Author: Mario Scarpa

Last night, Crewe I played an away match at the Fenton Chess Club, which, for those who haven’t yet seen it, makes quite a first impression. The chess club shares its premises with a snooker club, which you have to walk through to reach the chess room. I was already intrigued by the atmosphere, wondering whether I was heading to a chess match or stepping into the setting of an exciting crime movie (a genre I rather like). Before even reaching the chessboard, I found myself pondering whether to use the Loan Sharking Gambit or the Money Laundering Defence… but given the nature of the situation, I decided to stick with the Italian Opening – it fits both narratives quite well.

…Little did I know my opponent would respond with the French Defence (Franco-Benoni variation). You can see the entire game below.

As a team, we lost by the narrowest of margins: three boards ended in draws, while one was lost, resulting in a final score of 2^½ – 1^½. Yet, achieving such a result against opponents rated around 100 points higher than us feels like a triumph. In total, their team had a combined rating 348 points higher than ours! Here is the breakdown of the ratings:

Board 1: 1469 – 1329 = 140
Board 2: 1401 – 1326 = 75
Board 3: 1340 – 1250 = 90
Board 4: 1236 – 1193 = 43

Not bad at all!

Some say that there is no greater pleasure than coming home and being welcomed by the smell of freshly baked bread. Yesterday, I programmed the bread maker so that it would be ready by the time I returned from the match and… my goodness… yes, there is indeed a greater pleasure: being welcomed by the smell of bread after having crushed the enemy team with a glorious 3^1/2 – ^1/2.

Peter and Gerald were the quickest to win on boards 3 and 4, Mike secured an excellent draw on board 2, and, unbelievable as it sounds, I won on time! Yes, there is no typo: I won. Time is normally a factor I lose on, so it is refreshing to have turned things around for a change. My game was roughly even until my opponent fell into a couple of traps I set, which gave me a positional advantage.

Last night Crewe H vs Crewe I resulted in 2.5 – 1.5, which is consistent with last week game. Simply put, Crewe H has far stronger players than we have, which is why the results, though unpleasant, did not come as a surprise. Looking at the combined ELO of the teams, we had a 105 points disadvantage last week, while yesterday we were down by 385!
This is worth remembering, because it makes the predictable defeats not as crushing as they could have been, which is rather encouraging.
Another predictable thing was that I would run out of time… which I did. I was about to lose anyway, since Finn was a few pawns up on their way to promotion but, technically, I lost on time.

Nonetheless I am proud of my 26^th move (Qd6). While not spectacular, at least it gives a hint of elegance of the game.