Christmas

Last night was the final club night of the year, and as is customary, we had our Christmas Do.

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:

that’s Alfie on the left

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 7th January 2025.

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

ABBA news; crime wave; and so on.



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.

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Frisher, Martin
Hulme, David
NSDCA Div 1 - Crewe A vs Crewe B
Crewe Chess Club
The match started at 7.40pm1.e4e52.Nf3Nc63.Bc4Be7playing passively for long term position4.d4exd45.c3dxc3glutton for any gambits (c/w brain fog). After 4 minutes thinking for Martin, while David buried his head in shame realising the blunder, Martin considered gambiting another pawn with Nc3 or O-O, before stumbling across the winning move...6.Qd5Faced with the mating threat Qxf7, David had another blind vision (of escaping). He could have played Nh6 to prevent the mate, giving up the N and then castling Kingside and hope for the best facing the inevitable6…d67.Qxf7+Kd78.Be6#Game completed by 7.50pm1–0

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.

Italian Literature Club. Horses and carrots. Flooring issues. Fence issues.

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

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!

Crewe at large; #1.

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.

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Last swallows of summer

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.

Joy and Misery (as David Lambton wins the Time & Point Handicap)

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.

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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.

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Leyland Congress

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.

Some photos from the 2024 AGM.

(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.

Some photos from the 2024 WC Cup, held at St Mary’s 16/07/24.

Crewe and Wallasey compete for the WC Cup once a year. As usual, the secretary has plenty to say before any match starts. The players wait patiently…maybe.

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Opening moves. In the background you can see Gerald getting the butties laid out. There was a generous spread; all organised by Chairman Price.

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Martin “sounds a bit like Fischer” Frisher played a belter of a game. When we expand our limited IT skills we might get to put the game on here. Until then you will just have to believe me when I say it was good. If you want to know anything about Fischer, just ask our Martin F. (he is the one in the black jacket)

Chinenye in action. Unfortunately he lost his game; but that shirt is gorgeous.

Jamie Roberts hung on for a draw against Mark Burgess.

Simon Layhe drew with Rick Purcell. Here is Simon being watched by his dad. Hard to say if Nev approves of Simon’s position or not.

Bit of a dodgy picture of the team captains, Dave and Alan. They kept dancing about, and I am no David Bailey. Hope you get the idea that they had a great evening. We all appreciate their efforts in organising such a special event.

The 2024 WC Cup winning team…Wallasey. Well done!

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Number one again – Harry style

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In the 2023-24 season Harry Gardiner won the club championship for the second time. He has set a record that may prove hard to beat; he scored an amazing 10 points out of a possible 11; winning nine games and drawing two. Carmel, Cyrus and Dave Lambton trailed behind in joint second on 7.5 points; H beat them all on the way to victory. Harry is pictured above, getting ready for a game at St Mary’s, while Dave L looks on.