Author: dih1962

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.

Matthew Dean has been taking part in this prestigious event which started on 15th Feb and concludes today. Seeded at No. 121, he clearly likes a challenge as the field hosted 9 GMs and 6 IMs in the nine round Swiss. As the lowest rated player in the event he has done extremely well to pick up two wins.

Matthew is so quiet at the club, we did not know he was there until Martin Burns was looking through this weekend’s congress action and spotted Matthew’s name among the stunning field of the chess stars.

Use the links below to follow

Matthew Dean

Game 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Monday 13th Feb: The F team travelled to Meir for a division 3 match, played over 5 boards. Thanks to Steve Ballantyne for providing an insight into this match where he reported that Pawel Stanny was first to finish on board 4, after winning a minor piece early, he held on to convert us in to a 1-0 lead. Steve with the white pieces on board 3 employed his favourite London System and had a strong attack that was too much for his opponent to add to our lead. Meir’s wily fox Bob Perry pulled one back on board 5, to leave the Bulbecks in play on the top two boards. George playing board 1 was under familiar time pressure and down to seconds on his clock in a complicated gamed where he had a Queen vs 2 Rooks, but was able to utilise his Q more effectively to win the game and secure the match points. Meanwhile dad Julian had surrendered two bishops to gain an unstoppable attack and finish the match with a flourish for the Fs, with a final score of 4-1.

Wed 15th Feb: The E team hosted Fenton C in another division 3 match with teams’ total ratings within a negligible 67 pts difference. James Marshall led the team from top board and continued his fine form with a well controlled win against a rapidly improving youngster from Fenton. Kobus Nienaber fresh from a tough congress at Blackpool was pushed up the batting order to board 2 and had another fine win. The E team had the luxury of Doug Barnett’s experience on board 3 and there was no shock as Doug made it 3 wins from the top 3 boards. Fenton’s board 4 Philip Smith had recently won the Stockport Rapidplay, so is clearly quite a handful for anyone on bottom board, as he picked up the visitor’s solitary point.

These results leave the E & F teams still 3 pts adrift and in pursuit of league leaders and red hot favourite’s Alsager B for the league division 3 title.

Also on Wednesday our D team had the stiffest of challenges as Stafford came to The Mals with a team rated over 6900 points, giving them an advantage of 650 points over the four boards in this division 2 match. However the D team just love being the underdogs and with captain Nigel Gardner using his knowledge to split his team within the 100 points limits, gave three of his team fighting chances at the expense of our board 2 who bore 50% of the team rating differential. Martin Frisher enjoying one of his occasional match appearances held on for a solid draw on board 1 with the black pieces. Likewise the rapidly improving George Bulbeck gained a further draw (with black on board 3) against a player rated nearly 200 points higher. Thus it was all down to captain Nigel to go “all guns blazing” for a win and salvage an unexpected draw for the Defiant & Dogged Dees, and he didn’t disappoint. This result leaves the D team on 6pts from 6 matches, sitting in 3rd position in the league table, behind leaders Newcastle on 10pts and our own C team on 7pts.

This weekend has seen an evacuation from Crewe, with many of our members making the 80 mile trek to the Seaside, to play in the annual Blackpool Conference. There were well over 300 players involved in the five sections.

We had two entries in the Open section, with Bart Fajfer seeded 32 and Dave Lambton at No 36 out of 44. After a brilliant start from Bart with two wins, he failed to add to his tally, but still ended up with a performance rating (PR) of just under 2100, a long way above his current rating, having played two of the top four players in the Congress. Dave didn’t do so well but was brave to enter the Open section.

In the Major section (U2050) our only entry was Simon Layhe seeded 38th out of 60. After a 1st round win, he added one more to end up in 32nd place with a performance rating matching his current level.

In the Intermediate Section (U1850) we had another single player with Lukasz Michalek testing himself in a higher section than his rating permitted, and was therefore seeded 64th out of 70. After sucess in the 1st round, he added two draws to his score to finish in a very creditable 44th position and a PR over 1700 which is in excess of his current 1630.

We had 3 members in the Minor Section (U1700), with Julian Hawthorne seeded 9th, Dave Price at No 14, and Kobus Nienaber playing in this section at No. 88 testing himself against stronger players. Julian was our best scorer here with 3pts to finish 19th, while Dave’s 2.5pts saw him in 35th with 20 players having scored 3. Kobus did very well to pick up two draws from just 3 games to get a PR of 1486, approx 80 above his entry point.

In the Standard section (U1550) we had 3 more playing, with Andrew Crosby seeded 22nd, Chris Marais 57th and George Jellis 58th out of a field of 89 – the largest section. Chris and George stuck together to finish 72nd and 73rd respectively with a score of 1.5 pts. However our highest scoring player of the weekend was Andrew with a super effort to finish on 4pts, and narrowly miss out on prize money in a shared 5th position, with the outright winner scoring the perfect 5 and three others with 4.5 pts.

Wed 8th Feb: The club had its best ever attendance of its own members on a night when the 1st division’s top three teams were all in action at The Mals Club. League leaders Crewe “A” were playing 5th placed Holmes Chapel while 2nd placed Crewe “B” hosted 3rd placed Fenton “A” who boast the highest rated team in the NSDCA. These matches kicked off the 2nd half of the season, with only 4 pts separating the top 5 teams with the 4th and 5th placed teams having a game in hand, in what is shaping up to be the most competitive league title race the NSDCA has seen in a decade.

In the Crewe “A” match Harry Gardiner was first on the score board with his rating advantage proving too much on board 3, and Karl Lockett’s likewise advantage making it 2-0 for the hosts. These two are leading performers for the top of the table team, as Holmes Chapel fought back with wins by John Turner on board 2 and Mike Hancock on board 1, to finish the match 2-2. This meant the winners of the Crewe B vs Fenton A match could close the gap or go joint top.

The writer had a bird’s eye view of the Crewe B match from board 2 and was delighted to see first blood go in favour of the underdogs, as Lee Farrington was the beneficiary of the last blunder to fluke a mate in two when a piece down, but it must be said he was in the ascendancy before he made the first blunder on board 3. Next to finish was board 4 as Fenton’s man in form Chris Hankey managed to get his nose infront when both players queens were en-prise, as he emerged a peace ahead thanks to gaining a tempo in the wild exchanges to make it 1-1. The Bees captain (David Hulme) outrated by nearly 250 pts was putting up a challenge thinking he was about to trap Gerald Acey’s queen, but Gerald had calculated better with a crushing attack that forced resignation and put the visitors in sight of success. However the Bees have a battle-siege-mentality and Simon Layhe’s vast improvement over the past 18 months was underlined again as he found a way to deliver a killer blow against his higher rated opponent and salvage another match draw for the B team.

These results keep the “A” team one point ahead of Crewe B at the top of the league table, with Fenton “A” another point behind. These draws will suit the chasing Cheddleton “A” team who are 4 pts behind the leaders with a game in hand in 4th= place on the same points as Holmes Chapel.

With the club attendance of 36 members beating its previous record of 33, there was a large contingent of Club Championship games as well as a stack of friendly and social chess for others.

In Club Championship division 1, the only game saw Lukasz Michalek win after he had offered a draw in what he thought was a worse position, to take his tally to 3pts from 5 games, and climb the table to 3rd position.

There were 8 players involved in Division 2 games, where George Bulbeck’s win propelled him into the lead with a score of 4/5 where he remains unbeaten and half a point ahead of James Marshall who is also unbeaten on 3.5/4 with these top two yet to play. There were wins for Doug Barnett (3/5) and Pawel Stanny (2/3), while Andrew Crosby drew with Kobus Nienaber who moved to joint 3rd with 3/5 alongside Doug.

In division 3, Ben Cliffe-Kirby opened his account with a win while Matthew Dean was pleased to hold Mark Randell to a draw. The Division 3 leader Phil Grocott has a handsome lead with 4.5/5, a clear 2 pts ahead of nearest rival Matthew.

Club chairman Dave Price was on hand to lead the social and friendly aspect of the night with a number of potential new members enjoying their games in the friendly club atmosphere.

Wed 1st Feb: It was another packed playing room at The Mals Club this week as the Fabulous F team hosted the Excellent E team in a repeat 10 board thriller. Teams were arranged with the E team having the upper hand on higher boards and the F team holding the advantage in rating on a couple of the lower boards.

Like the early season encounter the match was much closer than might have been expected. The first board decided was between two members making their league debuts, as the club increased the number to 44 of players representing the club in the league this season, and it was all smiles from Ben Cliffe-Kirby as he put the F team on the scoreboard first. In the chaos of last minute changes the wrong colours were used, meaning the F team had 6 blacks and only 4 whites. It did not take long for Matthew Dean to level the scores as his opponent was suffering from Self-Assessment deadline fatigue – just like the writer. After this the E team began to exercise its authority on the match as Kobus Nienaber, James Marshall and skipper Dave Price all produced the goods to show their rating superiority and take the Es into a comfortable looking 4-1 lead. However the F team are made of fighting stock and began a counter offensive as Steve Ballantyne and Pawel Stanny reduced the arrears to 4-3. With George Bulbeck in the ascendancy for the F team on board 1, a key result was obtained on board 8 as Peter Kanalos the underdog in the E team camp held out for a draw against the more experienced George Jellis and with George B converting his game, it was all level at 4.5pts each with Doug Barnett playing Julian Bulbeck on board 3. Doug had gained a couple of pawns but had the potential for slip ups as the game went on late past 10 o’clock but ultimately held his nerve to steer the E team home to success by the narrowest of margins to give the final score of 5.5 to 4.5.

The league division 3 table shows Alsager B still out in front on 11pts from 7 matches, with our F & E teams in joint 2nd along with Cheddleton’s C & D teams all sitting on 8pts, but the E team have a crucial game in hand on the leaders.

With 20 players involved in the match there will still another dozen members playing a mixture of friendly and rated games. In Club Championship Division 1 Julian Hawthorne outplayed the higher rated David Hulme as the game went the full distance before Julian eventually put David out of his misery, with a controlled master-class of good Knight vs Bad bishop endgame to maintain a 100% record in the early stages of his campaign.

Bart Fajfer and Karl Lockett played out a complicated draw, where Karl had a couple of pawns advantage against a more active attacking set of minor pieces before Bart regained the material to leave things level.

All in all, another superb club night with the highlight being the league debuts of Ben Cliffe-Kirby and David Vasinc as 32 members attended and the E team just pipped the F team

The new ratings were out earlier today and the highlights from our growing list of rated players are:

Congratulations to Harry Gardiner on hitting the 1900 mark for the first time.

Our most improved player since the start of the season is new member Carmel Barwick, up 84pts to 1714 just pipping Simon Layhe’s 82 point rise to 1882.

Junior Oskar Jarzynski is amongst the top 40 in the UK at Under Age 11, sitting 32nd in this list, and is the 3rd biggest improver in the club with a 58 point rise to 1474.

Thanks to Nigel Gardner, the D team captain for our headline this week. And what a fantastic night it was on Wednesday 25th January at The Mals Club as we hosted 3 separate league matches which brought teams from Fenton, Newcastle and Stafford to sit alongside a bustling night of internal competition games. By the writer’s calculations there were nearly 50 players and spectators involved.

It is hard to know where to start, as all 3 matches were big events in themselves. I suppose top billing would go to the Division 1 encounter between teams placed 2nd and 3rd at the start of the night with any result seeing new leaders overtake Crewe B. This match between Crewe A and Fenton A saw the visitors bring the 2nd highest rated team of the season with their previous match’s team possessing the highest. Fenton would have been slight favorites with 3 of their team outrating Crewe’s by at least 100 pts, with the advantage reversed on board 4. First blood went to Crewe “A” with a quick win by Harry Gardiner as his opponent made an early mistake. The other 3 boards would go the distance. Board 2 was next to finish as the host’s captain Martin Burns held equality to force a draw as the clocks moved on to 10.15. Shortly afterwards Karl Lockett was happy to take a rare draw with both players having two rooks on the attack in an endgame where perpeptual check was the best outcome for both players. This left the board 1 game to decide the result and it did not disappoint in the “drama stakes”. Bart Fajfer had a Bishop and Knight with Queen,2 Rooks and 6 pawns with an exchange advantage, but facing a hazardous set of Knight traps and various potential pins against his King as the King manoevred to an eventual safe hiding. All this took place with both players deep into increment time, and both having less than 10 seconds remaining on several occasions. Ultimately Bart’s position unfolded to find a killer move as the Queen threatened a back rank attack with a Bishop cutting off any escape for the opposing King as the “flag fell” which was suprisingly called by the opposition captain as a spectator. Final score 3-1 to Crewe A, who move to the top of the league with 9 pts from 6 matches, 1 point ahead of Crewe B and a further point ahead of Fenton, and 3 pts ahead of Cheddleton “A” who have a game in hand !

Then there were two heavyweight matches in Division 2 as our C team entertained a much strengthened Stafford team, and our own bolstered D team hosted Newcastle. The C team match saw Neville Layhe pick up an early draw on board 4, as all of the C team players were outrated by around 100 pts with Carmel Barwick outrated by 200 pts. Board 1 was heading to a further draw between both captains, while hiccups occurred in both other games with illegal moves leading to 2 minute penatlies against Crewe’s board 3 and Stafford’s board 2. The pressure on board 3 was too much for Crewe as Andrew Mowat won for the visitors. This left Carmel in play who continued her excellent run of form to force a win with a pass-pawn that could only be stopped by the loss of a piece in the endgame, allowing the extra piece to secure the victory and save the match. Captain Dave Lambton was pleased with the outcome against the highest rated team fielded in division 2 this season, with Staffords overall rating of 7241 being higher than the 1st division leaders Crewe B !!

Captain of the D team Nigel Gardner arranged a stronger than normal D team to accommodate players having commitments at Cheddleton on Friday in the Cup. Nigel’s comments on the match card were as follows: “On a night when chess was alive and kicking in Crewe; this was a titanic struggle. After 90 minutes there was just 1 pawn of material difference across the entire match. Some excellent games played with a draw being a fair result.
A particular mention for a very imaginative and nerve-jangling win by Lee on board 1; preferring to play to a conclusion rather than allow Alan’s clock to run down when he had forgotten to push it in his last 2 minutes!” There was some superb play in this match, with Lukasz Michalek making a quick break to win on board 4. With losses on board 2 and 3, Lee Farrington played an excellent game to defeat the highest rated player in division 2, and save the match for Crewe D.

The division 2 table shows Newcastle in command with 8 pts from 5 matches, with nearest contenders Crewe C on 7pts from 6, and Crewe D on 5 pts from 5.

In Club Championship games, Andrew Crosby and Steve Ballantyne both added a point to their tally in the 2nd section, while Phil Grocott continued his march with another win in the 3rd division to open up a big gap with 4.5 pts from 5 games, leading by 2.5 pts.

There were four members playing rated Rapid play games, with George and Julian Bulbeck the victors in those.

Friday 27th: Our U1600 cup team travelled to Cheddleton, with more news click on Nigel’s Match Report.