We have had several junior tournaments between Alsager Owls, Crewe and the Potteries Juniors. Today was the turn of the Owls to host the tournament again.
Due to the growing popularity of the event the Owls hosted the event at Lawton Memorial hall.
Dave Price and Harry Gardiner looked after the under 1300 section and Chris Hankey looked after a beginner section.
we had 50 players in the under 1300 section which consisted of teams of 5 players.
Another great weekend at one of our annual congresses
We had 8 players across across the 5 sections.
In the Open section we had the regular congress Crew Carmel, Harry and Simon.
Dave L in the Major
Jamie in the Inter
Dave P in the Minor section and Dave R, Jack and Mal all in the Standard section
Our top player for the weekend Jamie Roberts his starting rank was 17 and ended joint first on 4.5/5 Well done Jamie
Just to add a few more stats to this weekend’s adventure in Blackpool for our regular Congress Gang.
Dave P of course managed to miscount our number of players – despite naming all 9 of them (he says there was 8 LOL).
There were 375 entrants to the congress and only one out of the 375 managed to score 5 out of 5 – and unsurprisingly this was in the lowest section (The Standard).
As Dave P says we had players in all five sections, with the standout being Jamie Roberts who illuminated Blackpool’s prestigious congress by winning the Intermediate Section (U1850) with a superb score of 4.5/5, defeating the only Intermdiate player to have 100% going into Round 5. Jamie’s performance rating for the weekend shows as 2110 on the Chess Results server, worthy of any player in the Open Section.
Our three players in the Open all scored well in a firecely competitive section, and finished 2 or 3 places above their starting ranks in all cases ! Carmel scored 2.5 rating 2119, Harry 2pts/2111 and simon 1.5pts/1869.
In the Standard section I would like to make a special mention of young Jack Patullo who scored 2 pts ranked at number 72, but finishing 13 places higher in his first senior congress – well done Jack – in playing such a massive congress. The last mention goes to Dave Roberts, who enjoyed the benefit of playing Mr D Fault in round 5 and was able to watch son Jamie battle his way to collect 1st prize.
Full congress results and some pgn games from the Open section
12 Crewe players descended on the annual rapidpaly congress at Stockport this weekend.
We had an impressive 5 players in the open and by the end of round 3, Harry managed to beat Carmel’s nemesis Mike Surtees. leaving Harry on 2.5/3, Carmel on 2/3, Kamil on 1.5/3 and Simon and Dave L both on 1/3.
Our only player in the Major Jamie Roberts was on an impressive 2.5/3
All 3 players in the Inter Doug, Dave P and Tommy were all on 2/3
In the Minor section Mal was on 2/3 with Matthew on 1/3
By the end of round 6 our best score in the Open came from Carmel with an excellent 4.5 placing her 3rd.
Harry and Simon had a very respectful 3.5/6 and Dave L and Kamil finished on 2/6
Jamie had a very tough 3 rounds after lunch remaining on 2.5/6
In the Inter Tommy did the team proud with a impressive 4/6 and Dave and Doug finished on 3/6
Our Juniors took on Stafford Library, Alsager Owls and the Potteries juniors on Saturday 17th January at The New Finney Gardens.
The event had an open section and a U1300 section
Chris Hankey had done an excellent job attracting a total of 10 teams of 5 players. 4 Teams supporting the potteries juniors, 3 teams from the Alsager Owls, 2 teams from Crewe and 1 from Staffordshire Libraries.
This was the maximum capacity of venue meaning the Open section had to play the first 3 rounds in another room.
We had 3 Crewe Payers in a 5 player Open challenge, Tommy, Oskar and James. Well Done James with a clean sweep and took the Annual trophy home.
In the U1300 section we had 3 new players supporting Crewe for the first time. A big thankyou to Memhet, Jasper and Oliver.
All of our 10 players did excellent but we were out playing by potteries junior A team.
Congratulation to the potteries juniors who won theU1300 team trophy
A big thankyou to all our players and Parents who supported Crewe
The first week of the year did not quite go to plan; bugs had weakened some of our number, and with snow and ice around Crewe, some matches were cancelled. The club did open though, and a few internal matches were played by the diehards.
We were lucky to dodge Storm Goretti (even so, our bin did not get collected, humph) and on Thursday 8 January our new year really got started. The Open Cup team started the attempt to win the trophy for the third year in a row. Their chances were considerably improved by the appointment of a new, stronger, and generally better, team captain. Thanks to Captain Carmel for the report below.
“A huge thank you to everyone for last night. Particularly to Richard for making the long journey.
It turns out that the Holmes Chapel team at full strength were no match for us.
The black on odds strategy worked perfectly.
David L on board 6 (a crucial board) played a brilliant game, soundly outplaying his lower rated opponent and securing the first point for the team. My game should have been a draw, but Mike very kindly let me mate him in a dead equal major piece endgame. Richard, despite his long journey, demonstrated his superb class and experience by holding the frustrated FM to a draw with no difficulties. A true MVP. I didn’t see much of Kamil’s game, but his opponent was looking very stressed and worried throughout most of it, so I assume Kamil made a comfortable draw on board 4. Simon secured us the match by forcing a draw with a position that was apparently very promising for him – a true team player! Last to finish was Harry, who very calmly navigated his way through a time scramble and found a neat tactic that saved his game. It may have been winning at some point for Harry, but he wisely forced a draw soon after.
Perhaps our biggest advantage was having our own spectator and supporter from Crewe. It was great to see Alex Brown there, who came along to support Richard and the rest of us!
Thanks again everyone, it was a real privilege to play alongside such a team.”
