With there being no League matches on Wednesday night players took advantage of the break and played internal games in the club’s Championship Tournament before it ends on 31st May, pairings had been suggested by the Events Officer.
In Division 1 Harry Gardiner and Martin Burns both won to stay in first and second place respectively. Harry finished his game with a nice queen sac which if taken led to a forced checkmate. Martin had exchanged his queen for a rook, knight and bishop and managed to get enough play to conjurer up a passed pawn which in the end proved decisive. Although Harry leads the table by half a point he has completed all his games whilst Martin still has two games to play. However Carmel Barwick still remains in contention with five games to play, if she can complete these by the end of May.
Three games took place in Division 2 where there were wins fron George Bulbeck, George Jellis and Doug Barnett. Andrew Crosby still leads the current table having played all his games but George and Doug are only one point behind with two games to play. Division 3 saw a hard fought draw between Phil Grocott and Mark Randell which went down to a King and several pawns endgame. This result sees Phil two and a half points in the lead in the table and seemingly unable to be caught. The last game to finish was a rated friendly game where those remaining watched as James Marshall played a very interesting Queen and pawn endgame where he eventually, despite being very low on time, managed to convert his passed pawn and so win the game.
In addition to the above games there were as usual a number of players there who were happy to play friendly games between themselves, including players who were either new or hadn’t been to the club many times before, whatever their chess ability the club welcomes them all.
Next week sees the local League Division 1 derby between Crewe A and Crewe B. The difference this season is both teams have a chance of wining the league meaning this match has much significance. Consequently both teams are keeping the proposed line ups close to their chests, it promises to be a very interesting night.