Stockport 4 East Cheshire 1

Unfortunately there wasn't much Christmas cheer for us last night as we went crashing out of the President's Cup in the 1st Round Replay. I turned up last minute, lost the coin toss, then wrongly advised our team what colour they were playing - not a good start.

Tudor was first to finish......... "League record loss as fast as fools mate!  Sat down expecting white

Switched seats and did not 'reset' for black, but happy to play a variation of Alekhine I know very well.

Was thinking of and played fourth move when I hadn't played third, leaving me a knight down. 1 minute on clock.  Resigns"  It was a shame for Tudor, particularly as he's been in terrific form recently.

Bill finished next and his trusted Caro got him a fine draw with a solid performance.  Kev got what looked like a good positon against a Queens Indian but his opponent found a resource later on to win.

Nick looked in control in his match but it wasn't quite as simple as it looked and he lost his way when trying to press for a quicker win.  I had a decent postion but was happy to accept a draw when it was offered.

1 - 0  Mike Crowther (167) v Tudor

1 - 0  Andy Coe (162) v Keven

1/2    Mike Tunstall (160) v Bill

1/2    Jill Barber (141) v Paul

1 - 0  Peter Taylor (121) v Nick

4 - 1

ECA 2 Holmes Chapel 4

ECA continued their tricky start to the season with a home fixture against Holmes Chapel last week. I unfortunately could not make it so here is David Taylor's report:

We were soundly beaten by Holmes Chapel who fielded a strong team with only one player below 158. Fate was also a bit unkind, because by 7:45 we only had three players and the Newells were faced with a substantial time deficit when they eventually got through the traffic gridlock, even though their opponents voluntarily delayed starting their clocks until 7.45. At one stage Dave Newell had less than 10 sec on his clock, yet he still played another twenty moves or more, and got a draw. Apparently both the Newells had expected their opponents to play the King's Indian and had prepared accordingly, only to find different openings when they eventually started.

I lost first, after Ian Bates sacrificed on h7 to open up my Fort Knox King's position mercilessly, having seen one move further ahead than me. The same opening had earned me a draw against Altrincham’s Reg Clucas (155) the previous evening. Tudor won so easily he could afford to ignore the offer of a Rook at one stage, unable to believe that it was safe to take it (or not seeing the offer at all?) Kieran and Geoff were steadily ground down and in spite of surviving until nearly 10.45 pm were faced with overwhelming pawn majorities. Steve considered himself lucky to obtain the draw, but to the onlookers he seemed to have it all under control.

We eventually closed the club at 11 pm!!

East Cheshire A            Homes Chapel
S. Tranter        0.5        0.5        J. Turner (190)
K. Newell        0            1        P. Bennett (170)
G. Brindle        0            1        M. Hancock (175)
D. Newell        0.5        0.5        B. Scattergood (170)
D.R.Taylor        0            1        I. Bates (158)
T. Rickards        1            0        G. Scattergood (120)

East Cheshire  2                Holmes Chapel 4