Last Wednesday (19th) saw the last game of the South Cheshire Shield competition as Newcastle (the leaders) hosted our “A” team (in 2nd place) in the knowledge they needed to avoid defeat to win the Shield from our “A”s (the 2017 champions). The match was as exciting as any neutral would want and I’ve taken the liberty of hijacking the match report from Newcastle’s captain (Alberto Gissi) as follows:
Tonight’s match was a bit like a final for the South Cheshire Shield, as Newcastle and Crewe A were separated by just one point. The showdown didn’t disappoint and all the games were really hard fought!
The first one to finish was the game on board 1, where Myron managed to get a strong position and went on to win thanks also to his opponent being in time trouble. Myron had won all his previous 3 games and, considering also the impressive improvements shown since he joined the club a couple of months ago, I decided to put him on the top board with Crewe’s rising star Amy.
Meanwhile David ended up in an endgame with 3 minor pieces each, but Harry’s pawns advantage proved decisive and he managed to get a nice checkmate with his knight supported by his bishop pair.
On board 2 John offered a draw to Chris, who refused, but after the balance on board 3 shifted from a winning position for Joe to a losing one, Chris went back on his steps and offered a draw. Unluckily for him and for Crewe it was too late, as John had managed to secure a winning position, so it was his turn to refuse the offer. After that the game ended quite quickly and gave Newcastle the point that sealed the draw and the victory in the Shield.
Thanks to Crewe for a very enjoyable night and congratulations to all those who took part in this competition!
Dave Price, the non-playing Crewe “A” captain was there as a spectator and congratulated Newcastle on winning the Shield, as both teams completed the campaign unbeaten.
In other action at The Mals Club last week, Bart Fajfer took a deserved lead in division 1 of the Rapid-play with two more wins to take his score to 11.5/12 to overhaul previous leader David Hulme who remains on 11/21. In division 2 youngster Lukasz Michalek continued his leading role by taking his score to 5/8, sitting just ahead of Nigel Gardner on 4/8 and three players of 3pts (Les Hall, Kobus Nienaber and Reinhard Haack).
This report is an abbreviated version of original report dated 21st September, which disappeared due to a technical fault.