Author: David Hulme

It’s been a very odd week on the League scene. Firstly our B team were handed an unwanted default win as Fenton “A” were unable to raise a team for our last match of the season. On Tuesday our Intermediate Cup team (U1600) made the short trip to Alsager. We got knocked out in this semi-final by the score of 2-3 as we failed to register with the black pieces, and scored 2/3 with white. Our sole success came from captain Nigel Gardner on board 3, with draws on Bds 1 & 3 from Joe Moxon and James Marshall.

On Wednesday the C team played at Newcastle. After notching up 3 wins and a draw we were later penalised for (accidentally) breaching the 100 pts rule and suffering a 2 pts deduction to leave the match shared at 1.5 pts each. There were wins by Gee Cross (bd 1), Karl Lockett (Bd 3) and Julian Hawthorne (bd 4); while Andy Raeburn was held to a draw.

Moving back to Tuesday there was another superb club night with 14 internal games taking place. In Div 1 of the club championship Harry Gardiner took a giant step towards becoming champion with another win to take his score to 8.5/9. There were further wins by Carmel Barwick, David Hulme and David Lambton who all appear to be safe from relegation. It will be a dog fight against relegation for approx half of the competitors as everything is very tight near the bottom of the table.

In Div 2 there were three games which all ended in draws. The top of the table shows Richard Fish, James Coney and Oskar Jarzynski all on 5.5 pts. Doug Barnett and Dave Price sit on their tails with 5pts each with advantage to the chairman (Dave) who has 4 games to play including a potential decider against James C who has 3 games to play, while the other contenders only have one game left each.

In division 3, leader Jamie Roberts had a topsy-turvy tussle before emerging with another win to stay in the clear lead with 8.5pts. Pete Kanalos moved up to second place with a beautiful double check (mate) to take his score to 5pts. Mike Keenan is 3rd with 4pts but has played 5 games less than Jamie, so could catch up if he can play (and win) all his remaining games.

On top of all this there were 8 players engaged in separate rated games as they were unable to play in the Club championship due to a mix of joining the club late in the season or having no available game in the Club Championship. At this rate it is likely we will need to start a new 4th division in these events next season to accommodate the ever increasing number of club members.

The air hangs heavy like a dulling wine; get your Smiths’ tapes out. 

Read on; it will make thy two eyes, like stars start from their spheres.

2 matches to report on lately.

Macclesfield came to St Mary’s recently, and this time we had one of our stronger line-ups waiting to pounce.

Bart has not played many games this year, his affection for his homeland, and his dedication to his job, means he has missed a few matches. But when Bart plays he is a joy to watch; he seemed to be controlling the game in his slippers, as the footy pundits say, and won a nice game. Harry got a solid draw on bottom board. I huffed and puffed, and struggled to get any edge; but then my opponent crumbled in time pressure in the end game. To the untrained eye (both of mine), Richard seemed to be in trouble on top board; his opponent seemed to have a strong attack against an exposed king. After the game Richard, cool as you like, assured me that all was under control, and given that he handed us another point I could not argue. Match won 3.5/0.5.

This meant that, if we won our last 2 matches, then Crewe “A” would be champs again.

Our next hurdle was Holmes Chapel.  My opponent, Mr Bennett, had caught me by surprise on move 2, with a move I had never seen before.  I mean I know I am rubbish at openings, but come on.  Anyway I defended for the rest of the game and got to a drawn rook ending with relief.  I thought Harry was losing at one point, but was pleasantly surprised when he got a draw. Andrew was suffering from germs, and fell to his first “A” team loss of the season. Kamil, of course, won on board 1; reports were that he was in great form.

So, a draw pulled us level with Alsager. Alsager had one game left, against Macclesfield. We had one game left, against Fenton. We were half a point ahead in game points scored, and so I assumed we were still in with a chance. I mean, all we had to do was match Alsager’s score in our last match and we would win the league. All good.

Earlier today I had heard that my car has sailed through it’s MOT at the first attempt; without hesitation. The sun was shining. Then I got a phone call from the club secretary which darkened my mood. He informed me, and I could hear the pain in his voice, that the league’s first tie break was not, as I had imagined, game points, but was, in fact, matches won. Even if we won our last match 4-0, it would be no use if Alsager won.

Even worse news was to follow; Fenton have announced that, due to some unfortunate issues, they will default all their remaining games this season.

So it’s over. That’s it. Suddenly. Sniff.

I would like to thank Karl, Harry, Richard, Bart, Kamil and Andy for playing, and I hope they enjoyed the season as much as I did. Bring on next year.

Now for a bit more Smiths.

There were just two matches played this week, as the 3rd one scheduled was postponed with Stafford’s team stuck on their way to play our “D” team.

The “A” team were the headliners this week as they continued their pursuit of the NSDCA League Div 1 as defending champions, where they faced strugglers Macclesfield. Bolstered by the return of our top two players – Richard Lee and Bart Fajfer we were overwhelming favourites. The team did not disappoint as the top two won together with skipper Martin Burns on board 3. Harry Gardiner drew on board 4 to give a comfortable win 3.5-0.5. This result took the “A” team within one point of leaders Alsager A, with a game in hand for us to keep the favourites tag with just two matches remaining.

In div 4, the champions-elect (our G team) won again with a 3.5-0.5 score vs Meir. Although the score looks comfortable the Meir team always put up a good fight. Captain Steve Ballantyne’s summary was:

Malcolm was first to finish on board 4 with a good solid win. My game finished next and I was so disappointed with the perpeptual check as I had a won game. Jamie finished next on board 2 with another polished performance. Pav won with 16 seconds left on his clock, it was a fantastic game to watch with both players threatening check mate.

The G team currently have the best record in the league with Pld 13, Won 10, drawn 3.

Two matches to report on this week.

Monday 4th March our H team went to play Meir in div 4 and took a further 3 members to play extra rated games. The league match over 4 boards ended in a 2-2 draw with our points coming from Kobus Nienaber with a very nice attack sacrificing a pawn to open up the position and earn a superb win against a previously unbeaten board 1. Mark Randell gained another full point on board 4 to make sure we shared the points. The extra boards saw us win 2 of the 3 games. Josh Cross became our 50th member to play in the NSDCA this season as he was first to win with a wind-mill attack involving multiple knight forks. Finn Charbonneau was our other victor. Meir were very pleased that we were able to bring 7 players, plus two more in support.

On Tuesday our B team were up against Homles Chapel “A” in league division 1. With both teams missing their strongest players teams were almost equally rated (7288 to 7274). Captain David Hulme took advantage of a strong pawn centre to attack the king-side castled position to put us 1-0 up around the two hour mark. Next to finish after unleashing a well coordinated long range attack was our latest debutante – Gintare (Gee) Cross to make it 2-0 with a win on board 3. The icing on the cake came on boards 1 and 2 where both our players were outrated. Firstly Simon Layhe created a superior endgame by promoting a pawn all the way to g8 to force the opposition King away from the centre of the board, allowing his own King to mop up and leave pass-pawns on both sides forcing resignation and getting us over the winning line. Last to finish was Carmel Barwick on board 1, who was doing a good Houdini impression to escape from what looked a doomed position to emerge with a strong exchange gain and complete a 4-0 whitewash. This is the first time our Bees have ever stung a 4-0 win in the league’s top flight ! The result takes us to 13 pts from 10 matches and 2nd in the table to keep our very feint hopes of possibly winning the league – with our “A” team as favourites on the same match points but with a game in hand. The Bees continue to out perform any reasonable expectation as they manage to keep flying high and buzzing around.

Tuesday night also saw another packed schedule of internal games in the Club Championship. Harry Gardiner marches towards the title of Club Champion as he beat the nearest contender David Lambton to move into a big lead with 7.5/8 and in doing so ended David’s impressive run of 19 games without defeat including 8 back to back wins since 1st December !

Div 2 of the club championship is brewing up nicely with just one point separating the top 5 players. Richard Fish leads with 5.5/8, ahead of Doug Barnett (5/9), Oskar Jarzynski (5/8), Dave Price (4.5./5) and James Coney (4.5/6).

In division 3 Jamie Roberts (7.5/9) has a 3.5 lead over Mike Keenan, but Mike has 5 games in hand, so it will be a question of whether Mike can catch up.

Thanks to captain Martin Burns for the following report:

It was a busy Febraury for the “A” team, and the pressure of being at the top of the league proved tough.

 First, Cheddleton came to St Mary’s. Harry’s great form meant he was now on top board, but he soon went down to Simon Edwards. Martin was battered by the experienced Ray Evans. New kid on the block Kamil Zak got a convincing win on board 3.  Crewe Chess Club keeps growing and it was great to have a strong new player to bring in; Kamil will, I hope, be a regular. Karl played well on bottom board to level the match, 2-2.

The next match was away to Cheddleton. We had the usual fun drive down dark country tracks, and we got there just in time. One day I will work out the best route. On arrival we saw that Cheddleton had a weaker team than usual, and we settled down with hope in our hearts. Martin was first to win, with a cheap trap that won a piece. He left the playing area for 10 mins to go over his game, and returned to see that Kamil was all over his opponent’s king like a bad rash, and we were soon 2-0 up. Harry lost on board 1, so that left Karl. The team needed just a draw, but in a great position it was understandable that Karl wanted to push his advantage. Then tragedy struck; he blundered a rook in the blitz finish, so the match was drawn 2-2.

At this point we were still top of the league, and were the only unbeaten team. A big problem was looming though: our next a match was at the Alsager Cricket Club. Alsager (Chess Club) fielded a very strong team. Martin drew with John Booth on board 3. Andy couldn’t get much fun out of Jon Blackburn and soon after agreed a draw on board 4. This meant that the top 2 boards had to get us some points. On top board, Harry started well against Jonathan Blackburn (top rated player in the league), but as the game got more and more tactical, the FM found the route to a win. Kamil’s chances of winning were slim, he was hanging on, a pawn down. against another strong player in Simon Hood. As time was running out Simon agreed a draw, meaning Alsager won the match.  As we drove home Harry had to been restrained, he was suffering a severe case of what-might-have-been-itis.  These FMs are hard to beat though, and Harry can hold his head up high.

With this result Alsager jumped over us to take the lead in the title race, though we do have a game in hand.

Bart, one of our aces up the sleeve, will be back for our next game against Macclesfield.  can we turn things around?  can we get back on top ahead of the mighty Alsager? watch this space.

After a fantastic club night on Tuesday (27th), it emerged that our G team had secured the NSDCA div 4 title, as the nearest rivals (Fenton D) got beaten to leave the Gallant Gees with an uncatchable 7 points lead at the top of the table. The team has been superbly marshalled by captain Steve Ballantyne who has notched up 9.5 pts from 12 games to date. He has selected the most consistent team in the league with himself, Pawel Stanny and Jamie Roberts as ever-presents and the remaining games being shared by Phil Grocott and Malcolm Green (who is so keen he travels from Whitchurch to support the club). Pawel has taken the heat by playing top board all season and scored 6.5pts at 60%, but the star performer has been 12 year old Jamie scoring 10.5pts from 12 matches. Phil and Mal have secured 50% of the points from their games to make sure the team has been undefeated so far this season (one of just two teams out of 30 in the whole league).

Congratulations to Steve and the team !!

Although there were no matches at home last night the playing hall was jam packed with internal tournament games, as 34 members played in a mix of Club championship games (24 players), 2 in long play rated games and 8 in rapidplay rated games. Additionally there were 4 members playing social games and another 4 members playing for the “A” team at Alsager, to make it a club record of 42 members involved on a single night !

The club goes from strength to strength as we finish the month of February with five new members to take our membership numbers over the 70 mark – see the full list under the “Members” tab on the website home page.

Tuesday 13th Feb saw four of our teams in action. Starting with the B team in division 1 – they were beaten 3-1 at home by Alsager “A” who have moved to joint top of the table , although have played 2 more matches than the defending champions (our “A” team). The Bees were outgunned on boards 1 and 2, with Carmel and Martin F gaining draws on the other boards.

The C team also at home faired better in a 2-2 draw with Newcastle. All games were won with the white pieces, as captain Karl Lockett (bd 2) and Neville Layhe (bd 4) did the business for us. The C team have jumped from bottom of the table up to 3rd place, but trail the top two by 5 pts. This division remains the most closely contested with at least 4 teams very much in the title race (Alsager B, Crewe D, Fenton B and Stafford)

Division 4 leaders Crewe G played away vs Alsager D. Thanks to captain Steve Ballantyne for his comments on the match

“Another good win for the G team. 4 very tough games though. Malcolm on board 4 was a rook down early on, his opponent had a check mate but missed it, this was before 8.30pm. The next time I looked at board 4 Malcolm was a knight up in the end game and had a certain win. I offered Neil a draw in a very tight game, after 8 minutes thinking about it he accepted my offer. 5 minutes later Malcolm won. Jamie had a tough game, his opponent had 30 minutes to Jamie’s 5, but Jamie was up 2 pawns and won comfortably in the end. Pav was playing against a 9 year old who Neil rates very highly. The game finished at 10.25 with a close win for Pav. “

The G team need two points from their remaining three matches to secure the division 4 trophy.

The H team were at home against Cheddleton E. This was a very close match that could have gone either way. Unfortunately for us we lost narrowly 1.5-2.5. We started well as Finn Charbonneau won on bd 4, and then Matthew Dean got a draw by 3-fold repitition to put us in a strong position. We went down on board 2 to leave the scores level, and then in a winning position our latest debutant – Mario Scarpa – playing on bd 1, mistakenly picked up a wrong piece causing immediate loss. It was great to see Cheddleton’s team comprising three juniors, while we were able to give Mario his first game for the club and Finn played just his second as we continue to give experience to as many as possible, with 17 different members representing the H team so far this season !

In the Club Championship there were two games played in division 2 with wins for Doug Barnett and Dave Price, on a night where we had quite a few spectators watching the three matches in the main hall and approx 18 other members in the smaller room. Josh Cross also rejoined the club after a break of approx 4 years to take our current membership up to 65 members !

The busy schedule continued after 19 matches last month, we have 15 more lined up for February.

The E team kicked off the month on Friday 2nd, with a division 3 match away to Cheddleton D. Captain Nigel’s masterful planning ensured we fielded a full team despite many of the regular squad being unavailable. We still outrated the opposition by approx 250pts, compared to a 600+ advantage in the home game. Joe Moxon clocked up our only win on board 2, with the skipper drawing on board 3, and Pawel Stanny promoted into the team also drawing on board 4. Final score 2-2 leaves the E team midtable.

On Tuesday 6th, we had 3 teams in action (A,C&F) all at The Caritas Centre. The 1st division match saw the “A” team as league leaders take on Cheddleton “A” without our two highest rated players. Despite this we still managed to outrate the visitors slightly – manly on the lower boards. Giving up over 100 rating pts on each of the top two boards proved too much for us. However we were able to secure a comfortable draw as Karl Lockett forced home his advantage late on to conclude the match 2-2. The highlight for us came on board 3, where our new member Kamil Zak made his debut (becoming our 47th league player this season) and won in quick time to put us 1-0 up. The “A” team remain top of the league, unbeaten with 12 pts from 7 matches.

In division 3 our C team played Holmes Chapel B. With captain Karl Lockett required in the “A” team, the team needed cover. The early skirmishes ended in draws for both of our black games for Andrew Raeburn (bd 1) and Julian Hawthorne (bd 3). We managed to gain the upper hand in both white games as Neville Layhe won on bd 2, and Dave Price did likewise to finish the match with a flourish 3-1 for us.

Our F team faced a stronger than expected Cheddleton C team in division 3, and were without captain Dave Price who was called into duty for our own C team. The visitors had a very experienced team who were too strong for us and inflicted the first loss for the F team this season after an unbeaten run of 8 matches. The two youngest members of the team put up spirited fights as James Coney and Oskar Jarzynski both battled to well earned draws, as the team went down 1-3.

In the club championship division one, David Lambton added a win to his tally to stay in contention, and extended his unbeaten run to 18 games since early September, while his rating has moved from 1747 to 1843 making him the best improver in the club over this period !

In division 3 of the club events, there were wins for Mal Green and Mark Randell who keep themselves in the promotion battle.

A busy week has seen five of our eight league teams in action during the last week of fixtures for 2023.

Monday 11th December – Our G team ended the year as 4th division league leaders following a strong performance against the experienced Meir outfit. Wins from Steve Ballantyne, Malcolm Green, and Jamie Roberts were backed up with a draw from Pawel Stanny on top board to give a final score of 3.5-0.5. The team have amassed 13 pts from 7 matches and have a 5 point lead over 2nd placed Fenton D’s team. Youngster Jamie heads the scoring chart with a perfect 7/7, while skipper Steve has picked up 6 from 7.

Tuesday 12th December – saw two matches at the St Mary’s Centre, as our “A” team hosted Holmes Chapel A in div 1, the D team hosted Newcastle in div 2, and the F team travelled to play Fenton C in div 3.

The A team had a very tough encounter with Holmes Chapel. Harry Gardiner turned round a difficult position on board 4 to put us in the lead, and it was a long time before any other games finished. Slowly but surely the defending champions edged their way to success by the narrow margin of 2.5-1.5 as Martin Burns and Bart Fajfer secured draws, before Richard Lee earned a backs to the wall draw when under attack in the dying embers of increment time. The “A” team are making solid progress in their title defence, as they head the table at Xmas with 9 pts from 5 matches. The most serious challenge is likely to come from Fenton “A” who are 3 pts behind with a game in hand (vs Cheddleton “A” on 16th January) before we travel to Fenton for a typical 6-pointer on 23rd January !

The D team had a resounding win against a slightly higher rated Newcastle team. There were superb wins from captain David Lambton on board 1 and Martin Frisher on board 2, where both players were outrated. Martin secured the 4-0 whitewash after George Bulbeck and Chinenye Basil-Nwachuku completed more straight forward wins. This unexpected result takes the Dees top of the table with 11pts from 7 matches, in a very competitive division. 2nd placed Fenton B are on 9 pts with a game in hand, and as probable favourites are the highest rated team in the division, although Stafford could have the necessary strength to beat everyone have played only 3 matches to date and have a glut of fixtures towards the end of the season.

Crewe F have become the “draw masters” of the NSDCA with a 4th draw in 5 matches at Fenton. Neville Layhe churned out a top notch performance on board 1 to win his game, and captain Dave Price ensured the spoils were shared as he also won with the white pieces. We could not chalk up anything with the black bits so ended up with a fourth consecutive drawn match, which leaves the team in 3rd place unbeaten with 6 pts from 5 matches. Leaders Gables “A” look to be strong favourites for the div 3 title.

Our final league match of 2023, saw our “H” team travel to Kidsgrove for a 4th division match. Thanks to the support of our members we managed to take 9 players to the Red Bull Pub in Kidsgrove much to the delight of our hosts. According to their secretary Julian Cook, this was probably the biggest number of chess players involved in a match at Kidsgrove for approx 30 years. There were some great results for our players as Mark Randell and Kobus Nienaber put us 2-0 in the lead and Julian Hawthorne made his first appearance of the season to secure the match with a 3rd win. Final score 3-1.

Although Kidsgrove edged the “extra games” 3-2, the overall evening was a great success played in a very friendly atmosphere. Our wins came from Matthew Dean and Dave Price, but the real winner was Chess.

A successful week for our teams has seen four wins.

Monday 4th December – The league champions (A team) travelled to Macclesfield in search of revenge from last season’s shock defeat and were in determined mood. All four players contributed to the scoreboard with two wins on the white boards from skipper Martin Burns (bd 1) and Andy Raeburn. Draws with black by Harry Gardiner (bd 2) and Karl Lockett secured the match 3-1, to take the team joint top of the league on 7pts from 4 games, joining our own B team who have played 6 games.

Tuesday 5th – saw our two 4th division teams in action at The Caritas Centre. League leaders – the G team hosted Cheddleton E and our H team hosted Meir. G team skipper Steve Ballantyne set the ball rolling with a win on bd 4, with young Jamie Roberts promoted to board 2 adding another win to keep up his 100% record with 6/6. Pawel Stanny did the necessary to hold out for a draw and ensure the team stay top and unbeaten with a narrow win 2.5-1.5. With nearest rivals Kidsgrove unexpectedly losing, they now have a 4pts lead although Kidsgrove do have a game in hand ahead of the top of the table clash on 2nd January.

The H team fielded a very different team thanks to our system of squad rotation and were underdogs against the experienced Meir team. Matthew Dean played superbly to win on bd 3, and was soon followed by Gerald Parton on bd 4 to make it 2-0. Reinhard Haack added a 3rd win for the team and Mike Keenan held on for a draw to give a decisive team win 3.5-0.5. Also there were two extra rated games played.

Thursday 7th – the D team made the short trip to Holmes Chapel for a 2nd division match against the host’s B team. With teams fairly evenly rated (approx 100pts differential) Captain David Lambton had a sound win on board 1, before George Bulbeck completed a convincing win on bd 3. A fortunate win on bd 2 by David Hulme ensured victory 3-1. This result keeps the D team level on 9 points with leaders Fenton B with a deficit of half a board point after 6 matches.