Two teams division, one from Kidsgrove and one from Fenton visited Crewe last night to take our ‘E’ and ‘F’ teams. It was good to see as many different people at the club who like to experience competitive chess getting their opportunity.
Fenton brought a team which, although appearing inexperienced, proved too strong for our ‘F’ team. Only Steve Ballantyne was able to trouble the scorers, earning a draw. After defending well in the opening, he later resisted the chance to deliver perpetual check on his opponent playing on for a win instead, however his opponent was subsequently able to gain counterplay and achieve a draw by perpetual check himself. This all meant the ‘F’ team went down half a point to four and a half.
The Kidsgrove match was more evenly matched. Here Doug Barnett won a tough, close game on board 1. Whilst James Marshall was playing well on Board 2 against an experienced opponent. He already had one advaned passed pawn when his opponent allowed James to exchange queens which then left James with two connected passed pawns in the middle of the board. With clever play James was about to convert one of these when his opponent resigned. This game, the last to finish, meant Crewe tied the match 2-2.
As well as the two league matches several internal tournament games took place. In Division 1 there was a win for Lukasz Michalek and in Division 2 there the game between Julian Bulbeck and Mike Keenan was drawn whist George Bulbeck achieved a win in his game. There was also a win for Mathew Dean in Division 3. Also worthy of note is that our new member Tom Smith played his first long play rated game which he also managed to win.
Next week the club’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams are both in action and both are at home. Can they remain at the top or near to the top of the league? It should be an interesting evening.