Author: David Price

Tuesday 3rd Jan – F team hold division 3 league leaders Alsager B to a draw over 5 boards. Alsager took the first point Andrew had a good opening but missed a tactical initiative on move 10 and one speculative move cost him the game. Outstanding result on board 1 for George Bulbeck with a win against a much stronger player, backed up by a draw on board 3 from Oskar Jarzynski and a sound win from Steve Ballantyne on board 5. Leaves the F team joint 2nd in the table on 6pts from 6 games together with 3 other teams – all trailing Alsager B who are head and shoulders above the rest.

Wed 4th Jan – the Dynamic D team dished out a 4-0 whitewash to Fenton B aided by a top board default from the visitors. Meaning Crewe’s ‘D’ team started the match a point ahead. Martin Frisher was the stand out performer here with a win on board 2 against an in-form player normally on board 1. All eyes were on Martin Frischer’s game where he sacrificed a rook in the early middle game to obtain an exciting attack. He later managed to get material back then conjured up a nice mating net with his two knights and queen against the opponents uncastled King and becoming the 41st member of the club to represent Crewe in the NSDCA this season ! Lukasz Michalek and George Bulbeck were too strong for the opposition to handle, as captain Nigel Gardner watched from the sidelines. Overall another superb effort from our D team, who until this match were by far the lowest rated team in division 2. With 4 pts from 4 matches Nigel may now have his sights on fighting for the top spot rather than the dog fight to avoid the wooden spoon.

Crewe’s board 1 was going to be Lee Farrington so without a scheduled game he played a friendly rated game where as white he took advantage of his opponents poor opening play to secure a win. Some internal games took place in the club’s internal winter competition. In division 1 there were wins for Martin Burns and Harry Gardiner, In division 2 James Marshall won, whilst in division 3 there was a win for Phil Grocott.

Friday 6th Jan – The E team postponed a trip to Cheddleton to accommodate the weekends’s Shropshire Congress at Telford.

A contingent of 6 of our members played at Telford with Carmel Barwick being our star performer again. She finished joint 2nd in the U1750 competition with 4/5 after taking a bye in Round 1 and then scoring 3.5pts from her 4 games.

Nigel Gardner narrowly missed out in the U1500 section. Leading with 3.5 pts going into the final round, he fell at the last hurdle to finish joint 6th, with his Round 5 opponent being the joint winner. Both of the joint winners were unrated juniors !!??.

Our other members in action were Martin Burns, Karl Lockett, Julian Hawthorne and Dave Price.

It was another busy night at the club last Wednesday night with 28 in attendance. However it was a bad day at the office for both Crewe’s A and B teams, more of that later.

Before the two matches started the Events Officer had arranged for several internal games. In Division 2 of the Club Championsip there were wins for Julian Bulbeck and Tom Smith. The game between Doug Barnett and George Bulbeck looked complicated with a lot of material on the board and Doug having two rooks for George’s Queen, but with both players running short of time a draw was agreed. There were also four rated rapid play games taking place. Here there were wins for Mike Keenan, Mathew Dean and a first win for Malaki Swift. Whilst Oskar Jarzynski drew with Phil Grocott with the game ending in a King and Pawn Endgame.

The A team hosted Cheddleton’s first team which is traditionally the strongest in the League. Although this season they are not as strong as usual they still managed to put out highly rated players on the top two boards. The first match to finish was the captain Martin Burns who overlooked a bishop fork resulting in the loss of a knight, he therefore had to resign. Harry Gardiner on board 4 went a piece down early on but kept on fighting and conjured up a nice attack but couldn’t quite make it count. On board 3 Karl Lockett managed to win a pawn in the middle game, then another in the endgame whilst tempting his opponent to advance his pawns in front of his King, leaving the King exposed. Karl was then able to get his pieces to attack the exposed King and force a checkmate. 

This meant it was still possible for Crewe A to draw the match depending on the result of the game on board 1 between Bart Fajfer and Jacob Boswell, an opponent rated about 300 rating points higher than Bart. It turned out to be a titanic struggle which was by far the last to finish with everyone who was still left at the club watching a very interesting Rook and three Pawns endgame. The difference was Bart’s pawns were connected on the queenside whilst his opponents were isolated. Bart was playing well and won a pawn though this meant his opponent managed to create a passed Pawn. However Bart was able to bring his King back in time to stop it Queening and eventually win this pawn. He then won the third pawn but this meant his rook was now stuck on the side amidst his two connected passed pawns. This left his King to be subjected to continuous checks to the side by his opponent’s rook, something Bart couldn’t prevent, he therefore reluctantly accepted the draw. Consequently Cheddleton narrowly won the match 2.5 – 1.5 and are now equal at the top of the table with Crewe A.

Meanwhile Crewe’s B team were hosting Alsager’s first team. The report below is from their captain Dave Hulme.

As usual the B team started their match as underdogs against Alsager “A” in part due to the absence of two key players, with Dave Price being added to the team to make his debut in the NSDCA 1st division.

With Simon Layhe on board 1 having black against the league’s joint highest rated player – Jonathan Blackburn, no points were expected here as Simon had a “free shot”. After a backs to the wall effort, Jonathan broke through with a N for 2pawns sac on the Q-side resulting in the “a” pawn being unstoppable, as Simon’s extra minor piece was shunted out of the game on h8. This came just after a draw was agreed on board 2 as David Hulme was low on time (as normal) with less than 4 mins remaining against John Booth’s 15 mins in a position where any attack would leave the aggressor with more weaknesses.

Earlier on Dave P appeared to have the upper hand in a strong position with a pawn won in the opening. Unfortunately Dave allowed Sandra Blackburn to gain an exchange and when short of time in a difficult position, accepted a generous (but not unexpected) draw offer. On board 3, David Lambton was unable to push his loan “a” pawn due to it being covered by a defending King, while at the same time Jon Blackburn had a passed pawn on c5 protected in a pawn chain of c5-d4-e3 to prevent David’s king going on the attack.

The final result being a narrow loss 1.5-2.5, as the Bees lost for the first time this season.

All eyes are on next weeks derby-duals, with B vs A and C vs D teams facing each other.

Two teams division, one from Kidsgrove and one from Fenton visited Crewe last night to take our ‘E’ and ‘F’ teams. It was good to see as many different people at the club who like to experience competitive chess getting their opportunity.

Fenton brought a team which, although appearing inexperienced, proved too strong for our ‘F’ team. Only Steve Ballantyne was able to trouble the scorers, earning a draw. After defending well in the opening, he later resisted the chance to deliver perpetual check on his opponent playing on for a win instead, however his opponent was subsequently able to gain counterplay and achieve a draw by perpetual check himself. This all meant the ‘F’ team went down half a point to four and a half.

The Kidsgrove match was more evenly matched. Here Doug Barnett won a tough, close game on board 1. Whilst James Marshall was playing well on Board 2 against an experienced opponent. He already had one advaned passed pawn when his opponent allowed James to exchange queens which then left James with two connected passed pawns in the middle of the board. With clever play James was about to convert one of these when his opponent resigned. This game, the last to finish, meant Crewe tied the match 2-2.

As well as the two league matches several internal tournament games took place. In Division 1 there was a win for Lukasz Michalek and in Division 2 there the game between Julian Bulbeck and Mike Keenan was drawn whist George Bulbeck achieved a win in his game. There was also a win for Mathew Dean in Division 3. Also worthy of note is that our new member Tom Smith played his first long play rated game which he also managed to win.

Next week the club’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams are both in action and both are at home. Can they remain at the top or near to the top of the league? It should be an interesting evening.

Record League Match?

It was another fabulous night at the club last night. The Crewe E team hosted the Crewe F team in a North Staffs League match. Teams in this league normally comprise 4 players but both Crewe teams fielded an amazing TEN players each. Some of the in experienced members might think that can be the norm but it isn’t, in fact the very experienced members at the club had not seen anything like that for a league match and think it could be a record number, particularly in the North Staffs league. So its thanks to everyone who turned out and took part and a special thanks to the club’s Events Officer for arranging it all.

In relation to the match Board 1 saw the experienced Julian Hawthorn as white take on Lee Farrington playing his first game for Crewe following his move from the London area. After a promising opening for Julian, Lee managed to win a couple of pawns and take the game into a rook and pawn engame which he was able to convert for the full point. This game happened to be the last to finish whilst the first to finish was the board 7 clash where Reinhard Haack beat young Joe Hignett. The games on Board 4 and then Board 2 were next to finish with wins for Steve Ballantyne and Doug Barnett respectively.

On Board 3 the ever improving young Oskar had to play excellently to beat his tough opponent, though to be fair to James he wasn’t feeling 100% after recently being ill. Oskar trapped a knight, then later a bishop before delivering a nice checkmate, so that was another point for the F team. There were also victories for Marek (Osca’rs dad) making a rare appearance for the F team, and for Chris Marais winning for the E team on Boards 9 and 8 respectively.

Pawell Stanny managed another win for the E team in a rook endgame after winning Adam’s doubled isolated pawns. On Board 10 Vicky Kelsall playing black against Peter Kanalos, in her own words mucked up the opening, this then allowed Peter the advantage for the rest of the game which he too managed to convert. The penultimate game to finish was the one on board 6 between Mike Keenan playing white and George Jellis. In a close encounter Mike managed to launch an attack against George’s Queenside castled King culminating in a nice checkmate. This meant the final score of the match was 5-5, ten games had been played and not one draw!

In addition to the incredible League match the club was able to facilitate three internal games in Division 1. Here Martin Burns as white beat Dave Hulme and Karl Lockett as black beat Neville Layhe. The third game saw Jim Grange, playing his first standard playgame game for the club since before the Covid Lockdown, beat Dave Lambton who had black.

Attention now turns to the local congress this weekend where 22 Crewe Chess Club members will be competing in four sections as well as 2 more who will helping. This is a very impresive turnout at a congress from a single club. Good luck to all and hopefully everyone enjoys it.

With four league matches last week plus a few internal games it was a busy week for many. The overriding feeling from those I spoke to was that it was good to get back to League chess, seeing old faces and venues, playing as a team and against opponents we may not have even played before. As well as a Crewe teams first ever win against Holmes Chapel there were also notable good results for Simon and Nigel.

Thanks to Dave Hulme, Dave Lambton, Nigel Gardner and Martin Burns, the captains of the teams in question, for providing the below reports of their team’s exploits. (The D teams ‘Nigel’s Match Reports‘)

The B team kicked-off the league season on behalf of the club on Monday, with a division 1 match at Fenton. Our team had a small rating advantage of about 130 points over the four boards as the hosts were missing a couple of their first choice squad. Fenton probably got more than expected with two wins on boards 2 and 3, but were held to a draw thanks to Dave Lambton’s victory on board 4, and a superb performance from Simon Layhe on board 1 to topple their 2050 rated player to save the match. Simon had gained a pawn in the middle game and had to use all of his time to convert the win as his opponent created two connected king-side pass pawns just too late as Simon queened first on the queenside.

On Wednesday our C team travelled to Stafford for their first game. Missing two of the original line up Dave Price and Doug stood in as reserves. Board 4 was Doug and the first to secure a win for the C team. Our board 2 fell to Stafford making it 1 -1 the captain was watching board 3 and after a while a draw was agreed. No surprise the last game playing was Dave P against Ken McNulty and all eyes watching. Ken was in difficult time trouble having spent a lot of time looking at a knight sac. Ken kept his cool throughout the game with 4 marching pawns blocked by an isolated pawn and the king. Ken had a rook and 5 pawn Dave have a Rook, Bishop and 3 pawns. The last few moves were hectic as Dave Price marched the central Pawn forcing the opponents king to follow and block. Following a combination of checks and a Rook sac. This allowed the pawn to promote and secured the 1.5 – 2.5 victory to Crewe.

I don’t know about you, but to me it felt like we had been waiting for ages for the league season to start; and what a start we had! 

The intrepid “A” team took the short trip to Holmes Chapel, a team that doyens of Crewe chess club tell me we had never beaten in a league match. The match started well. on board 1 Bart played John Turner. Bart got the better of a Queen’s gambit, and after fewer than 20 moves he had distilled the game into a rook and bishop v rook and knight ending, where he had all the initiative. he went on to win a pawn and then trap John’s knight. it seemed an almost effortless performance from Crewe’s highest rated player, and Bart has to be the match ball winner. On board 3 Harry “H” came out of a tactical scrap a bishop up for 2 pawns. Perfectionist Harry seemed in despair but always looked like winning, and sure enough he got the full point eventually. in a tense position on board 2, where both players were low on time, Martin offered Pat Bennett a draw; the offer was accepted; Crewe had won the match. On board 4 Karl had not finished though. Karl won a pawn, then another, and though Mr Hicks tried to set a couple of traps, but incredible Karl craftily coerced the concession.

We had won the match 3.5 to 0.5. Well done team, and thanks to Holmes Chapel for being gracious hosts.

This all meant that the club night was quiet with only 12 members present. Even so there were internal tournament games in each division. In division 1, Martin Burns drew with Harry Gardiner in a rook and pawns endgame. In Division 2, ten-year-old Oskar played the longest game of his life against Steve Ballantyne. Steve was a piece and passed pawn up in an endgame but with only 3 minutes on his clock he sportingly offered Oskar a draw which was quickly accepted. In Division 3 Phil Grocott beat Vicky Kelsall in a game which had looked a draw. There were also a couple of graded rapidplay friendlies. Martin Frischer beat Karl Lockett and of the new youngsters Ben beat Malaki in what was their first rated game.

As the Chairman wrote in an email ‘What a great week for our club’.

Next Wednesday the E and F teams play each other and Dave Hulme is trying to arrange it so as many as possible members, other than the normal 4 team players, get a graded game.

There were 24 people at the club last Wednesday which included two visiting the club for the first time. With no league matches this week or scheduled tournaments some members were paired up to play games as part of the club’s internal winter competition. In addition there were plenty of friendly games going on 

In Division 1 the game between Lukasz and Neville had a slightly quicker time limit as Lakasz needed to catch a train, it ended in a relatively quick draw. However a second Division 1 game between Dave Lambton and Martin Burns went the full distance and was last to finish on the night. With Dave managing to secure two extra connected passed pawns on the queenside Martin had to resign. 

In Division 2 George Bulbeck managed to beat Steve Balantyne in a close encounter and in Division 2 Joe Hignett playing white beat Mathew Dean in a sharp game with both players having various attacks.

Next week sees the long awaited start of the North Staffs League and Crewe have 4 teams competing throughout the week, two of these are on the Wednesday so next week’s club night might be slightly quieter than usual. Its good to see league matches back as for most members this will be the first time they have played members from other clubs since before the covid lockdown. Hopefully Crewe members will have an advantage over some of those from other clubs as they will not have played any competitive chess during this period

There were 19 members at the club last night. This is likely the lowest number we have had at the club for some time, probably due to it being the holiday season. Even so this is still a good number compared to most other clubs and there were a number of serious games played between those members that were in attendance.

Both semi-finals of the summer knockout competition were able to be played last night where both players with the black pieces managed to win. Simon Layhe won a piece against Dave Lambton and went on to convert this to a win, in the shadow of an appreciative crowd. In the other game Karl Lockett fell into the opening prep of Harry Gardiner and with his king unable to castle he soon lost. That means the final will be played between Harry and Simon, Wed 21st September 2022 the same night that we are hosting a pre season game between Crewe and Newcastle.

Both Harry and Simon have improved significantly over the last season and are now amongst the best players in the club. Harry for example has now won his last 11 graded games straight and is close to a 1900 rating, in fact the last time he lost a graded game was last March against Simon! So an interesting final is expected.

Several players took the opportunity to play a match in this new season’s Club Championship. Although this tournament requiring 10 games in total runs until next June, there wont be that many free nights due to NSDCA League matches etc. so its a wise decision to play these games when they are available. In division 1 Martin Burns huffed and puffed, and finally got the win against Neville Layhe and in division 2 Steve Ballantyne also playing white drew with Mike Keenan. Division 3 has yet to kick off. In addition to the above some members played graded games which will lead to a more established rating. Jacob Grabowski beat George Jellis but the most notable was the first ever victory in a graded long play game for Vicky Kelsall, may it be the first of many. 

Next week sees the popular Time and Point tournament takes place. Harry the H pawn attempt to defend his title in the eagerly anticipated Time-and-Point Handicap. The winner will have the honour of having their name inscribed on a handsome trophy, which was recently purchased in memory of the much missed Les Hall. We hope to see you there, to maybe raise a glass to Les, and to enjoy what should be a riveting evening

This is a fun (but competitive) 5 round quickplay tournament where lesser graded players are not only given extra time on their clock but also receive handicap points. Any member wishing to enter, who has not done so already, please contact the Events Officer Dave Hulme.

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Karl

Two weekends and two congresses for Oskar.

This Weekend he took part in the Warrington Junior Chess Championships

5-Round Rapid Play ECF rated Swiss tournament 15 mins  plus 10 seconds

His section had a total of 31 entrants and again he never  lost a game with an impressive  scored  of 4.5 points from 5 games.

2nd place Oskar proudly displaying another trophy

Full results

Other News

Members Martin, Karl, Harry, Dave P and Dave H all attended a  Societies spectacular at Nantwich today.

It was a Great success thank you to all the people that stopped to chat and play  chess.

We hope to see you all soon at Crewe Chess Club.

Oskar took part in the Mega Finals today at Charlton School Telford it was a 6 round tournament time control 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.

Megafinal. A one-day Megafinal is held within most UK counties to determine the strongest player from the county or local area within each gender and year combination. Each such player is titled Supremo (boys) or Suprema (girls). The top player plus all those scoring 3.5/6 or better qualify for the Gigafinal.

Oskar scored an impressive  6 points from 6 games competing in the  U10

Oskar proudly displaying his trophy

Full results