Crewe ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams top the League

After a great but busy for some Crewe Congress it was back to league action for the club’s two top teams. Both had home fixtures, our ‘A’ team hosted Macclesfield whilst the ‘B’ team played Holmes Chapel.
A curious incident occured on top board for the ‘A’ team. Captain Martin Burns had been playing his game for some time when his opponent noticed that the chess clock they were using was malfunctioning in that the 10 second increment was not being added, therefore with the position on the board being drawish both players agreed a draw. On board 4 Jim Grange had a comfortable victory, winning a piece quite early on then forcing his opponent to trade his queen for two rooks. a material advantage resulting in the win. Harry Gardiner on Board 2 built up a dream of a pawn chain of 6 connected pawns, the two most advanced of which being passed pawns. The game went in to a double rook endgame and although his opponent made things difficult Harry managed to get the win. In the final game to finish on board 3 Karl Lockett playing black was in a losing position and defending however his opponent missed Karl’s mate in three threat meaning Karl gained a fortunate win. Indeed analysis after the game showed that if his opponent had earlier played a different move whilst attacking it would surely have led to a defeat for Karl. This meant the ‘A’ team won the match 3.5 – 0.5.
On board 1 for the ‘B’ team Simon Layhe had another excellent win against a much higher rated opponent, in fact the last time they both met a few years ago his opponent won comfortably, this win is therefore another example of how much Simon has improved recently. Elsewhere for the ‘B’ team there were wins for David Hulme and Dave Lambton. So an impressive win for the ‘B’ team against a decent Holmes Chapel team.
The result of these early matches mean that Crewe ‘A’ are top of Division 1 with maximum points, whilst Crewe ‘B’ are only a place behind having 3 points from a possible 4. How often can we say that two Crewe teams are first and second in the League?
In addition to the league matches there was a couple more Club Championship games with Pawel Stanny getting off the mark with a win in division 2, and Vicky Kelsall adding a win to her tally in division 3.
The week ended with our C team making the trip to Cheddleton on a miserable Friday night to take on their B team. Captain Dave Lambton on board 1, and Dave Price on board 4 had wins to ensure the team shared the match points with Cheddleton B. Our C team top the table for now with 3pts from two games, while all other teams have games in hand at this very early stage of the season.

Record League Match?

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.

What a Great Week for Our Club.

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.

Only one week before the New League

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

The 2022-23 season kicks off

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.

Posted by
Karl


Great Day For Crewe Chess Club

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.

 

Shropshire Megafinal 2022

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 

NSDCA 2021 online Chess

Return of the Online league for 2021

Get ready for the  second NSDCA Online rapid play tournament. As before the games will be on Lichess.

The time controls are the same as in the 2020 tournament, 25 minutes with a 5 second increment. The matches will consist of 2 games versus the same opponent on the same evening, one game with each colour.

The proposed start date is week commencing Monday 18th January and as with the previous on line league we would play on the alternative week to the 4NCL on line league.

Alberto is also looking to run a congress style event over several weeks. This will allow players to be paired more equally, possibly in different graded sections. This will be a single game at a longer time control,  45 mins + 15 secs.

The event will be 4 section swiss style ungraded, so will be open to everyone and you are not required to be ECF members. The event is free and there will be no prize, except for the congratulations from your opponents 🙂