ECA 6 Denton B 0

We needed a big win last night to give us a chance of winning the league and thanks to a weakened Denton B team and a bit of luck we got the perfect result. Now it is down to Denton B to score some game points against Marple next week and we could just stay top.

1. John 1-0 D Boulden (152)

John played his normal Bg5 system against the Nimzo-Indian and a strange position ensued where both players castled Queenside. John's opponent blundered a pawn and then the exchange and then ended up a Rook down but with some nasty threats. John gave up his Queen to stave off the attack but had two Rooks and a Bishop to compensate. After a few shaky moments John finished things off with a mating attack.

2. Phil 1-0 D Holt (136)

I played a decent opening and ended up with a French Defence type position. I created some pressure on the Queenside but then completely missed a move which should have won a piece for Dave. While I was trying to squirm out of my predicament Dave seem to panic a bit at the thought of winning and let me off the hook. I then ground out the endgame.

3. Steve 1-0 P Boyd (128)

This was a very smooth grind for Steve, winning a pawn out of the opening and then gradually increasing his advantage for the rest of the game.

4. Dave N 1-0 I Urwin (121)

Dave opponent played a sort of Wing Gambit against the Sicilian but Dave kept hold of the extra pawn and then won tactically in the middle game.

5. Keven 1-0 E Lesnik (108)

Keven won a pawn early on and smoothly ground out the endgame.

6. Tudor 1-0 D Cook (107)

Tudor achieved one of his favourite positions with a Queenside pawn storm against his opponent's King. He managed to open lines against the King forcing resignation.

So a successful season for ECA, finishing either 1st or 2nd depending on Marple C's result next week. Thanks to the addition of Steve we have a decent front line and should not be fearful of the A division. Gulp.

ECA 3.5 Altrincham 2.5

ECA beat a strong Altrincham team last night.

Here is the scorecard:

1. Y Kolodiy (168) 0.5 - 0.5 John

2. R Clucas (158) 0 - 1 Phil

3. K Lockett (155) 0 - 1 Steve

4. M Whalley (149) 1 - 0 Keven

5. N Lowe (135) 0 - 1 Dave N

6. B McCartney (130) 1 - 0 Tudor

Tudor's game finished first. Tudor lost a piece but had some vague attacking changes. However his opponent defended carefully and Tudor ran out of attacking material.

Keven had a cramped game with a backward e pawn and ultimately had to resign.

Dave had a nice win when his opponent wasted a lot of moves in the opening and left his King in the centre. In Dave's words: "My opponent resigned on move 20 having played very passively against the Colle and his king was stuck in the middle with his kings bishop and rook still not having moved and unable to move without losing more material."

John drew a sharp game where he gambited a pawn for a promising position but then misplayed it and had to fight for a draw.

This left the match at 2.5 - 1.5 to Altrincham. Dave takes over the commentary from here:

"This being my only home match of the season (I live 5 mins from Altrincham) I had decided to stay and watch until all the games had finished. With 2 games to go it did not look good! Alti were 2.5 to 1.5 up with Phil and Steve still playing on boards 2 and 3 respectively.

Steve's was the easier game to assess as he was in a rook and pawn ending, a pawn down, and short of time. Some drawing chances but no prospect of a win. Phil's game was more difficult to come to a conclusion about (unclear!!!). Both players were short of time in a sharp position. Phils opponent seemed to be applying most of the pressure but Phil was countering accurately.

Steve's opponent then contrived to voluntarily swap off the rooks in a position where he was losing his extra pawn and leaving Steve with the more active king. John Reed left at this stage and we were agreed that with best play it was now a drawn game. How wrong we were! Steve applied pressure and his opponent crumbled allowing Steve's king to mop up pawns and a pawn race ensued with Steve queening and then then playing very accurately to prevent his opponent queening.

Over to Phil's game with both players having about 3 mins left on their clocks. Major pieces were exchanged and Phil's opponent offered a draw which was quickly refused as now it was Phil applying pressure. Thinking for 30 seconds over a move when you have only 3 min left is not a good idea (trust me I know!) and down went white's flag leaving East Cheshire winners 3.5 to 2.5. A fantastic result and such an exciting finish that I had to get a bottle of wine to take home to celebrate."

ECA 3.5 Altrincham 2.5

After a couple of tough games against Marple teams we were hoping for a slightly easier match against Altrincham. However they fielded their strongest players on the top four boards making for a close match despite them defaulting on board 6.

1. Phil 0.5 - 0.5 Y Kolodiy (168)

In about four games against Yaroslav I have managed one draw so I was not looking forward to this one.

I played an obscure system against the Four Pawns Attack in the King's Indian and ended up with a cramped but solid position. I managed to exchange off most of the pieces but still was a bit cramped when Yaroslav allowed me to activate my Queen and assume the initiative. However, short of time as normal, I couldn't find a win and so took the draw that the team needed to tie the match.

2. Steve 0.5 - 0.5 R Clucas (158)

Steve played the Grand Prix Attack against the Sicilian and surprised all of us with an early f5 to open the Kingside. However his opponent defended carefully and ended up a clear pawn up with a dominating position. Steve managed to cause some problems though and did enough to get the draw as his opponent was short on time.

3. Tudor 0 - 1 K Lockett (155)

Tudor allowed his opponent an ideal English set up with pressure down the b file and Karl eventually won the b pawn and then the endgame.

4. Dave N 1 - 0 M Whalley (149)

Dave's opponent had the temerity to play the Dutch against our leading expert in it. In Dave's words:

My opponent played the Dutch so I played a prepared line in the Staunton Gambit. it was all pretty much over in 10 moves as black position was already horrible and he had to give up a piece after 15 moves. He then defended heroically and at one point I had the horrible feeling I was going to be left with king, knight and bishop v king but in the end I was queening a pawn and with a whole minute left on my clock he resigned.

5. Keven 0.5 - 0.5 D Hughes (124)

Keven played a Modern Defence / Sicilian hybrid and never seemed to be in any trouble but didn't find any winning chances.

6. A N Other 1 - 0 Default

Marple 3.5 East Cheshire 2.5

East Cheshire met Marple last night in the Charnley Cup semi-finals. With Marple having the strongest squad in the league and us having a couple of players missing this was never going to be easy! Here is what happened.

1. A Longson (216) 1-0 Phil

I avoided theory by playing an obscure type of Modern defence. Alex didn't punish my strange moves and I emerged from the opening with a decent fighting position. Alex gave up a pawn to increase the pressure and I started to go astray as I got low on time. Alex got his pawn back and then won a pawn and ground me down in the endgame.

2. J Bentley (205) 0.5 - 0.5 John

John had to face the Benko gambit but played solidly to achieve a good position. His opponent gave up an exchange to complicate things and in the end John settled for a draw by repetition.

3. A Walton (199) 0.5 - 0.5 Dave N

Dave seemed to have the better of a Dutch Defence, having the Bishop pair in exchange for some shattered pawns.

4. N Livesey (147) 0.5 - 0.5 Keven

Keven played the solid French Exchange and seemed to achieve a draw without too much difficulty.

5. S Hewitt (166) 0-1 Paul

Sean used a closed system against Paul's Sicilian. He seemed to get some pressure on the Kingside but Paul defended carefully and eventually won the exchange and then the game.

6. A Jenkins (127) 1-0 Nick

Nick wasn't sure how best to meet the Old Indian Defence and rapidly ended up in an inferior position. He gave up a pawn for some play but was always struggling in the one.

So an amazing result against a very strong team. Especially well done to the middle four boards who all scored against stronger opponents.

Next up is a slightly easier match - home to Altrincham next week.

Marple 3 ECA 3

I think we were all expecting a tough match on Monday and we were not disappointed.

Here is what happened:

1. John 0.5 - 0.5 S Hegarty (182)

Sarah allowed the dangerous Marshall Gambit and John built up a dominating position with a sequence of accurate moves. However Sarah defended carefully and with time getting low and mental energy running out John offered a draw which was gratefully accepted.

2. Phil 0.5 - 0.5 N Livesey (147)

My opponent played some unusual moves on the White side of a King's Indian and ended up with a Knight on b6 that was either annoying or stuck out of play. Sadly it seemed to be more annoying and I gave up a pawn to get a bit of freedom. My opponent then created a passed pawn on the Queenside and as I had only a minute on the clock things looked grim. However I finally got going and created enough counterplay to win my pawn back and exchange the rest of the pawns resulting in a draw.

3. Steve 0.5 - 0.5 G Trueman (159)

Steve played an unusual 2. b3 system against the French Defence and got a promising attack but was unable to break down his opponent's resilient defence.

4. Tudor 0 - 1 P Kirby (158)

Tudor had a promising King's Indian when I looked. I missed how this one ended.

5. Dave N 0.5 - 0.5 T Kay (141)

Dave played his new Colle system and ultimately ended up with K + P vs K. Unfortunately he had no time to think and threw away a won ending.

6. Dave B 1 - 0 C Baker (126)

When I looked at this game Dave was a Rook down but had some pawns to compensate. As both players only had 3 minutes left on their clocks anything could happen. As I expected Dave moved faster than his opponent, unfortunately missed a chance to quickly end the game but was about to win on time when Chris was advised to stop the clock and claim the draw as Dave apparently was not trying to win.

After some controversy Chris agreed to concede the game which meant the match was drawn.

Wilmslow 1 ECA 5

Wilmslow currently only have one point from 6 matches so ECA were strong favourites going into this match. An easy game for everyone then? Let's see...

1. C Mills (155) 0-1 John

John's opponent played the Queen's Gambit Accepted and broke all the rules, moving his Queen early to keep hold of pawns. John recovered all his pawns and got a huge advantage that his opponent could not squirm out of.

2. K Moran (142) 1-0 Phil

Do I have to remember this game? In a Sicilian Dragon where neither of us knew a lot of theory my opponent achieved a Knight on d5 that absolutely killed me. After defending carefully for some time I cracked and allowed a mate in one. Oops.

3. C Guffogg (134) 0-1 Tudor

In a Queen's Gambit Tudor's opponent managed to advance some Queenside pawns quite menacingly but managed to get his Queen trapped.

4. R Warhurst (115) 0-1 Dave N

Dave played a kind of King's Indian against Robin's solid setup and eventually managed to create complications and outplay his opponent.

5. A Flynn (95) 0-1 Keven

Keven created a weird position in a Trompovsky Attack. Despite Keven's King being on the Queenside both players seemed determined to attack on the Kingside. Eventually Keven confused his opponent into throwing away a lot of material.


6. M Garvin (87) 0-1 Paul

Paul's trusty Modern Defence gave him a solid position where he gradually advanced and outplayed his opponent.

So 5-1 to ECA! We have a rather sterner challenge next week in the shape of Marple C.

East Cheshire 5 Altrincham 1

East Cheshire chalked up a comfortable victory on Wednesday night in the quarter finals of the Charnley Cup. My plan to give us Black on odds went to pot when we won the toss and I was told that that meant we had to have White on odds. That meant John, Dave B and I all had to have colours we weren't expecting but we managed to cope.

Here is how it went:

1. Phil 1-0 R Clucas (158)

This was an unusual Karpov-style win for me, play a very quiet opening and gradually accumulating positional advantages to win the endgame. My opponent had a bad Bishop so I just swapped off all the active pieces until it was good Knight against bad Bishop and then it was goodnight! (Bad pun alert.)

2. John 0-1 K Lockett (155)

Karl played a weird English system where a White pawn appeared on b5 very early on but John played sensibly and rapidly acquired the initiative. However Karl fought like a caged tiger and ultimately John's lack of time proved to be his downfall when Karl launching a winning attack.

3. Tudor 1-0 M Whalley (149)

Tudor won his opponent's Queen quite early on and then resolutely ground him down. A thorough demolition.

4. Dave N 1-0 D Hughes (124)

Dave was able to play his much-loved Accelerated Dragon opening and quickly equalised. However his opponent played sensibly and it wasn't until the King and Pawn endgame that Dave managed to outplay him.

5. Dave B 1-0 S Douglas (99)

Dave bravely stuck his Queen on the Kingside where it was rather exposed but looked threatening. However his opponent didn't manage to take advantage of Dave's bravado and eventually Dave's killer Bishop on b2 won the day.


6. Nick 1-0 Default

Thanks for showing up Nick!

See you on Wednesday for the Christmas social.