Author: David Hulme

Mon 17th April – The D team went to play Fenton B in division 2, with faint hopes of pursuing the divisional trophy. A successful evening led to a narrow win to keep the dream alive. For another excellent report from the D team captain – Nigel Gardner – please see Nigel’s Reports section of our website

Wed 19th April – saw the David and Goliath Battle at the top of division 1 between our “A team All stars” and the “B team of Brave Bees”. It is hard to believe that our two teams could be heading the charge for the NSDCA League title but this was the case as the “A” team led the table with 13 pts from 10 games, while the Bees had 13 pts from 11 games heading into the match.

The A team would be overwhleming favorites with a 700 pts rating advantage over 4 boards, but this is nothing new to the B team who have been underdogs all season and heavily outrated in nearly every match. The B team also have “devious Dave” as their captain according to Martin Burns (A team captain) and sprung a change of board order to try and upet the odds by playing himself on board 1, in order to give Simon Layhe the best chance of success.

The Bees seemed to be holding their own, particularly when Rick Renegade seemed to have caused discomfort for the A’s on board 3, and George Bulbeck had a pawn advantage on board 4. However the A’s superiority started to come through as Harry Gardiner turned the tables on board 3, with a passed pawn created from a missed “en-passant” that led to a quick and sudden resignation. Not long afterwards the Bees captain made a blunder in the excitement of an attacking opportunity only to leave himself open to a long distance Queen check that led to the loss of a rook – bringing immediate resignation and 2-0 to the As. There was a shock result on board 4, as George Bulbeck completed a win against an opponent rated 350 pts higher on the scorecard, and brought the battling Bees back into contention. The board 2 game had seen Simon Layhe hold a pawn gained at the expense of a far inferior and cramped position against Martin, who ultimately turned the screws by picking up two pawns and with a fierce attack. Now Martin recalled how he allowed the Bees captain to fluke a win earlier in the season, did not want a repeat and so offered a draw which Simon could not decline due to imminent material and clock pressure. The curtain fell on the match with the As victorious, and much closer to the title.

The “A” team now have 15pts and are 5 pts clear of Fenton “A” who are the only team still in contention. The “A” team play Fenton in the last match of the season and need a draw at most to become league champions, while Fenton still have two other tough games to play which they need to win to keep their chances alive.

Following Bart’s win in this match, he has now reached a rating of 2000 and his score of 5.5/9 on board 1 is a big part of the “A” team’s success this season, as he plays all the strongest players in the NSDCA.

Tue 11th Apr – The E team went to Alsager for the proverbial “6-pointer” at the top of the NSDCA Div 3 table, and were greeted by Alsager’s strongest team of the season. As always in a 4-board match, the balance swings to and fro with fine margins often deciding the outcome. On this occasion it favoured the league leaders – Alsager – as they came out winners by the narrowest score possible 2.5-1.5, as predicted by their rating advantage. It was tough going for our top two boards who came home empty handed despite putting up valliant efforts. Our best result came from Adam Fields playing on board 3 playing just his 3rd match of the season, as he inflicted the first defeat of the season on his opponent who came into this match with 7/8 and a provisional rating of 1742, some 300 pts more than Adam. On board 4 Kobus Nienaber earned a draw, which turned out to be not quite enough to save the team as we could not muster anything from the top two. This result leaves Alsager as clear favourites for the div 3 title with 18 pts from 12 games, while the Es have 15 from 11 in 2nd place.

Fri 14th Apr – our F team made the longer trek to Cheddleton, where their club hosted 3 matches so had their resources fully stretched. The night started precariously as our board 1 Andrew Crosby got delayed by public transport on his way to the match, but was rescued by team-mate Pawel in the depths of Stoke to get him to the church on time ! (Chedd’s venue being a church hall). Our F team is there to provide opportunities for as many as possible and has so far employed 16 members in the team, with line ups often matched with the opposition as best as we can. On this occasion we were rated about 180 pts below Cheddleton’s C team, which at an average of 45 pts per board is very small. On board 3, Steve Ballantyne put us in the lead thanks to converting a pawn advantage into a queen. On board 4 Mark Randell had his maiden voyage to success, with his first win for the club much to the delight of himself and all of his team-mates. With the 2-0 advantage, Andrew wisely used his experience to offer a draw, which was accepted with both players running short on the clock. Pawel seemed to have the upper hand in the last game and refused a draw offer in the knowledge the team result was safe, but succumbed to a loss after running out of time. Captain David Hulme wanted to put his thanks on record with Pav coming to the team’s rescue to get Andrew to the match. The final score of 2.5-1.5 in our favour again shows the fine margins that decide matches, and puts the F team on 15pts alongside our E team, having played 12 matches.

Wednesday’s club night had a number of Internal Championship games taking place. In division 1, the top 3 seeds all won, with Harry Gardiner completing his campaign with 6.5pts from the 10 games, Martin Burns staying in 2nd place with 6/8 and Karl Lockett moving 3rd with 5.5/10. Julian Hawthorne 4.5/7, Carmel Barwick 4/5 and Lukasz Michalek 4/6 are all in contention to win the trophy, while the other five players are all in relegation scrap that mirror images the current Premier League dogfight.

In division 2, George Bulbeck and Doug Barnett added wins to their tally to get them closer to leader Andrew Crosby. Andrew leads the way with 7/12, while George has 6/8 and Doug has 6/9. James Marshall has the leaders in his sights with 4.5/7 but did not have a game, while the other winner this week was George Jelliss.

In division 3 runaway leader Phil Grocott who has 6/7 now, was held to a draw by Mark Randell who retains his 50% score with 2.5 pts.

Next week (19th) sees the potential league decider between Crewe A and B, as the club looks to win its first ever NSDCA 1st division title, but with two other teams from Fenton and Holmes Chapel in contention nothing can be certain.

Wed 5th April – Crewe hosted two matches involving title chasers for the NSDCA Division 1 and 2 trophies.

Starting with the Division 1 competition, Crewe B played Cheddleton A with both teams in pursuit of the league title as outsiders behind Crewe A, while Fenton A and Holmes Chapel have games in hand. Only a win for either team would keep title ambitions intact, as our B team were strengthened by the availabilty of Lee Farrington playing on top board but hampered by the last minute withdrawal of Rick Renegade due to illness, meaning George Bulbeck was making his 1st division debut on board 4. For the visitors Cheddleton they were seriously effected by their top two players both under age 21 being unable to play due to exam commitments, therefore giving Crewe B the unusual position of being higher rated than their opponents by approx 200 pts, unlike the first clash between these teams where Cheddleton were 600 pts higher than us.

There was an early grandmaster draw on board 1, where Lee held the higher rated Simon Edwards to a quick draw as both players were content to conclude matters. This gave our Bees the start they wanted as the remaining boards would have expected to give us the edge. On board 4 George Bulbeck won an early pawn in a strong position and went on to sacrifice an exchange to open up his opponents defences further. Despite being low on time George played accurately to notch up an important win for us. On board 3 David Hulme had survived an early positional mess, to gain a pawn and create a massive central pawn mass. After an exchange of major pieces he was able to leave an endgame with opposite colour bishops but pawn advanatges on both sides of the board that would ultimately divert the bishop away from one of the queening options, as his opponent ran out of time. On the remaining board Simon Layhe had faced a tough game before emerging successfully as the victor, to conclude a big win for the Bees by 3.5-0.5.

The Bees now have 13 pts (from 11 games) and are joint top of the league with our “A” team who have a game in hand, although we now have the mouth watering possibility of either team winning the league, as these two go head to head in their next match. Cheddleton now cannot catch the leaders, so it is a four-horse race to the line, with Fenton and Holmes Chapel both on 10 pts from 9 games who have to play each other yet, as well as Fenton having to play Crewe “A”.

In the division 2 match, our C team were too strong for Fenton B who fielded a very young team, including one junior making his league debut on board 4, where Richard Fish got the score board rolling with our first win. Neville Layhe on board 3 got the better of another rapidly improving junior to give us a 2-0 lead before Chris Hankey won the battle of the captains on board 1 for the visitors. It was left to the “in-form” Carmel Barwick to bring home the bacon, but she was pushed to the limit by the 3rd of Fenton’s young trio, as the game hit the 3-hour mark before defences were breached, and victory was sucured by the score of 3-1.

This win moved our C team joint top of Division 2 on 11 pts, but like our B team have played one more game than their immediate challenger (Newcastle), and have the prospect of playing each other in the C team’s final match. However the title favourites must be Stafford who have 8 pts from 7 matches, who have two matches to play against Cheddleton B, and one against our D team who are mathematically still in contention with 8 pts, and would need to win both reamining matches and to see the two leaders draw with each other, and then Newcastle lose their other match also against Cheddleton B.

There were just 3 Club championship games played on Wednesday with Julian Bulbeck picking up a win to take him clear (with 4/8) of the relegation squabble in division 2, while Steve Ballantyne concluded his campaign with a draw against James Marshall. James is now in 4th position on 4.5/7, with George Bulbeck (5/7), Doug Barnett (5/8) and Andrew Crosby (7/12) all in sight at the summit. Steve’s tally of 3.5 pts should seem him avoid any relegation issue.

In div 3 of the Club championship Vicky Kelsall moved into 2nd position on 3.5 pts, but trails the runaway leader Phil Grocott by 2 pts having played two more games.

Mon 3rd April – Our Perry Cup (U1375) team went to play Meir in the final of the KO competition in pursuit of the trophy donated by Bob Perry to the NSDCA some years ago, who was in the Meir team trying to ensure the trophy stayed on home soil. Our team was dealt the unwelcome hand of a cry-off during the day, but thanks to Matthew Dean for stepping in at the last minute we were able to field a full team without defaulting a board !

The first game to finish was on board 1 in the unusual situation of a “3-fold-repitition” leading to an early draw. Our player Steve Ballantyne was unsure of this rule, so asked for rule guidance from our captain Dave Price who assured both players this was a draw, with Steve having an advantage his opponent was forced to repeat moves that pushed Steve into a forced reply. So even-stevens for now.

On board 2, Mike Keenan produced the key victory, to underline his consistent improvement over the last 15 months which has seen his rating move from 1208 to 1336, with victory against one of Meir’s very experienced quartet. The match was decided shortly after when Phil Grocott was offered a draw on board 3, to put us 2-1 in the lead. We knew that even if we lost on board 4, the trophy would be taken from Meir by virtue of board count, where the win on board 2 gets more value than a win on board 4. Matthew Dean played a long game with Bob Perry and even when short of time sportingly reminded Bob on more than one occasion to press his clock, as Bob used all his vast experience to level the scores at 2-2.

It was an exciting journey home for our players, buoyed by the success of winning the Perry trophy from the hands of its proud donor.

Monday 27 March – The F team played away at Fenton in the 3rd division, with both teams within 64 total rating points of each other – so an absolute negligible difference. Pawel Stanny with black on board 2, got us off to a good start, as a sharp queen-side attack opened up the castled position and forced a mating attack giving us a 1-0 lead. On board 4, George Jelliss was a piece up but running very short of time. With several ways of skinning the cat available, George decided to go the long way round the houses before an overwhelming attack with two rooks chased the King into submission and 2-0 to us. Steve Ballantyne seemed to be in the ascendancy with an early exchange gain. Slowly but surely his opponent wriggled and turned the tables picking up a minor piece, and had two strong bishops in an open position with a rook, against Steve’s two rooks. Unfortunately Steve’s rooks got cramped for space as one exchange fell, before the last rook was pinned against his King by the other bishop. Faced with all this, resignation was the only choice as Steve kicked himself around the bar, with the match now 2-1. On board 1, Andrew Crosby was enjoying an attacking game but allowed his opponent to set up a strong two pawn centre. Andrew went on a queen rampage picking up a couple of pawns, while his opponent calmly advanced the central pawns to create an unstoppable monster, as the King walked down the board to join the pawns and queen. Andrew could not stop the advancing monsters as a 2nd queen arrived and forced the win. A final score of 2-2, was a fair reflection in a match of high quality.

Wed 29 Mar – our E team hosted Cheddleton C in the 3rd division with ambitions of closing the gap on top of the table Alsager B. Doug Barnett had a comfortable win on board 3, before Phil Grocott agreed a draw on board 4. As usual James Marshall was down to below 5 minutes on the clock and was grateful to agree a draw on board 2, which guaranteed the team could not lose. Dave Price on board 1, was a pawn up when offered the draw, but decided to play on looking for a full point. His decision was ultimately vindicated, as he slowly pushed his connected pass pawns to success and give a final score of 3-1. This result takes the Es to 15 pts from 10 matches, just one point behind the league leaders with a game in hand. Next up is the potential decider when the E team travel to Alsager on 11th April.

Fri 31 Mar – Nigel Gardner’s much changed D team went to play Cheddleton B in division 2, with the Ds looking to close the gap from 3rd place to the leaders. A look at the team sheets showed the match would be nip and tuck, with team ratings within 70 pts of each other and both teams deploying regular Division 1 players on their top boards. The results did not go in our favour as Chedd chalked up their first win of the season by the narrow score of 2.5-1.5. Losses on the top two boards were too much despite the best efforts of captain Nigel who drew on board 3, and George Bulbeck winning on board 4 to take his unbeaten run to 11 league and cup games. With just two matches remaining for the D team it is unlikely they can now catch the leaders Newcastle who are 3 pts ahead.

Club Championships were eagerly contested on Wednesday (29th) with 9 games taking place plus a further rated game with two members in separate divisions.

In division 1, Carmel Barwick extended her 100% record to make it 4/4 as she demolished the Tournament Officer (David Hulme) to leave him in a relegation battle on 2/6. David Lambton’s win against trophy chasing Julian Hawthorne (4.5/6), put him also on 2/6. Lukasz Michalek’s win took him to 4/6, to leave Karl Lockett on 4.5/9. Richard Fish’s hard earned draw against leader Harry Gardiner (5.5/9) means he is the 3rd player on 2/6. The chase for the trophy looks wide open with Martin Burns slight favourite now on 5/7, with his game against Carmel probably being pivotal. With just 9 weeks to go to the 31st May deadline, the key will be whether all games can be completed alongside league and cup fixtures.

In division 2, Andrew Crosby won the top of the table clash with George Bulbeck to conclude his campaign with 7pts from 12 games, while Goerge is on 5pts with 5 games still to play if he can fit them in. There were wins for Kobus Nienaber (4/7), Oskar Jarzynski (3.5/7) and Julian Bulbeck (3/7) to ease relegation fears.

In division 3 Vicky Kelsall added a half point to her tally to move into joint second place on 2.5/7, while Mark Randell moved to 2/4. Leader Phil Grocott has quite a cushion with 5.5/6.

Wed 15th March: Another busy night at The Mals Club witnessed two matches, Club Championship Drama, and even more potential new members.

Starting with the NSDCA Cup competition, our U1825 team hosted local team Alsager over 5 boards, and were firm favourites when the team sheets revealed an advantage of over rating 600 pts which sounds much grander than it really is. First past the winning post was Neville Layhe on board 5 as he carved open his opponent’s defences using his vast experience against a relative newcomer.

The match swung decisively in our favour when David Lambton found the way to win a tricky endgame, by picking up an isolated “a” pawn with an active King and having enough time to stop a passed “E” pawn. David’s own “A” pawn set up a diversion for white’s King. This allowed David to break the support for the E pawn to stay one pawn ahead and ultimately chaperone home one of the remaining pawns. At 2-0, skipper David Hulme became aware that a draw on board 2 would be more than enough to secure the match on board count, so was happy to agree a draw by 3-fold repitition after being on the back foot for much of the game. Next to finish was Crewe’s form player Carmel Barwick who was held to a draw by opposing captain Andrew Barker on board 3, with this ending Carmel’s 100% winning streak after 9 wins in a row in league and club tournament games. The last game to finish saw Martin Frisher playing just his 4th game of the season. Earlier viewing witnessed Martin with an exchange advantage, but by the time other games had finished the table had been turned so that he was the exchange down in an endgame with a Bishop and 3 pawns against a Rook and two. Martin then snared another pawn with his active King and was pushing for victory until Lukas Hancock recovered one pawn with his own King and then had to sacrifice his Rook to stop the sole pawn on the 7th from queening. All in all, a very satisfying result to progress to the Major Cup Final as the club made sure we have a team in all four NSDCA Cup Finals.

Alongside the cup match, our F team had a division 3 encounter with Kidsgrove with teams within one point of each other in 3rd and 4th position respectively. The visitors delivered an early blow with Mo Farah winning on board 3 after accepting an early pawn gambit, and then adding another and playing solidly to convert to a comfortable win. Tom Smith on board 2 levelled matters for us, and George Jelliss agreed a draw on board 4 to leave the match in the balance. On board 1 for us, George Bulbeck seems to thrive when his clock is near to the virtual flag and enjoying the sense of drama found his way to overcome what appeared to be a difficult defensive position and edge his way to victory for both himself and the team, securing a narrow 2.5-1.5 win. George boasts a 5/5 record for the F team and is now unbeaten in 15 games since his last reverse on 5th October. This result takes the F team to the dizzy heights of 2nd in the table – far ahead of our wildest dreams for a team that’s main function is to provide opportunities and so far has used 16 different members !

Turning now to the Club Championship, there was a shock in Div 1 as Julian Hawthorne beat the defending club champion and number 2 seed, to take his score to a perfect 4/4 in pursuit of the trophy. Jules is now just one point behind the joint leaders with 3 or 4 games in hand, and has the destiny of the event in his own hands. Meanwhile Karl Lockett consolidated his 3rd position with a win to move onto 4.5/8.

In division 2 of the Club Championship, Andrew Crosby put a dent in Doug Barnett’s title aspirations with a win that takes Andrew into the joint lead on 5pts. However Andrew has now played 10 games, compared to Doug’s 8, while favourite George Bulbeck has played 6 of the maximum 12 possible.

On top of all this drama, there was plenty of social and friendly chess taking place as another couple of newbies arrived and seemed to enjoy the club atmosphere, as a hand full of members moved down to the bar to discuss games so not to disturb the matches in progress.

Next week sees a full schedule with five (A to E) of our league teams all playing and in possible contention for league trophies, although all must be underdogs with other teams in the driving seat in all three divisions. As Alex Ferguson was fond of saying, it’s getting close to “squeaky bum time” !

Wed 8th March: The NSDCA’s top two teams (from Crewe) hosted the division one’s bottom two teams, as leaders Crewe A played Alsager and Crewe B faced Macclesfield. The playing room was packed yet again with over 40 players involved in a mix of league matches, club championship and friendly games, not to mention several parents and a visiting (non-playing) captain.

Crewe “A” went into the match as slight favourites, but Alsager were not fazed by the challenge ahead. With Jonathan Blackburn rated nearly 2300 and having the white pieces, it was expected he would ensure Alsager a full point on top board and he did not disappoint. This effectively meant our “A” team needed to collect 2.5pts from the remaining 3 boards to extend their lead at the top of the league table. Our A team’s record is built on strength in depth as there is little difference between all four players in terms of ratings. As usual our big-hitters Harry Gardiner and Karl Lockett provided the wins, but we did not get anything from the board 2 game as John Booth won for the visitors to leave the match drawn at 2-2.

Meanwhile Crewe B have been performing above expectations as the lowest rated team in division one by some way. Starting the match in second place just one point behind our brothers, the Bees were dealt a cruel blow as top board Simon Layhe succummed to a cold/flu leading to a last minute change of line up. On board 4 Jarek Czyz was playing only his 2nd match of the season and after gaining an early pawn held onto the advantage ultimately queening a pawn and putting us in the lead. Visitors Macclesfield have recovered after a shaky start and are currently the form team in the division, and took the lead following wins on board 3 by Phil Cattermole, and on board 1 for John Ewens who got the better of a Ruy-Lopez to strangle the life out of David Hulme’s position. On board 2, Rick Renegade produced the necessary magic to pressurise his opponent into a mistake late on, with a match-saving knight fork of King & Queen as the score levelled out to 2-2 with all games being won by the white pieces.

These results still leave Crewe “A” at the top of the table with 11 pts from 9 matches, and Crewe “B” in second place with 10 pts. However the chasing pack will all believe they can win the title now, as Cheddleton “A” have 9 pts from 8 matches, Fenton “A” have 8 from 7 and Holmes Chapel have 8 from 8. With all contenders likely to drop points from here, any one of these five teams could easily win the league trophy.

In club news, we continue to grow as our membership increased to 52, with many of our recent additions being much younger than the average player. Alongside the two league matches, there was one game played in the Division 1 Club Championship, with Carmel Barwick continuing her excellent run with her 13th win from 14 games since October, and maintaining her 100% record in the Club championship as she joined Julian Hawthorne on 3/3 in pursuit of joint leaders Harry Gardiner and Martin Burns (each on 5/7).

In division 2 of the Club championship, there were wins for Tom Smith and Doug Barnett, with draws between Andrew Crosby and Jakub Grabowski as well as James Marshall and George Jelliss. Doug’s win takes him into the joint lead with 5/7, while George Bulbeck has 5/6. James is the nearest contender with 4/6 while Andrew has the same score having played 3 more games than James.

The matches scheduled for D & E teams at Cheddleton tomorrow (Friday 10th) have been postponed due to the weather.

Next week we have two more matches at home, with our U1825 cup team in action against Alsager and our F team playing Kidsgrove.

Wed 1st March: The club reached a milestone of achieving its’ 50th current member at the Annual Swiss Rapidplay rounds 5 & 6, as four players were added to the competition and all under age 21 – boding well for the future.

Club chairman Dave Price was extremely proud as he encouraged the latest newcomers to join in the Rapidplay, as Events officer (David Hulme) tussled with the complications of adding the new players while dealing with a late bye request and a last minute non-appearance of one of the members. The Rapidplay now has 44 competitiors, even with a number of others who are unable to commit to the event or simply prefer to avoid Rapidplay.

As usual it was a chaotic start to the night, waiting for all players to arrive before play could commence, and then having to revise some pairings. As everyone sat down for Round 5, we had a new record attendance of 38 members, as our stock of chess clocks was pushed to the limit, with the playing room full of the buzz of excited anticipation in a set up superbly provided by our committed young steward Harry Gardiner. (I don’t think many appreciate what a job Harry does in setting up the club each week ready for everyone to come along and simply start playing with tables, chairs, boards, sets and clocks all in position).

As we commenced round 5 a few minutes later than planned, we had one player on 4/4 – first team captain and 2nd seed Martin Burns, with a one point lead over a gaggle of 6 players including No.1 seed Bart Fajfer, defending champion Jarek Czyz seeded 4th, Doug Barnett, Karl Lockett, Rick (the grenade) Renegade and Carmel Barwick. From this batch of players half were succesful in round 5 with wins for Martin, Jarek, Carmel and Rick, meaning Martin was now 5/5 with these three a single point behind. A further four players moved onto 3.5 pts being Dave Price, Harry, David Lambton and Adam Fields seeded at No. 32 punching well above his weight. Of the newcomers there were wins for Kruspin Kapusta and Antrea Bileros, with all of the newcomers given four half-point byes to join in the competition on the mid-score.

Round 6 saw the defending champion Jarek paired with leader Martin, and he stopped the leader in his tracks finding a mating attack after Martin missed a chance to secure a draw, and throw the competition wide open to share the lead on 5pts. Also moving into the joint lead is Carmel Barwick who managed to detonate Rick (the grenade) safely to also move onto 5 pts. David Lambton and Harry Gardiner hauled themselves into joint second place as they both finished the night on 4.5pts after back to back wins. We have five players still in contention for the trophy on 4pts – these are the previously mentioned Bart, Karl, Doug and Rick now joined by our outstanding 10 year old – Oskar Jarzynski – seeded at No 31.

With all 44 players on the scoreboard, it is hoped the final night will be another resounding success for the club, when it can be arranged. This is likely to be in May before we have a Wednesday night free of matches.

Finally I would like to say thank you to all of our members for participating in this event in such a sporting and friendly manner, as we apply some of our own club rules; and also to Marek Jarzynski for keeping track of all the scores to allow me to play and for taking pictures of the event. (to be added shortly)

Full scores can be seen using the link below

Internal Comps

Written by David Hulme – Events officer

Monday 27th Feb: Crewe travelled to Fenton to play in the semi-final of the Open knockout, for the right to play Alsager in the final.

The match was contested over 6 boards, with Crewe having an approx 300 pts advanatge in total ratings, which in reality is a very small difference of about 7 pts per board based on the old 3 digit system, mainly due to the absence of Fenton’s 2nd highest rated player – so all things considered – a pretty even contest.

Fenton struck the first blow against the grain, with a win on board 5 from their acting captain Ray Hyde in the absence of the ubiquitous Steve Emmerton. In John Motson commentary it was 1-0 to the home team. Fortunately it did not take too long to hit the equaliser as Karl Lockett proved too strong on board 6 enjoying the biggest rating advantage of 230 pts. Visiting captain Martin Burns deployed on board 4 found a sweet skewer to emerge victorious and put Crewe 2-1 in the lead. Then around 9pm a little pandemonium broke out as Fenton’s Petru Floresc (on board 2) had his mobile phone loudly ringing out of his pocket. When he eventually located the phone a discussion took place between captains to agree that a warning was the rule in place, but before returning to the board his phone was set off for a second occasion meaning automatic loss under the rules. However Simon Layhe did not want to claim a default and sportingly agreed with all parties that the game could continue, adding to the tension of a close match.

As the match moved towards 10pm, Crewe had gained the upper hands on boards 2 and 3, while Fenton appeared to be in better shape on the top board. Simon by this time was two pawns ahead but faced with very active opposition pieces, found his way to sac one exchange before swapping all the remaining pieces to leave himself with an unstoppable choice of pass-pawn (either a or g), while his King arrived just in time to stop Petru’s central connected pass-pawns and give Crewe a 3-1 lead.

As we moved past 10pm, Lee Farrington had gained massive control with a Bishop on h6, with Queen and Rook controlling the open e-file, while Fenton’s castled King (on the kingside) was looking very vulnerable to mating attacks on g7 and e8. There was no counter play available as Lee assumed dominance and forced resignation to make it 4-1. The writer was now thinking about the late John Motson and his commentary of Germany 1 England 5, and thinking “this is getting better and better and better” and so it transpired with Bart Fajfer turning the tables on board 1 to make it an unexpected and resounding 5-1 to the visitors, just like England all those years ago coming back from 1-0 down !!

Crewe have been drawn at home in the final against Alsager, and will play in their first ever Open KO final. The winners will be breaking the domination of Cheddleton and Stafford who have held the trophy between them over the last decade !

It’s been a very busy week for Crewe Chess Club with 5 teams in action playing on four different nights.

Mon 20th Feb: Our A team travelled to Macclesfield in high spirts, sitting at the top of the League Table to face a home team who had not won a match in 7 attempts and occupied bottom spot in the table. Well the tables were well and truly turned as Macclesfield upset the form books with a stunning win, as the league leaders left almost empty handed, only spared a whitewash by Harry Gardiner’s draw on board 2. The smiles could be felt coming from all the challengers as Fenton and Cheddleton had title aspirations put back in their own hands.

Wed 22nd Feb: Two matches at The Mals as Crewe C hosted Cheddleton B in division 2 and our U1375 played in the semi-final of the Perry Cup against Fenton. Looking first at the Div 2 match, the visitors got off to a flying start as their captain Caroline Mountford had early success on board 3. Fortunately the rest of the C team were all on form as David Lambton (board 1), Neville Layhe (board 4) and Carmel Barwick completed the fight back with a 3-1 win, with Carmel currently in a hot streak of form with 10 wins and a draw since her last loss over 4 months ago (at the Crewe Congress). The C team remain on the tails of league leaders Newcastle.

The Perry Cup had a strange feeling to it, as Fenton only arrived with 3 players with a default on board 2 which would cost them dearly. The visitors won on boards 3 and 4 to take a 2-1 lead, but George Jelliss on board 1 ensured Crewe got to the final as he held his nerve to avoid any tricks and traps and gain the crucial win that levelled the score at 2-2. Thanks to the tie break rule of “board count” Crewe progress to the final, but had Fenton chosen to default on board 4, the same results would have seen Fenton go through to the final on “bottom board elimination” as the board count tie-break would have been equal.

Besides these two matches, there was a full program of Club Championship games in Division 2 as 10 of our members slogged it out, and another 4 members played in Div 1.

In division 2, George Bulbeck went to the top of the chart after winning the clash between the top two players, while Doug Barnett, Andrew Crosby and Oskar Jarzynski added a full point to their tally, and Mike Keenan drew with Jakub Grabowski. It is noted that George B is now unbeaten in 14 games since the Crewe Congress.

In div 1, Karl Lockett put a dent in defending champion Harry Gardiner’s record with a win that leaves Harry on an identical score to Martin Burns with 5/7, as both players have 3 games remaining. In the only other game Richard Fish overcame chairman Dave Price to move onto 1.5 pts and leave Dave routed in the relegation slot with just half a point so far – although both still have 6 games to play.

Thurs 23rd Feb: The B team went to Holmes Chapel in similar spirit to the “A” team, sitting in 2nd place in the league table. However it was evident on arrival that the Bees would be in for a tough time as Holmes Chapel fielded their strongest team of the season with all 3 of their top players involved for the first time. It was no surprise when all top 3 boards went their way, with only Carmel on the scorecard for the battered Bees with another comfortable win to extend her current run.

Fri 24th Feb: The E team travelled to Chedd on Friday evening for a division 3 match against their C team. Wins from Andrew Crosby (board 2) and Phil Grocott (board 4) were enough to get a share of the spoils. This draw leaves the E team in 2nd spot in the table, 2 pts behind Alsager B.

Looking ahead to next week, on Monday our Open Cup KO team travel to highly rated Fenton, and on Wednesday we have Rounds 5 and 6 of our Swiss Rapidplay Event.