ECB 4.5 - 1.5 Macc C

We hosted bottom of the table Macclesfield C last night and this was a match we expected to win.  Having said that, they have picked up a few points from their last few matches and they didn't make it easy for us either.  Brief details:

John  1  Francis Moan (144)  0
This was the last to finish and Francis hung in there well until the pressure finally told and John picked up material late on.

Geoff B  1  Anthony Brough (140)  0
Geoff won a piece fairly early on and it counted in the end.

Paul  1/2  Joachim Trier (123)
I was a pawn up in a R + P ending but it got complicated (for me) and I had to settle for a draw.

Keven  1/2  Phil Caulkett (118)
Kev unleashed his pet opening and had some play before it fizzled out in to a middle game draw.

David T  1/2  Mick Renshaw (117)
Dependable David maintained his unbeaten record for the B's this season with another solid performance.

Tudor  1  Marc Jouannet (119)
Two attacking players slugged it out before Tudor found a winning attack against his tricky opponent for another good win.

This win sends us back to the top of the table and with just two games left it's all to play for.

E Cheshire 0 - 6 Stockport

Our glorious Charnley Cup run came to an end last night in the semi final against Stockport.  Well Ok, we'd had 2 byes to get this far but they all count.  Stockport are in good form - winning all 6 league games and dropping just 5 boards - so we were unlucky with the draw.. If only we'd had another bye we would have made in to the final.

Having said that, Stockport commented afterwards that it hadn't felt like a whitewash.  Indeed every board was strongly contested.  I'm sure that if I hadn't lost the toss it could all have been very different.....

John  0 - 1  Allan Beardsowrth (216) 
John seemed to be doing OK till a pair of R's came off and then it was lost.

Steve Tr  0 - 1  Andy Reeve (198)
This looked fairly drawish and indeed Steve offered a draw but Andy fought on and got active late on to find the win.

Geoff B  0 - 1  Alan Smith (194)
Geoff put up a really good show in his usual calm manner and this went down to less than a minute each on the clock until his opponent's B pair finally saw some daylight and settled it

Paul  0 - 1  Phil Siddall (189)
I was doing OK in a Stonewall type position but I went astray when I tried to mix it up a bit.

Keven  0 - 1  Daniel Sheppard (170)
This game came to life after some exchanges but unfortunately not in Kev's favour.

Jim  0 - 1  Mike Taylor (166)
Jim was a pawn down in an endgame but had some hope with a runaway pawn which unfortunately eventually got rounded up.

There's always next year.

Chrolton B 1.5 - 4.5 ECB

Report from Tudor: .....

Pleased to report great result. John Reed suffered unexpected defeat. Default on board six helped but not decisive. (Non playing Chorlton 'gentleman John' Horner stayed to give William a game).

I managed to convert a pawn up into pressure before a blunder gave immediate resignation.

Geoff survived a complex game by mix of strategy and accurate defense 

One Steve broke though with monster attack on QS 

The other drifted into K and B versus K, Kt, and Pawn ending with distinct losing changes but survived.

Playing conditions up to normal standards ...

Heroes one and all.

Now for Stockport aces.

1 - 0  Hooman Escandari (123) v John

0 - 1  Howard Hughes (120) v Geoff B

0 - 1  James Crawford (100) v Tudor

1/2    Joel Prittie (100) v Steve Tatlock

0 - 1  Anthony Fagan (93) v Steve McCall

0 - 1  DEFAULT v Will

1.5 - 4.5

Altrincam A recently lost to Wilmslow which means that the chance (or do I mean danger) of promotion is now in our own hands.  We have 3 league matches left, all at home.

Altrincham A 1 - 5 ECB

On another cold night (inside and out) we made the trip last night to Altrincham who are possibly our main competition for the title this year.  As usual there were some hard fought games but we came through well in the end.

Mark Hann (169)  1/2  John  1/2
John had a slight edge with good central control and 20 minutes up on the clock but with no pawn levers to open up the position he settled for a draw.

Mark Whalley (142)  0  Steve T  1
Steve was facing an in form opponent who has won 6 out of 6 so far this season (including a win against me, so he's obviously top notch).  Mark was determined not to play a normal Dutch position and came up with a novelty where he had 4 pieces on the 1st rank and his king on the 3rd.  Steve eventually found a way through to win a pawn and then simplify to win the endgame.

Sheraz Khalil (132)  0  Geoff B  1
Geoff unleashed his pet opening and his greater knowledge lured his opponent in to a trap to get a commanding position for a quick win.

Anthony Lane (138)  1/2  Paul  1/2
I was able to mess up his kingside with double isolated pawns which looked pretty good.  But when the queens came off quickly followed by the rooks I suddenly realised that, with play on both sides, his B was looking better than my N and when he offered a draw I accepted.

Michael Davies (110)  0  David T  1
This was looking a very tight game for a long time before David managed to open it up and win a pawn and then force his opponent into a mistake.

Bill McCartney (122)  0  Tudor  1
Tudor got a great position with a good B and an imposing N on a good outpost and won 2 pawns.  He then won a further pawn and showed his good technique to finish it off.

So this win actually puts us top of the table.  We won't be getting carried away just yet though and the champagne will remain on ice until the fat lady sings....

Wilmslow 1.5 - 4.5 ECB

On a cold night we made the trip to surprise league leaders Wilmslow.  At the pre-match huddle the instructions were simple - we needed to win board 1, lose board 2 and win the lower boards.  The game plan was executed to perfection!

As we settled into the match we were serenaded by the Wilmslow Ladies choir singers on a practice night in the room next to us.  In the bar room on the other side we could hear the exploits of Deulofeu and co who were giving Chelsea a good thrashing.  This wasn't going to put us off though, and we had the compensation on playing on the finest wooden boards in the league.

Tudor got us off to a great start.  He was the exchange up and then started causing havoc with R and N forcing resignation. In my game I got outfoxed by my opponent and wasn't sure what his opening was going to transpose into and I got my set up wrong and didn't really get much play.  Meanwhile Keven secured an extremely valuable half.  He had offered a draw some time earlier but Colin was hoping to find something special until Kev found a strong threat which had to dealt with and a draw was agreed.

Jim was playing against a debutant who had won his class in the Christmas Buzzer event at the Ladybrook and is clearly going to develop into a useful player.  The experienced Jim though was too canny on the night and built up a big material advantage and had a menacing pawn on the 7th rank and achieved a winning attack.  David T is proving very consistent this season and in a tight battle he came up with a tactic which won the game.

So we had the points in the bag by this stage but John's game was going down to the wire and he was unaware of the match position.  This had been a very complex affair from soon after the start and I can't really explain what was going on towards the end.  It seemed like it was one of those games when pawn numbers didn't matter but quality did.  John had an advantage on time and appeared to be slowly gaining control of more squares around Kevin's king.  Kevin eventually cracked under time pressure (Wilmslow don't use Fischer!) and John was able to mop up and win an extremely exciting and tense game.

It was a much needed win for us against a team who on paper we should beat, but as always nothing is guaranteed and it was a good overall performance.  Next up is a crunch match against Altrincham who are probably our main contenders for the title.......

0 - 1  Kevin Moran (164) v John 
1 - 0  Richard Evans (159) v Paul
1/2    Colin Mills (150) v Keven
0 - 1  David Mowat (115) v David T
0 - 1  Robin Warhurst (102) v Tudor
0 - 1  Mike Craven (100) v Jim
1.5 - 4.5
 

Marple B 3 - 3 ECB

Last night's match featured two B teams for clubs who don't have A teams!  Over the last few years playing against the Marple first team was a formidable task with all their titled players but this year their stars have moved on to pastures new.  They still put out a decent team last night - although grading wise we were favorites.

John had an entertaining well fought game game in his contest but had to be content with a draw.  In my game I thought I had the edge but in the end was happy with a draw and then the ever reliable David T also weighed in with a draw.

At this point it was looking good with Geoff B and Jim both looking in good shape.  Unfortunately though Geoff was tempted to take an extra pawn which turned out to be poisonous as a few moves later he was left with the choice of either losing his Q or being mated.  It's a tough game!

Meanwhile Steve Mc had gone a pawn up but his position was awkward and with time trouble issues was happy to settle for a draw.  The match therefore rested on Jim who needed to win for us to draw on the night - no pressure then.  He was a pawn up in an endgame and after some patient maneuvering was able to make it count and claim the full point.

Next up is the trip to Chorlton on December 19th and then a Charnley Cup semi to be arranged probably in January.

1/2    Paul Kirby (154) v John
1 - 0  Alan Hall (151) v Geoff B
1/2    Andy Jenkins (142) v Paul
1/2    Chris Baker (126) v David T
0 - 1  Tony Doust (105) v Jim
1/2    Martin Cutts (108) v Steve Mc
3 - 3

Macc c 1 - 5 ECB

Keven's report below (with a postcript from Tudor) on a great much needed win by the B team...

Under the inspirational leadership of former ‘Captain Kev’, with such useful orders as “ don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes”, we comprehensively defeated a relatively weak but decidedly pleasant Macc C.

# Mike Renshaw 0    John Reed 1   -- comfortable win against a rather improvised hybrid Benoni defence.

# Tony Lane 0         Geoff Brindle 1 ---- Geoff’s employed his beloved b6 system and beat off a rather overly ambitious Kings-side attack and quickly tuned the tables forcing resignation.

# Marc Jouannet 0   KRH 1 – A tricky customer Marc, who also used the b6 English Defence and threw everything at me but positionally I had a strong hold on the game and took my own tactical chances to force an easy win.

# John Astley 0    David Taylor 1 ---  David tried to deploy his favourite Nimzo but his opponent didn’t oblige and a a rather slow QP game ensued. Latterly  White rushed his end game and crumpled into defeat.

# Tom Robson 0   Tudor Rickards 1   -- didn’t see the game but Tudor with the white pieces played his standard QP stuff and clearly won convincingly.

# Alan Cope 1  Jim McKie 0 --  strange game, a sort of passive unorthodox Sicilian where Jim won a quick pawn. He then lost the exchange and elected  to defensively hunker down and allow the pawn structure to get locked. But he got ground down by Mr Cope’s ‘mogadon’ strategy and ultimately his opponent found a way to break though and force a win.

Captain Kev ---  retired . (again) 

Quiz – name a Chess Club in the Stockport & District league that Francis Moan has not been a member of ?? !!!!

First prize a ticket to see Stockport County’s U21  team. Second prize = two tickets !!!


Tudor's comments !....

"Still stands the clock?"

"Er, yes, unfortunately"

Age shall not weary them, the East Cheshire pensioners. Conscripted again, Cap'n Kev retains his awesome leadership characteristics.

One further story of our glorious victory. The swanky new clocks at Macc Served to defeat the efforts of some the home side to crack the code permitting the required Fischer time limits of the match.

Increasingly frenzied efforts went unrewarded.  After four moves, the clocks at my board showed we had both added  half an hour each of time, and gaining by the move.

The efforts to correct this were rather like resetting the clock in the car to from Summer Time recently, more trial and error than accomplished know-how.

Unlike in the poem, the clocks eventually tired of toying with their operators, and the games began. 

By then, Cap'n Kev was well into walloping his opponent, and the seeds of our glorious victory had been sowed.