Author: David Hulme

Please note results for this event are being recorded on Chess Results.com
See links below for:

A) Open https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1428952.aspx?lan=1

B) Major U1750https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1428951.aspx?lan=1

C) Intermediate U1450 https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1428949.aspx?lan=1

D) Minor U1150 https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1428950.aspx?lan=1

What a fantastic night it was yesterday (9th June) with 66 members playing Rounds 3 & 4 in a record turnout !
Can we beat this next week for the finale with Rounds 5 & 6 taking place ?
Both of the top two sections have the only players with 100% records – James Ratcliffe in the Open and Ebube Christian in the Major. With a one point lead over their nearest rivals, they are hot favourites for these two sections.
The Intermediate has three joint leaders on 3.5pts and another three players on 3pts. Jack Patullo, Simon Humphries and Sam Ollier share the lead while Wallace Hung, Freddie-Lee Cooper and Mason Burke have a great chance if they can pick up two points next Tuesday.
In the Minor section the club’s youngest member Jasper Ludlow leads with 3.5pts with other juniors Andrew Caccamo-Turner and Jack Taylor hot on his heels with 3pts.
A reminder for the tie breaks are:
1. Most wins
2. Head to head scores among any joint top scorers, where all involved would have to have played each other. If there is no decisive tie-break then all joint top scorers will receive trophies at the forthcoming AGM.
It promises to be a great night next week.

Below are photos from round 3, with the Inter section nearest, Open on the back wall row, Major in the next row and the Minor section out of view to the right. The lower photo shows our two youngest members playing on board 1 of the Minor.

Tuesday 26th May was the last night of our internal club championship for 25/26 season. And boy was it hot … as temperatures soared to around 30C, it was not surprising that many members were absent presumably enjoying the glorious weather or relaxing on holiday with schools being on half-term.

With four of the five divisions already decided, the main event was the climax in division 3 where Phil Grocott, Mario Scarpa and Jude Canvin-Ross were all trying to secure the trophy and promotion. Jude was the outsider starting the night with 7 pts and playing joint leader Mario on 8pts. Phil also on 8pts was playing recent newcomer Wallace Hung. For Jude to win the event he needed to beat Mario and pray for Wallace to beat Phil so all three players would end up as joint champions ! While Jude completed the controllable part of the plan to win his game, Phil was “non-compliant” and gained victory to secure the trophy and promotion to division 2.

In division 2, the trophy was already heading the way of 14 year-old Tommy Cooke who was in an unassailable lead with 6.5 pts as nearest rival, Martin Frisher on 6pts was away on holiday. Tommy won his final game to stretch the winning margin to secure the trophy and promotion to div 1. I would like to mention that Tommy’s progress has been amazing having joined the club in August 2024 to play his first ever competitive game over the board. During his debut season he smashed his way to the division 4 trophy and I made the unusual decision of promoting Tommy two divisions for the start of the 25/26 season. This decision has been totally vindicated by Tommy’s stunning performance to win division 2.

In division 4, the trophy chasers hit a road block over the last few weeks. Simon Humphries had been in the lead for some time having racked up 9 pts by 24th March but unable to play his final game due to withdrawal by another member. It has been a nervous wait for Simon as Sam Ollier was closing in to try and overtake Simon. Having gained 7.5 pts by the same date and with 3 games in hand it appeared that Sam was favourite. However Sam was cruelly thwarted as he was unable to play 3 of his remaining 4 games and despite winning his last game on 12th May to move to 8.5 pts, the absence of a further opponent left Sam stranded in 2nd place. As a consolation prize Sam will be offered promotion alongside Simon.

In division 5, Mayank Patil has runaway from the pack to win the trophy and promotion to div 4 with a superb score of 12/14. Having lost two of his first three games Mayank has put together a brilliant streak of 10 consecutive wins to secure the trophy.

In summary we have had 72 members play in the 5 divisions with a total number of 345 gamed played. Thanks to everyone that has made this such a successful series of events.

Congratulations to all of our champions who will be presented their trophies at the 2026 AGM in a few weeks time:

Div 1 = Harry Gardiner; Div 2 = Tommy Cooke; Div 3 = Phil Grocott; Div 4 = Simon Humphries and Div 5 = Mayank Patil.

Next week we start the first of our Summer Competitions with the Annual Swiss Rapidplay. Please contact me (David Hulme) if you wish to play in this event but have not yet told me.

It’s been a very successful week for the club as we secured two more trophies as the NSDCA season comes to a climax.

On Tuesday, the league division two trophy was up for grabs and destined for our Trophy Cabinet at The Caritas Centre, but it was a straight fight between our own D&F teams, with the F team in control of its destiny. George Bulbeck has had a terrific first term as a captain guiding the Inter team to the U1600 Cup and taking the F team down to the wire. The opening announcements advised that the F team needed to win 3-1 or better to take the title on tie break. This was after welcoming the Division 1 champions (Alsager “A”) who played our C team.

If the F team’s target was not tough enough before the match, then I allowed myself a cheeky smile (being D team captain) as Stafford brought their strongest team of the season to make sure the F team would not have it easy. So much so, that Stafford outrated us by approx 500 pts with a team worthy of 1st division status and it was therefore unsurprising that Stafford won the match and in doing so pipped the F team into 2nd place on the last tie break of head to head scores having finished level on match points, match wins and board points.

Congratulations to the D team who have the daunting task of being our 4th choice in division 1 next season.

Roll on to Friday night, as we took two teams to Cheddleton. The E team came off second best to Cheddleton A in their final division two match, but the cameras were focused on the main event …. The Perry Cup (U1375) Final between our Perry1 team and the hosts from Cheddleton. The team line ups saw Chedd deprived of their top two players leaving them rated 350 pts lower than the semi-final while Steve Ballantyne was able to field a team with all four above 1300 totalling 5379 – some 700 pts above our opponents.

First blood went to us on board 4 as Keith Dudeney found himself faced with a huge Knight fork of Queen and Rook to find he had to sacrifice his rook (with a check) for a pawn to save his own queen. Fortunately for Keith this prized the black’s defences open to threaten a mate in two. Luckily for us, they failed to find the correct defence allowing the mate. Well done Keith 1-0 to us !

I was watching very nervously as Wallace on board 3 seemed to be in a world of hurt facing a passed pawn and appearing to be lost. Again fortune favoured us when his opponent misplayed the position allowing Wallace to collect the killer pawn. They managed to “queen a pawn” before Wallace, but this allowed the b pawn to get to the 7th supported by the King, and with an advanced a pawn Wallace worked out how to force queens off (after using his b pawn to queen and block checks) and then queen the a pawn while the opposition g & h pawns could only make it half way. Phew 2-0 to us.

Meanwhile on board 1 Mario had played a typically aggressive opening and was positionaly sound until he found his white squared bishop trapped by advancing king-side pawns. Giving up the bishop for two pawns was the best he could muster. However these two pawns became rolling monsters as his opponent failed to stop the threatening advance. Despite having his two rooks attacked by one bishop, Mario found a way to overwhelm the centralised King with his own bishop and solitary rook supported by the two monster pawns. The pressure was too much and with no escape Mario won to make it 3-0.

The final game to finish saw the two captains battle it out. Steve Ballantyne played superbly to completely dominate the board 2 game as he rounded up two pawns in the middle game due to active pieces pushing his opponent into a very passive position. Two pawns became three after an exchange of all pieces as Steve threatened to promote multiple pawns and win convincingly.

The final score 0f 4-0 looks very one sided, and probably not unexpected when looking at the line ups. This clearly does not reflect the reality of the match as Chedd could quite easily have taken at least 2.5 pts. Well done to the Perry team.

This means Steve B has captained his teams to the dream of a Double in league and cup, while also retaining the Perry Trophy. Congratulations to all involved with the Dad’s Army teams and supporting casts !

Last night saw George Bulbeck lead the U1600 Cup team to success at Alsager, retaining the trophy with a convincing (looking) scoreline of 4.5-0.5, although the secretary has no evidence of the actual games played.

There were only two survivors from last season’s cup winning team, with captain George taking full responsibility winning on board 1 (having played board 5 vs Kidsgrove last year). A review of the scorecard shows only 44 rating points separated the two teams (based on September’s ratings) but as is often the case ratings seem to bare no relationship to the score. Such was George’s methodical planning that he prepared the team to play with 3 blacks, but the card does not tell me whether we won the toss or Alsager did.

The other player from last year was Pawel Stanny who held out for a draw on board 3 with black pieces. Two of our promising juniors had the white pieces and both got the full point with Tommy Cooke on board 2, and newcomer Jude Canvin-Ross on bd 4. To round things off George’s dad took on the important mantle of team driver, so was allowed the comparative luxury of playing board 5, also doing the business to give a glossy finish on the score-card.

Congratulations to the team.

What many may not know is we now have two armies aiming to complete “league and cup doubles”. Bulbeck’s youthful army have a league division two decider on Tuesday 12th under the flag of our F team. They have a tough match (sitting in 2nd place) against 3rd placed Stafford at home and need a 3-1 win (or better) to secure the NSDCA div 2 title on tie break and condemn our D team to runners-up spot. Any lesser result means the D team are champions.

Bulbeck’s Youthful Army is in competition with Ballantyne’s Dads Army, as Steve leads the Perry Cup 1st team into the final against Cheddleton at Leek on Friday 15th in pursuit of another double after leading the I team to the NSDCA Div 4 trophy a few weeks ago. Interestingly the Perry KO team is also aiming to retain the trophy after a derby-final last year.

It’s been over two months since we reported on the club championship. At that time Harry Gardiner was on the brink and duly completed the formalities shortly afterwards, to finish the tournament with another astonishing unbeaten record scoring 10.5/12, to hit an event rating of 2183, eclipsing his previous championship rating of 2157 from last season when unbeaten again with 11/12. It is now over three years since Harry lost a Club Championship game (against Jules Hawthorne on 15th March 2023). Congratulations again to Harry !!
Meanwhile there is a scrap to avoid relegation at the other end of division 1, where pre-season top seed Lee Farrington has only scraped 1/2 point so far. All is not lost though as Karl Lockett is equally in the mire with just one point. With Carmel withdrawing from the event her game scores will be removed from the final placings. With just a few weeks to go before deadline day of 31st May, Oskar Jarzynski (3pts) and David Hulme (3.5 pts) will be praying they are safe from the “dreaded drop”.

Division 2 appears to be heading for a dramatic climax at both ends of the table. Interestingly Kumar Saravanan still leads the way with 5.5 pts despite having left the club after his last game on 17th February. Tommy Cooke is currently in 2nd place with 5/7, and has more than justified his promotion from division 4 last season. Tommy’s rapid rise is very impressive when you consider he only played his first serious game approx 18 months ago. Julian Bulbeck is also on 5 pts but has played 11 games. Next up for Tommy is a game with closest rival Martin Frisher 4/7, who was probably the pre-season favourite based on ratings. With so many strong players in division 2 this year it is a tough call to predict who will win promotion to the top division. At the bottom end of the table we have three players with just 1/2 point each as newcomer John Astley struggles to regain his previous levels after a 5 year break. Chairman Dave meanwhile juggles with looking after the popular social room, and a last minute entrant (Tom Lee) has been thrown into the mix but he will be exempt from relegation as only just joined the club as another new member.

Division 3 looks to be a two way battle for promotion with long time leader Phil Grocott keeping his nose in front with 8/11. In second place is Mario Scarpa on 7.5 pts with a game in hand. Steve Ballantyne has completed his campaign with a pleasing tally of 7.5 pts. The picture is muddled due to the arrival of another new player – 16 year old Jude Canvin-Ross who has scored 6/8 so far. Due to his current rating of 1639P, being approx 200 pts ahead of the intended maximum for this division, the Events Officer has had to own up to this mistake and advise Jude that he will not be allowed to win the Div 3 trophy, but will be promoted to Division 2 automatically at the end of this season. This division is very closely contested and the relegation scrap is crammed with potential candidates for the drop with 8 members currently unsafe. Peter Kanalos’s scores will be removed from the final reckoning as only played two games, which leaves Steve Knott (1.5), Steve Duncan & Lewis Scott (2), Alan Lowe-Jones (2.5), Wallace Hung & Mike Keenan (3); Keith Dudeney (3.5) all in the danger zone.

Moving on to Division 4, Simon Humphries currently leads the pack with 9/12 with a 1.5 pt gap to Sam Ollier who has 3 games in hand and is probable favourite to win the section. Gerald Parton and youngster Jack Patullo occupy joint 3rd with 7/11 each and will both be considered for voluntary promotion at the end of the season. Following the withdrawals of Lee Bebbington and Dylan Lettley, this leaves four players currently in the drop zone. Matthew Dean looks to be in greatest danger with 1/9, while Ian Wright has 1.5 pts and son Mark has 2 pts but have only played four games each. Evan Hughes is probably just about safe with 2.5 pts.

Last but not least, we look at our newest addition to the Club Championship where the growth of our membership caused us to set up a new division – No. 5 which has the biggest number of players with 16, compared to 14 in each other. This section is full of newcomers to competitive chess and includes 12 juniors. For many months it was one of the quartet of adults that appeared set to win this trophy as Barrie Wood notched up an impressive 11 pts playing all 15 games like a sprinter off the blocks. Slowly but surely the rapidly improving juniors have started to put together some strong runs and now occupy 3 of the top 4 places. Most notable of all has been 10 year old Mayank Patil who lost 2 of his first 3 games, but since 1st November has gone on an incredible run of 11 straight wins to jump into the lead with 12 pts. With one game remaining another win would guarantee 1st place. Barrie is now in second place, and followed by Andrew Caccamo-Turner with 8/11, who returned to the club after a 12 month break and has made solid progress. Adi Kostic is fourth on 7/10. If Mayank slips up in his last game it is possible for both Andrew and Adi to draw level. Another member still in the frame is Jo Estridge, after a late start in the competition has played soundly to score 5.5/8 to date.
Most pleasing of all, is the commitment of all players in division 5 to make this section by far the busiest as 83 games have already been played, which is almost twice as many games as division 2.

In a nutshell, the Club Championship provides members the opportunity to play competitive chess and is the cornerstone of the growth and success of our club. Thanks to all 73 members who have joined in this season and that excludes numerous others who were too late to join in or simply prefer to play social chess for fun.

A reminder to everyone, that all divisions have the same deadline of 31st May to complete the games. We will be running our annual 6-round Swiss Rapidplay (3 or 4 sections TBA) on June 2nd, 9th and 16th. After that I will be taking a summer break, and Harry Gardiner will be running the annual Summer knockouts.

Apologies for the late March report, but I didn’t want to overshadow our expert reporter Martin Burns, who manages to make everything far more interesting than the secretary’s news items.

During the month we played another 21 matches suffering only 4 losses, and on the last night of the month we had 3 home matches and had an unbelievable set of results scoring 10.5 pts from 12 boards without losing a single board. This was incredible when you check out the teams as we were outrated in 10 of the 12 games with a deficit in rating of around 1100 pts. The biggest (and best) surprise of the night was to see Alan Lowe-Jones (member of Dad’s Army I team) defeat Fenton’s board 1 despite being lower rated by 477 pts. This must rank as one of the greatest ever wins by a Crewe Under dog !! Most of you will not be aware that Captain Steve Ballantyne (aka Captain Mannering) was expecting his team to be thrashed in the last vital two league matches, but should not have panicked with his trusty soldiers bringing home the first trophy of the season to clinch NSDCA division 4 in style, finishing off with a resounding 3.5-0.5 win over Fenton.

The other brilliant team results that night included a 4-0 whitewash by our G team over title contenders Cheddleton B in div 3. Super Mario’s charges have had a superb run of results since the new year to climb up the league table to second place and become the only team to defeat runaway leaders Holmes Chapel B. The rapid rise in youngster Tommy Cooke’s rating justifies his elevation to board 1 in the team.

Not to be outdone our K team put a major obstacle in the race for the division 5 winners, as they beat favourites Holmes Chapel C 3-1. To be fair the team was boosted by a cameo appearance on board 1 by Cardiff University bound George Bowkett to enable the team to move to mid table safety completing the campaign with a most respectable tally of 12 pts from 12 matches. The top of div 5 is hotly contested and will be decided tomorrow when Crewe’s junior L team play Cheddleton D in Leek. A win for Chedd gives them the trophy and any other result means Meir win as Holmes Chapel C slid out of contention following their 2-2 draw with Meir last night.

Taking a brief look at the NSDCA tables, Alsager “A” just need one point from 3 remaining matches to become League Champions. Division 2 is a three-way fight with Crewe F as favorites on 13 pts from 9 matches, just behind Crewe D 15 pts from 11; and 3rd place Stafford on 11 pts from 9. As Stafford play both teams above them next month, they control the destiny of where the title ends up.

In div 3 Holmes Chapel B (20pts) are almost certain to take the title as only Chedd’s B team can mathematically catch them as they have 5 matches to play inlcuding two head to heads with the leaders. Crewe G seem likely to finish as runners up but could end up 3rd if Chedd can beat the leaders twice.

The knockouts are nearing conclusions now with Macclesfield hosting Crewe in the Open Final; Alsager hosting Stafford in the Major final; Alsager at home to Crewe in the Inter final. Meanwhile the Perry Trophy has Cheddleton at home in the final against the winners of Crewe Perry 1 and Gables Perry 3 in the remaining semi.

Looking back at The Staffs Congress Report by Martin we had another winner with James Ratcliffe receiving the trophy as Staffs County U21 champion.

Also in the prize money was Keith Dudeney who excelled in the U1550 section. Starting as 34th seed out of 47, rated 1312 he performed superbly having scored an unbeaten 3 pts in the first 4 rounds before coming unstuck in the final round to finish on 3pts. The Chess Results Server showed Keith’s performance rating as 1594, as he proudly claimed his first congress prize in over 50 years. Well done Keith !
https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1377426.aspx?lan=1&art=9&fed=ENG&flag=30&snr=34&SNode=S0

Hopefully, soon we will be taking a look at the Club Championship as we approach deadline day of 31st May. And to give advance notice to all members that the 2025/26 Swiss Rapidplay (6 rounds) will be played over 3 nights on June 2nd, 9th and 16th before I take a summer break.

Super Mario drove Dad’s Army to St Andrews Methodist Church in Cheddleton last night. Expert planning by Captain Ballantyne ensured the team arrived early and ready for battle. Unusually so, that the match started shortly after 7.30pm as four teams converged in the warmth of the playing room, with our I team playing a “winner takes all” match vs Cheddleton C in div 4, and the hosts D team played Meir in a top of the table Div 5 fixture.

The journey to Chedd was quite lively as the fearsome four carried the club secretary along to witness events and as you know he is never quiet ! There were one or two raised eyebrows when the team lists were exchanged and their expected board 1 was not named. The assumed deficit of around 200 rating points did not arise and we were pleasantly surprised to find out we were about 170 pts higher, which is really nothing with the 4 digit system and when taken over 4 boards.

Early skirmishes showed everything to play for as Steve Ballantyne took the upper hand on board 1, Mario prepared for a lively encounter on bd 2, Phil set up a basic stonewall on board 3, and Keith had the unsettling task of playing one of the vastly improving juniors. After 15 mins or so, the secretary disappeared down the hall to have a chat with Robert Milner the NSDCA Honorary President to learn about the history of the league from 1947 !

On returning to the match room things were moving at a fast pace. Steve B had the full initiative after two knights ganged up on his opponent to emerge an exchange and a pawn up after only 15 moves. Mario on board 2, was a pawn down with two Rooks, a Knight & 5 pawns vs 2Rs, a bishop and 6 pawns, but had great compensation with the more active centralized rooks while the opponent had isolated doubled pawns on the c file and on the f file too, which would become sitting ducks. Phil on board 3 had fallen into a nasty position and soon lost his Queen for a minor piece. While Keith was a piece up for two pawns but under some pressure from various pins.

Suddenly results flooded in as Keith converted his piece advantage with some accurate attacking, cutting off the King’s escape in the centre of the board, and with precision guided his Rook and Queen down the e-file with calm co-ordination to deliver mate with the King marooned on d2. Next Mario’s activity found a brilliant mating attack, forcing the opponents King to shuttle from f1 to g3, trapped by the doubled f-pawns. The powerful back rank rook swooped over to g1, and with the N beautifully placed covering the f4 square, and a pawn on g5 covering h4, the king had nowhere to run with his own pawn on h3. So it was 2-0 to the Incredibles and before Mario’s ink had dried courtesy of his “lucky pen” (see News item 24.10.25), skipper Steve had offered his opponent a draw. Such was Steve’s dominant position the player could not believe his luck and gratefully snatched the draw offer, as Steve immediately punched the air in delight, with the knowledge his team had won the match and a most unexpected league title.

Typical of Steve’s self sacrificing personal gain for the benefit of the team, he secured the title within about 5 seconds of Mario’s result.

It was a swift journey home as early celebrations took place at The Woodside Pub in Wistaston.

Congratulations to Steve and the Super Incredible Dad’s Army team.

It’s time for my monthly report again as February finished just yesterday. As usual I will report on the League first and then the Internal Competitions. Despite it being the shortest month of the year we managed to play 23 matches in the NSDCA, winning a superb 15 out of 21 external matches with 2 draws and just 4 defeats. Two derbies also took place, with the G team beating the H team in div 3 and F beating D to go into pole position in div 2.
We’ve recently had two heavenly reports from captains of our A & G teams, but there is so much more to sing about as our D team now lead div 2 (temporarily), and the Incredibles (I team) lead div 4.

It seems there is no stopping Alsager “A” running away with the division 1 title. All of the potential challengers have beaten up each other to leave Alsager almost home and dry. So far Alsager have only dropped one point against our “A” team, while all others have dropped at least 7 pts. With 4 of Alsager’s last 5 matches against Crewe teams, we will have to see if we can possibly derail their title aspirations. Hopefully all of our three teams can avoid relegation, with the C team in greatest danger but should be good enough to stay ahead of the league’s new arrivals – Northwich.

Division 2 currently shows Crewe D at the top, but our F team are probably favourites following their recent crucial “derby success” against the D team. On a run of 5 successive wins the F team have two games in hand on the league leaders and trail by just one point. This division is so competitive that even 6th placed Cheddleton “A” (7 pts adrift, 3 games in hand) could win promotion if other results went in their favour and they won all remaining games. Stafford also have two games in hand on the leaders trailing by two points and with matches to play against the top two have it in their own hands as well. Crewe “E” sit comfortably in midtable and potentially have the easiest run in with four games to play against the bottom three.

Division 3, shows the G team gloriously in pole position for now under the enthusiastic leadership of Super Mario. Recently they extinguished the only 100% record accross all five divisions when beating then league leaders Holmes Chapel “B” with an excellent performance. However as Mario reported it is only a temporary state of affairs as the lead is only one point and Holmes Chapel have three games in hand. That surprise result has opened the door to a challenge from Cheddleton B, with these two to play each other twice yet. Our other team in div 3, Crewe H face a relegation battle which is unsurprising following last season’s promotion from div 4. A run of two wins from three games since the turn of the year has given the team hope of survival. Now with 5 pts from 9 matches, they face a tough run in, but have two matches to play against Alsager D who also have 5 from 9. Kidsgrove “A” will be watching nervously with 6 pts from 10 as these three battle it out to avoid relegation.

Looking at division 4, The Incredibles (I team) have performed heroics to give themselves an outstanding chance to win an unlikely promotion. Led from the front by skipper Steve Ballantyne the team continues to punch above its weight. With two matches remaining it is now a two horse race between Crewe I and Cheddleton C, with our Incredibles one point ahead. Both teams have played 10 matches and have it in their own hands to secure the Div 4 trophy with the potential title decider on Friday 20th March at Cheddleton. This week Chedd C play Gables B and will leapfrog the I team with any win, but a draw leaves Crewe I ahead on matches won !! Meanwhile the draw specialists (J team) netted a further 3 pts from 3 matches in Feb, suffering their first defeat of the season at Kidsgrove (B), before winning at the 10th attempt. Normal service was resumed in match 11 with their 9th draw of the season and they conclude the season at home on 10th March facing a rejuvenated Fenton team strengthened by the return of Steve Hill (rated 1798 !!).

Our two teams in Div 5 (K&L) have performed extremely well when you consider these are Crewe’s 11th and 12th teams, playing against other clubs much higher teams such as Meir’s 1st team, Chedd’s 4th, Holmes Chapel’s 3rd, and Gables 3rd and 4th. Our two teams are near the foot of the league, but the priority is simply to give league chess opportunity to as many members as possible. The L team comprises entirely juniors with an average age under 12 as previously reported.
We pride ourselves on the fact that we have had 72 members playing in the NSDCA so far this season which can only help promote the wonderful game in the North Staffordshire region.