve

This transposed into a sort of Classical Dutch. Steve was under pressure in the middlegame but defended carefully and in the end achieved a well earned draw.

P Siddall (191) 1-0 Phil

This was a typical game against a stronger opponent. I was outplayed strategically in the middlegame, ending up with a collapsing position and my time running out. I decided to do the noble thing and resign although the post mortem unveiled a way I could have complicated things for a while. 

A Reeve (186) 1-0 Tudor

Playing against an English system that his opponent knew inside out Tudor fought bravely but in the end the complications went against him.

D Toole (171) 0-1 Alan

Alan "nerves of steel" Stokes ended up in a passive position against Dave's favoured King's Indian. However Dave spent too much time trying to press home his advantage and Alan calmly continued making good moves while Dave ran out of time. Well done Alan!


M Taylor (171) 1-0 Paul

Mike seemed to have a good system against Paul's Benko Gambit. Paul managed to create some activity on the Kingside but Mike's passed A pawn won the day before Paul could create enough threats.

So Stockport win 4-1. A respectable result from a very tough match.