East Cheshire C vs Macclesfield B, Wednesday 27 November 2010

A win for the C Team - 3 1/2 to 1 1/2.

The scores were:-

Board.........ECC............................Macc B

1.............Alan Stokes......0......1..Richard Murphy

2............Paul Bamford.....1......0..Alan Sime

3............Mike Cunnane..1/2..1/2..Brian Woodhall

4............Ian Vaughan......1......0.. Angie Howe

5............Roy Burrows.....1......0..Peter Rawlins

Roy surprised both his opponent and himself by achieving a smothered mate. Ian's game involved a pawn battle in the centre which led to a decisive advantage. Both Roy and Ian finished early enough to play several friendly games against their opponents.

Mike as black played a QGA which went well, but after the middle game his opponent had plenty of counterplay and Mike's offer of a draw was accepted.

Paul's game begun with 1e4 e6. Paul played a King's Indian and it seems won a two pawn advantage early in the game.

Alan was on the black side of a Ruy Lopez which started 3...a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.d4 exd 9.cxd Bb6. Alan says he should have played 8. .... Bb6 to stop his opponent recapturing with the c pawn on d4. He says he got into trouble after not noticing his opponent had left a knight en prise. Again, Alan arguably made best use of the time on the clock, gathering many spectators for the last half-hour.

We will look forward to the return match.

ECA Marches On

Another match, another victory for ECA!

I was expecting a tough match against Altrincham but it turns out that their captain only remembered about the match the night before and so had to cobble a team together at the last minute.

Their weakness showed as we stomped over them 6.0!

Here is how we stacked up:

1. John R (169) 1 - 0 D. Merryfield (142)

2. Phil R (155) 1 - 0 D. Hughes (130)

3. Dave N (154) 1 - 0 K Linke (124)

4. Keven H (142) 1 - 0 C McNulty (121)

5. Tudor (137) 1 - 0 C McCoy (93)

6. Paul B (132) 1 - 0 S Ward (86)

John as Black had to grind down a stodgy Colle System but eventually managed to loosen up his opponent's King and win a pawn.

I was on the White side of a solid Ruy Lopez and won first a pawn and then a piece as my opponent misplayed his position.

Dave's opponent will not win any awards for subtlety as he attempted a version of Scholar's mate against the Sicilian. Fortunately Dave saw the threat and refuted his opponent's ridiculous opening!

Keven's success with 1. e4 continued as he quickly won material with his closed system against the Sicilian Defence. I'm glad that the London system has been abandoned for now!

Tudor's game started (if I am not mistaken) 1.e4 d5 2. Qe2 ?!! I'm not sure what his opponent had been smoking but Tudor had no problem getting a full point out of this one.

Paul played the ultra-aggresive Danish Gambit and seemed to be more material up every time I looked at his game. Nice work but not every game in Division II will be as easy.

Well played and next up is Urmston in the cup at home on Wed 27th Oct.

The C Team vs Urmston, 5th October 2010

The C Team won 3-2. Moreover, everyone enjoyed the match. The scores were:
Urmston (Home) East Cheshire C (Away)
J Royle 0 1 Alan Stokes
T Plunkett 0 1 Geoff Clarke
J Bradley 1 0 Bill Tait
C Maudsley 1/2 1/2 Andy Walker
G Randall 1/2 1/2 Roy Burrows
Total 2 3

Roy (acting Captain) set up an unanswerable threat and accepted the draw offered by his much higher-graded opponent.
Andy also drew his game against strong opposition. He was on the back foot for the first 15 moves, but then managed to bring in a knight that both reinforced his defence and threatened the opponent's queen. This turned the game around and it went to the wire, but with insufficient material for a mate in the time remaining.
With the match at 2-2, the result hinged on Alan's game, a slow cerebral battle which Alan won on time, before the time control was reached.

October East Cheshire Rapidplay

On Wednesday 6th October East Cheshire held their first early season club rapidplay.

Fourteen members turned out and after 6 rounds Phil Ramsey was the winner with 6/6. Paul Bamford won the 135 and under grading prize with 3.5.

John only lost his game to me after accidentally dropping his Queen where I could take it! Otherwise things might have been very different.

Here are all the scores:

1st - P Ramsey - 6

2nd - J Reed - 4.5

3rd - T Rickards - 4

4th = - D Newell - 3.5

P Bamford

6th = - D Broadbent - 3

M Cunnane

K Holton

A Stokes

D Taylor

11th - I Vaughan - 2

12th - G Clarke - 1.5

13th = - R Burrows - 1

B Tait

East Cheshire A vs Macclesfield A

Our first match of the season was against potential title contenders Macclesfield.

Thankfully we were able to field a strong team and beat them 4.5 - 1.5!

Here are the details:

1. John Reed 0 - 1 A Soames

John had a great position on the Black side of an Albin Counter Gambit and had Soames on the ropes but then blundered. Bad luck.

2. Phil Ramsey 1- 0 P Cattermole

I was in my normal time trouble but started to get a nice position at about move 30. Cattermole started to think a lot and lost on time just as he made his 36th move! A harsh way for him to lose but I decided to claim the win for the sake of the team (and my grade!) The final position was better for me anyway.

3. Dave Newell 0.5 - 0.5 G Laurence

A solid draw from Dave on the Black side of a Dutch Leningrad. Great to see Dave back in the team again.

4. Keven Holton 1 - 0 V Kumar

A victorious return to 1.e4 for Keven. In an open Sicilian his opponent blundered a pawn early on and Keven pressed home his advantage mercilessly.

5. Dave Broadbent 1 - 0 D Lobo

On the Black side of an advance French Dave won a pawn early on but then had to offer a draw as his opponent had some threats. However his opponent needed a win for the sake of the team and played on - bad idea!

6. Alan Stokes 1 - 0 M Jouannet

Find a name for this opening: 1. d4 c5 2. Nf3 f5! The Benoni - Dutch? Whatever the name, Alan did a good job of exposing its flaws!

Well done guys! Next up Altrincham at home in two weeks.

Keith Arkell Visits East Cheshire

East Cheshire member Sean Hewitt recently organised a simultaneous display by Grandmaster Keith Arkell at our normal club venue. For the measly sum of £10 we could pit our wits against chess professional and Grandmaster Keith.

In the end 14 contenders turned up including myself. Keith dispatched 12 of us, with 1 draw and 1 defeat.

Keith played in his normal solid style and raced around the boards, often leaving us needing one of our "passes" just to finish thinking. Less than 3 hours and a few endgame lessons later it was all over.

Keith was in good humour tonight and the night was fun and instructive.

Below are a couple of photos and a position from my game.

Keith, with White to play, won a pawn. Can you see how?

Phil

East Cheshire member plays Nigel Short

Nigel Short recently gave a simultaneous exhibition in Manchester as part of a visit to the North West. Our own David Broadbent was there and by all accounts made Nigel work pretty hard, finally falling in a good Knight vs. bad Bishop endgame.

Here it is with David's comments:

Nigel Short vs David Broadbent

Ashton Under Lyme

20th March 2010

1. d4 d5

2. c4 e6

3. Nc3 Nf6

4. cd ed

5. Bg5 Be7

6. e3 c6

7. Bd3 Nbd7

8. Ne2 0-0

Short is preparing centre / kingside attack.

9. Qc2 Re8

10. 0-0 g6

All standard book until my 10. ... g6. The book move is Nf8 but I decided it was good tactics to block Short's Bishop and Queen and move out of book (I had a plan!)

11. Rae1 Nh5

12. Bxe7 Rxe7

13. Qd2 f5

Attempting to block a centre attack. Short now switches to the Queenside.

14. b4 Nhf6

15. f3 Qe8

16. Nc1 Kg7

17. Nb3 Rb8

Determined not to move my Queenside pawns.

18. a4 Nf8

19. a5 Bd7

20 Bc2 Qf7?

Ne6 is possibly best.

21. Nc5 Qe8

Two moves wasted. I expected Short to play e4.

22. Nd3 Ne6

23. Ne5 Nd8

24. Na4 Nf7

25. f4 Ne4

26. Bxe4 dxe4

27. Nc5 Nxe5

28. fxe5 Be6

29. g4 Rf7

Short switches to the Kingside.

30. gf gf

Short obviously has an advantage but ais running out of attacking pieces. I can still defend easily.

31. Kh1 Kh8

32. Rf4 Rd8

33. Rg1 Qe7

34. Qg2 Bc8

Looking to cover a6 / b7 in the ending.

35. Qg5 Re8

36. h4 Rg7

37. Qxe7 Rxg1+

38. Kxg1 Rxe7

39. Kh2 Kg7

40 Rf2 h6?!

h5 is maybe better? Or b6 to free the bishop?

41. Rg2+ Kh7

42. h5 Re8

43. Rg6 Rg8

44. Rxg8 Kxg8

45. Kg3 Kf7

46. Kf4 Ke7

47. Na4 Be6

48. Nc3 a6?

What else? (How about Bc4 to stop the Knight manoever? -Ed.)

49. Ne2 Kf7

50. Ng3 1-0

Instructive endgame. Short probably knew how he could win 15 moves ago. Still, 50 moves was not bad.