Author: Martin Burns

January was the busiest month yet in this season’s quest for the NSCDA league title.

Readers of this stuff will already know that Crewe A narrowly beat Crewe C on the 7 January.

On the 16 January we joined Crewe D to do a flash mob in Holmes Chapel. Things started badly. The Victoria Club is accessed by a narrow street, which was so rammed with cars that we struggled to get anywhere to park. Not sure why the club was so busy, I mean Manchester United were on the big screen in the bar, so you would have thought that would have put people off. Anyhow, the A team captain was a bit late and a bit stressed before the chess had even started. Even worse for the A’s, Bart went down on board 2 early on, the captain was in trouble despite being over 200 points higher rated then his an opponent, and Harry was under the cosh too. As usual Richard won on board one. I then heard a little shout on board 3, as Harry opponent dropped a queen in a winning position. The bottom board had turned into a draw, and so we won the match 2.5-1.5, Phew!

While this was going on the D team showed how it should be done, they wiped out Holmes Chapel B 4-0; impressive.

12 days later the A’s played host to Holmes Chapel at St Mary’s. This time things went a lot smoother. Richard won again. Ebube, playing his first ever game for the A team, picked up another point. Martin and Harry both drew from decent positions. Match won 3-1.

Yards away, the B team squeaked past the C team. Last game to finish was board 2, where Captain Lambton blundered a piece to Simon Layhe. Simon could only draw the tense finish, mainly because he was playing on increment, so the match ended Crewe B 2.5 -Crewe C 1.5. The C team have had a couple of really close matches this season, but remain on zero points. The B’s stay out in front with only 2 matches to go.

I should, in fact I am going to, take time to appreciate what a great asset Richard Lee has been to the club. He is currently our strongest player by a distance, and has won 6 out of 7 games on board one for the A’s. He is just as happy in the social room doing coaching as he is battering people in the match room. Most amazing of all though, is that he recently moved down south, and he now has to travel about 130 miles to play for us. He is pictured below getting a power nap before the latest match against Holmes Chapel.

It was great to have a new A team player in reserve. In contrast to Richard, Ebube’s journey to the club takes about 130 seconds. Here he is looking fresh and alert for the Holmes Chapel match.

Watch this space for more exciting updates, as the season continues….

“Experts” say that January is a depressing month; the Christmas licence to stuff your face and drink more than usual has expired; some have to go back to work or school; some foolishly try fitness fads, or even worse, stop doing stuff that they like doing; it’s dead cold; and so on.

Do not despair, I am glad to be able to cast some light into the darkness. In January there is an excellent chess congress in the pleasant town of Telford. The venue is plush and warm. They have a nice cafe. If you win a couple of games, no matter what section you are in, you might get the chance to play on a “live” board, which means that when you blunder there could be someone, maybe in Turin or Truro, who is watching and laughing. This year several of our members ignored the government weather warnings and headed down. Harry, Simon, Martin, Andy, Dave P, Jamie, Dave R, Doug, Mal and Peter were all there. Our best scorer was Jamie Roberts, who got 3.5 /5 in his section. I hope Harry will send in one of his games, as he found a very nice mating trap which deserves a look. Check out the Telford Congress website, and go do it next year!

Even better news, on 7 January Crewe CC opened up again after the Christmas break. Sadly, more snow and fog meant that not all visiting teams could make it, but Crewe A managed to scrape a win, against Crewe C, with Richard and Harry winning on the top 2 boards.

Nod of gratitude to Nige, who has restocked the club cafe.

Mario has put in another excellent report on our website for the I team.

On the 14 January there was no league action at St Mary’s, but the G team did get a win away at the Gables. Special mention to Ebube, who won his game, though he did cause his captain a bit of pre-match panic as he thought we were playing at home! On the night before the V team won 4-0, also at the Gables.

So the 14^th it was a quieter night than normal, but there was still some action in the match room, as the internal competitions continue. In 1603 James of Scotland came down to take over the English throne, and at the club there could be an event of similar significance. Andy Raeburn won again in the Crewe CC Championship, and is still the clear leader after reaching the halfway stage. Others could catch up, but could we have a scottish club champion for the first time? Division 2 is currently lead by Ebube and Divison 3 by Nathan, Division 4 looks very interesting, as 2 of our junior members Tommy Cooke and William Hogben, are in first and second respectively. They are both pretty good players already and I suspect their ratings will continue to climb.

If the above is not good news enough then just think, spring is on its way.

All the best.

I would like to thank Chairman Price for hosting such a pleasant evening. There was a fine buffet, supplemented this year by the fabulous baking skills of Gee, who outdid herself with loads of delectable cake. Dave P heroically organised the traditional chase-the-ace contest; extra cards had to be found to accommodate the large throng clamouring to join in. Mario won the poker; he’s a bit of a shark, it turns out. Dave H even sorted out a team blitz event, so there was a bit of chess going on. (Shocking, we know.)

We bade farewell and (dare we say?) good riddance to Kobus, who has been threatening to emigrate for ages. It feels like a few have left us for other parts this year: Wallasey, Nottingham, Cornwall, Germany, Poland, Malta (though that last one keeps coming back) and so on. They will all be missed—eventually.

The match room (in contrast to the social room) is normally a place of silence and tension, strained nerves, and in Frisher’s immortal words, of joy and misery, but for one night, it was given over to laughter, music (regrettably) and talk of cabbages and kings.

We had a couple of new visitors, most notably Alfie, who came in with his devoted servant Phil:

There will be no club night for the next two Tuesdays. This should give you all a chance to polish up your game in readiness for the second half of the season. The next club night will be on 7^th January 2025.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a cracking start to the year!
See you all in 2025!

Not surprising really, seeing as how 3/5ths of the first division teams are from Crewe, but the A team had to face back-to-back derbies recently.

First up was the Crewe C derby.

I managed to get an early point on the board for us, after Karl walked into some back rank problems. All the old timers in the club are getting worried about having to face 12 year old Oskar, and this time it was Dave Hulme’s turn. Anyone who follows the news at all knows that Oskar just keeps improving as he gets taller. He had Dave on the ropes early on, picking up a pawn and clamping down on the queenside, Lucky for the “A”s he then allowed Dave to escape and win a pawn, and the game then drifted into a draw. Harry blew open Andy’s defences to seal a nice win, and Richard beat Kamil. 3-1 to Crewe A.

Then came the big one: we have had AvB, now for BvA. Dave Dastardly Lambton had outdone himself this time. An old dirty trick, pulled by many a team in the past, was that he put himself on board one, rightly thinking that Richard Lee would just beat whoever sat down in front of him. Sure enough, Richard kept a plus all the way, then started collecting material in a convincing display of endgame technique. Anyway, that game was was the last to finish, I am doing this the wrong way around, just like in Pulp Fiction, another tale of the dodgy. Going back to the start, there was an strange occurrence on board 4; Dave H lost to Martin Frisher. Not that strange you might think, as their ratings are pretty similar. What really got club members scuttling over, from all corners, was that the game was over in 5 moves. When I say over, I mean checkmate was on the board.

I had what I thought was an edge all the way through my game against Gee, but she won the crucial battle, the blitz finish. The main dirty trick pulled off by the B captain was that he had only gone and flown in an ex club champion for the match! As Harry said , it was lovely, and not so lovely, to see Carmel back in the country. Carmel and Harry played a rook ending to death, but even though Harry nearly smashed his clock to bits at one point when he had only a second left, the game was drawn. Crewe B 2.5- Crewe A 1.5.

So Crewe B beat Crewe A again; the history book on the shelf is always repeating itself.

Crewe B have been in fine form and head into the new year well in front of the pack. Let’s hope they can win the league for Crewe CC.

ps. Dave H was mocked without mercy after the match, but on the way home I remembered that I resigned a league game in 5 moves, many a year ago, after a “pre-move” lost me a piece. That may or may not make him feel better.

I always thought it would be dead easy to be an Italian poet; if you are Italian of course. I mean, everything rhymes already. However, it is maybe not so easy if you are an Italian poet writing in English. Mario, our newest team captain, does an excellent job in his recent match reports:

Cheddleton D v Crewe I

Towards the end game I made a blunder due to time pressure, thus wasting the advantage I had and became vulnerable… but I still managed to then corner the opponent and force a draw by perpetual check.
My opponent had still roughly half an hour left while I only had three minutes and, considering he was rating 120 more than me, drawing was my safest option.
Michael was down a piece when I first lurked by his board, but he retook the upper hand shortly after. And Peter had an elegant ending making his horse jump through the enemy pawns and eating them as if they were carrots.

We then won also our final battle, also known as the return journey: we had more speed cameras on that route than we had pieces on all our chessboard combined… luckily none flashed.

Crewe I then narrowly lost to Crewe H. The crucial game was the board one match between Tim Weston and Mario. Mario was looking very comfortable, but Tim unleashed a tactical storm and crashed through. As Mario describes it:

Every chess player knows your pain, Mario.

This year there are just 5 teams in the NSDCA first division, and 3 of them are from Crewe Chess Club. A bad start for us, the A Team’s first match, against Holmes Chapel, has been cancelled twice already. Word on the street is that a new floor is being laid in their venue. The new floor has been specially designed, (possibly) with all the latest noise reduction technology, to help chess players concentrate the better. As you know, our St Mary’s venue already has brilliant, FIDE standard, flooring. Any potential new members are welcome to come and walk about on it a bit. We have not yet managed to get noise reduction technology fitted to the club secretary, but we are working on it.

Events took an even worse turn when Crewe A lost Crewe B. Or, the league got off to a great start when Crewe B beat Crewe A. Depends what side of the fence you sit on. My view is from the A Team side; not nice, like an unweeded garden that goes to seed, things rank and gross in nature posses it merely. Early on Harry lost a pawn to Dave L; maybe he could have got a draw, but he was outplayed in the ending too, and we were 1-0 down. I was “winning” after about 8 moves against Martin F, then staggered off a cliff in the tactical fog. Richard bagged a point on board 1 against Lee. I was confident Bart would win against Gee; he was an exchange up and was hogging all the space. Time waits for no Bart though, and with minutes left, he mucked things up.
Crewe B – 3: Crewe A -1.

Crewe A then had to play the reigning league champs, and deadly rivals, Alsager. Harry’s opponent went all in with a piece sac, but it did not work, Harry tidied up nicely to get us a point. Richard found it tough against Mr Blackburn, and had to resign. Bart got a useful draw on board 2. This meant I had to win my game. After playing the opening like a clown, I somehow finally managed to get to a winning position. Only problem was this had taken me ages and I was playing more on less on the incremeent. I was a bit mad at myself when I realised that suddenly I had given Alan, my opponent, a chance for perpetual check. I looked at him, he smiled and started to put his hand across the board, With a heavy heart I nodded and said “draw”. At this point he looked at me as though I had farted, and he quickly withdrew the hand. He clearly thought I was going to lose, somehow. Then, instead a going for the perpetual, he made the losing move himself. Not my best win ever, but it did mean we had won the match.

Early doors, but at the time of writing our 10 (yup, 10) league teams are still in it to win it.

Crewe B are the current league leaders.
Crewe D are killing it and are division 2 leaders.
Crewe F, are division 3 leaders.
Crewe H are ….go on,guess…… are division 4 leaders.
Stop press; Tim Weston has now won 7 out of 7 league games!

Hoping to start a series of these; a lot of our members like to gad about the place; if you can get a chess theme into your travels then please send me a photo. See below for a shot of Nigel G. He recently went on a European tour with his beloved. “Just by chance” they stopped in Budapest when a certain chess event was happening. Mrs G was thrilled to see more chess, apparently.

Two of the three Summer KO Cups were decided last night at St Mary’s. Bart Fajfer beat Gee Cross in the Open KO. Gee tried to confuse him with some annoying c3 sicilian stuff, but Bart’s Karpov-like sense of danger got him through the opening safely. He then got the better of the middlegame, winning a pawn and then even trapping Gee’s knight. Gee kept him sweating, as Bart had hardly any time left, but eventually she had to resign.

The Major KO final was more chaotic. Oskar Jarzynski beat Finlay Charbonneau. When I first checked this one out Oskar was an exchange up but Finaly had a strong pawn centre. Finlay then won a rook , but reports from the front say that Oskar’s 2 outside passed pawns became unstoppable. Well done to Oskar, he just keeps on getting better.

Below is a shot of the Bart, going over his game. Oskar legged it too fast to get him on camera.

As Martin Fisher asked me; where else can you spend £30 and get a guarantee of 12 months joy and misery? Join Crewe Chess Club now!

At this time of year the nation eagerly awaits the start of the new NSDCA chess season. It is now an established tradition that this joyous time is marked in our club by the Time and Point Handicap Competition, an event in which, just like in life in general, time is the great leveller. In this “swiss” contest the higher rated players get less time, and some of the lower rated players are given extra points. If you have a couple of hours to spare, and need a full explanation, then Secretary Hulme will gladly go on with himself about the intricacies of the handicap system; enough to say that he has designed things so that everyone has a chance of winning the tournament. Thanks again to Dave for his hard work

Last night saw the 10th annual event take place with a record number of 36 players competing for the coveted Les Hall Memorial Trophy.

Those of you who follow the news will know that Lukasz has won this competition for the last two years, and many feared that he might win it again, and run off with the Les Hall Memorial Trophy forever. Nod to Les here, one of the club’s founders, who hopefully will have been been looking down on us fondly, from the great chess board in the sky.

This year as 36 players battled it out, and as is not unusual, a playoff had to be arranged to settle matters. Dave Lambton overcame Pawel Stanny, and so wins his first club competition. We are all chuffed for him, especially me, who he absolutely battered in our game, The photo shows the playoff final about to start.

David becomes the 9th different winner as the handicap format allows every member to have a good chance of winning. This is underlined by the fact we had 9 players in with a chance of winning as we entered the final Round (No. 5) with their ratings ranging from 2139 to 1022. At the end of round 4 we had three players on 4.5 pts ! (with their handicaps), three more on 4/4 and two on 3/4 plus a 1 point handicap and one more with 2/4 plus a 2 point handicap. Spare a thought for Martin Burns as the only player to score 5/5, wasn’t enough to win the trophy as David battered him (Martin’s own words) in the play-offs before David faced Pawel in another Armageddon show-down.

In the foreground of the second photo Richard Lee tries to pinch Chairman Price’s wine. Play is about to start. Another great evening was had by all at St Mary’s.

A quick reminder; the Leyland Congress starts next Saturday, 24 August. This is a 3 day, 6 round, long play event; so that should satisfy chess addicts out there.

(the interesting bit of the AGM).

Lukasz Michalek won the Les Hall memorial trophy. Lukasz is the first player to win this handsome piece of silverware twice.

Steve Ballantyne’s team won the NSDCA Division 4 title by a mile. Steve suprised us all when he presented each player on his team with a trophy. Nice touch Steve. My team got nowt from me.

Dave Lambton captained the “D” team to collect the NSCDA Division 2 trophy.

The “D”s looking a bit chuffed. On a sad note, the club will no longer be uplifted by the ready smile of Joe Moxon, on the right of this picture, as he is going back to Nottingham.

The “A” team thought they had won the league, but they hadn’t. Crewe did however win the Open Cup for the first time; see below as modelled by the team captain.

Jamie Roberts collected the Junior Player of the Year, was part of the Division 4 winning team, and he won Club Individual Division 3 title. Lucky his dad was there to help him carry all the trophies home.

Welcome newcomer, Finlay C, won his first club competition; the Individual u1600 Rapidplay.

Julian; 2023 Summer U1600 KO winner, and plum farmer.

There have been calls for an investigation into how the next one happened. Chairman Price won the Club Individual Division 2 title. Did money change hands?

Aaannd the big one…. Harry won the the club championship, again.