Author: Mario Scarpa

This was the last game of the season for Crewe I. We secured a 3-0 victory which puts us in the 4^th position of the league table, although we might soon become 5^th

This is because at the moment Newcastle B is only am inch behind us and still have 3 games to play. With the prospect of a likely victory on at least two of those matches, they will likely climb ahead, leaving us just an inch behind them. Time will tell.

The end of the season also marks the completion of my very first experience as team captain, which has been very rewarding. Several of our matches have been against players who were each rating 150 and even 200 higher than us. With that in mind, getting where we are now is quite an achievement.

Well done everyone!

Yesterday, Crewe I played its last away game of the league season. This match was originally scheduled some time ago but was postponed due to the refurbishment of the Kidsgrove Chess Club… and what a good job we did! The renovation has transformed the club into a place of beauty and comfort never seen before.

This is no trivial detail because, when you have to endure defeat, doing so while sitting on a massive pinewood chair at a grand wooden table next to a lit fireplace makes it far less unpleasant. I mean, we lost 3½ – ½, but boy, what an absolutely stunning setting!

Well, what else can I say? Each of us once again faced an opponent rated about 200 points higher… it was always going to be an uphill battle.

As for me, I managed to make my opponent sweat—really sweat—but, unfortunately, not quite enough to secure a victory. As usual, I published the game on our website. The time pressure got the better of me in the end, I blundered, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Italian term obliterato normally refers to a bus ticket that has been validated. You know how it works: you get on the bus or train, show your ticket, and the controller stamps it with the punch machine…

Last night, I learnt the English meaning of the term when Crewe I was obliterated by Newcastle B. Man, and what a punch machine they were! Peter was the only one to secure a draw, while the rest of us… well, let’s just say the scorecard looked like the three of us just played a long castling: 0-0-0

What can we say? This was the third time in a row in which our opponent were rating not 100, not 200 but some 250 points more than us!!!
At least I can say that I gave my opponent a very hard time. I didn’t just go down quietly without a fight.

As usual, my game is published on the database page of our website.

Our database now includes all the games played during the 2024 WC Cup. It took quite a while to add them all because they were only available in handwritten paper form, which made it very difficult (and sometimes impossible) to decipher… Nonetheless I managed to reconstruct nearly all of them. You’ll find them under the menu Useful Links > Game Database

Quite a busy night at the club yesterday… so busy that late arrivals struggled to find a parking spot. Among the many matches, Crewe I lost against Cheddleton D.

That said, Gerald keeps defeating his opponents with incredible speed. Despite the game consisting of 60 moves, they were all done so quickly that I sometimes wonder if board 4 is in Blitz-mode.

I found myself once again facing an opponent rated about 100 points higher than me and, in keeping with the ongoing trend, I made him sweat as much as I could… this time, even managing to secure a draw. Initially, I refused the offer, but shortly after I accepted it, fully aware that time pressure would have caused me to lose (and a draw is always better than a loss).