Last night saw the final game being played in Division 2 of the internal Club Championship. Here the previous deadline of 31st May had been extended by the Events Officer to allow Pawel Stanny to play his two remaining games, which he did winning both. This means he has now won the tournament so congratulations go to him. Last season was a successful one for Pawel whose rating has increased by about 100 points over the previous 12 months. Commiserations go to George Bulbeck who was sitting on top of the table when the deadline for the event was extended. However he can be proud of a rating increase of about 85 points in the last 12 months and hopefully will take his place in Division 1 in the future, something his performance and rating deserve. What is particularly noteworthy is the fact that in both division 1 and division 2 of the club’s internal tournament all games were completed by the eleven players in each division. Even though these tournaments lasted throughout the season, this is credit to not only the Events Officer who drove the competitions but by all 22 players who made the effort to take part. Hopefully everyone enjoyed their games (whatever the result) and will be back for more of the same next season.
The Summer Shield match involving Crewe’s B team provided the interest in the main hall battling against Newcastle. The first game to conclude was that of Nigel Gardner who achieved a draw. Additional interest was provided by two juniors playing their first game for the club at the the longer classical time controls. Jamie Roberts, one of those youngsters, played well early on achieving the better position in the middle game, however a series of piece exchanges left him a bishop down. This was further traded down leaving a rook endgame where his opponent had several pawns advantage marching forward on one side of the board. To the onlooking spectators this seemed just a matter of time before his opponent would announce checkmate, however Jamie then made a rook move which had to be taken as it checked his opponent’s king, however on doing so it was realised that Jamie was then in stalemate meaning Jamie had remarkedly achieved a draw from an otherwise lost position. The game of the other new player James Coney swung both ways at different times however James had a central passed pawn which he managed to advance to the 7th Rank. This obviously had to be taken leaving a rook endgame. This lead on to to a king and pawn endgame where James skilfully managed to queen his extra pawn, achieving a win in his first game for the club. The team’s win was sealed by Neville Layhe on top board who thwarted his opponents passed pawn on the 7th rank to lead into an endgame three pawns up, not surprisingly he was able to convert this for the win.
Jamie is Black and Black to play can you find Jamie’s move?
As well as a number of other friendly games taking place in the main hall, the second room used by the club was busy with a number of youngsters of varying abilities, a few of whom were visiting the club for the first time, receiving coaching and advice from some of the more experienced players at the club. I am sure they all not only enjoyed it but also learnt a lot from it so hopefully we will see some of those youngsters return in the future. Thanks go to Dave Price, Karl Lockett, Harry Gardiner, Martin Frischer and Julian Bulbeck who helped out with this.