Category: News

A couple of matches took place this week, with Crewe D travelling to Alsager on Tuesday and the “A” team hosted the “E” team on Wednesday.

The match at Alsager was a very close affair, and could easily have seen the D team suffer their first loss of the season in the absence of captain Nigel Gardner. Dave Price assumed team leader role for the night which strengthened the regular team by pushing Adam Fields down to board 4 from his designated place on bd 3. Rick Renegade made it 3/3 as he continued his excellent form on top board. Draws from two Davids – Lambton on 2 and Price on 3 helped the team, with the key success coming from Adam playing his first match since February 2020. The final score being 3-2 for the “D” team as they jumped back to the top of the League Table.

The “A” team were probably slight underdogs against the E team, with both teams reduced to four boards, with the As missing the normal bd 4 and the E team without their previous board 5. For the second week running the “A” team only avoided the whitewash as youngster Lukasz Michalek was the sole victor on board 2, underlining his recent improvement in rating. The E team’s successes came from their own youngsters Harry Gardiner and George Bulbeck with white pieces on boards 1 and 3, while Julian Bulbeck’s grade advantage was decisive on board 4, to give the E team a winning margin of 3-1. The E team remain 4th in the league and the A team stay 5th.

There was a couple of Internal Winter Tourney games played, with Karl Lockett extending his lead at the top of division 1 with another win to take his tally to 6.5 pts from 9 games.

In division 3, Oskar Jarzynski who is just 9 years old, played his second game in the competition, and propelled himself into the joint lead as he made it 2 from 2. This division now has 7 members taking part and is aimed at newcomers and existing members graded under 1300, and looks like it will develop into quite a healthy competition. This division is an “all-play-all with two games”  and sits alongside divisions 1 and 2 with 13 members and 10 members respectively. These divisions are set up to allow all members to play competitive games at their own pace, with a deadline of 30th June 2022 intended.

Tuesday 11th January – Alsager vs Crewe D in the NSDCA League

Wed 12th Jan – Club Night

Wed 19th Jan – Club Night + Crewe B vs Crewe C in NSDCA League

Tuesday 25th Jan – 4NCL Online (Lichess) Season 5 starts

Wed 26th Jan – Club Night + two NSDCA league matches (Crewe A, D, E)

Sunday 30th Jan – International Online (Lichess) Match vs Nairobi

Wed 2nd Feb – Swiss Rapidplay Rounds 3 and 4

For anyone wanting more details about:

4NCL online teams – contact Dave Price

International Match vs Nairobi – Use link below to join https://lichess.org/team/crewe-international

Swiss Rapidplay – contact David Hulme

For general information about Club nights contact Dave Price (club chairman) or David Hulme (club secretary)

There was a welcome return to league chess at The Mals last night, after a series of postponements had prevented us playing any league matches since 17th November.

Two matches took place with the “A” team hosting the “C”, and the “B” team against the “E”. The original squads for all teams have been effected by the ongoing Health Pandemic, but it was pleasing to see four teams playing with a reduced number of four boards, utilising the large playing area at the club.

The planned line ups for the A vs C clash saw sides within 10 grading points of each other. There was a surprise addition with Martin Frisher playing his first match since March 2019, but the strict grading rules forced him to play on board 2 for the C team. With Mike Keenan winning on board 4, soon followed by the C’s skipper Dave Price on board 3 the Cs went into a 2-0 lead. Lukasz Michalek had gained an exchange and a pawn and it was not long before he pulled one back for the As on board 2. This left the board 1 match to decide the result and Karl Lockett won the battle of the top two club players to give the C team a resounding 3-1 victory, and take them to the top of the table with 5pts from 3 matches, while the A-team struggle near the bottom with just 2 pts from 4 matches.

The other match was a much closer affair. The E team started well with a win for Julian Bulbeck on board 4, but this was expected as the B team were missing two regulars and handed a league debut to 9 year-old Oskar Jarzynski who shows great promise and will be one to watch for the future. Next to finish was board 1 with the only draw of the night as Harry Gardiner offered a draw to the B team captain David Hulme, who accepted the offer on the basis it gets something on the scoreboard. Simon Layhe levelled the scores with a sound win on board 2 having won a piece for two pawns and then converted into victory. The board 3 game was predicted to be a long game as both players are renowned for using all of the time permitted. What looked to be very equal in the middle game turned as James Marshall’s activity generated a pawn advantage and then added another with pieces strongly co-ordinated in attacking vain. Despite the inevitable lack of time for James, he finished off the game avoiding various tricks and pitfalls to edge the B team over the winning line to conclude the match in the B team’s favour by the score of 2.5-1.5, and take them 2nd in the league with 5 pts from 4 matches, having played more matches than the other title contenders.

 Les Hall

RIP

It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that Les  passed away on Wednesday 8th December 2021. Les was a key member of Crewe Chess Club  and helped founded the club in 2014. Before this he was an integral part of Alsager Chess Club and well known throughout the wider chess community, not just in North Staffordshire but across the whole North of England where Les would play at many weekend congresses.

There is no doubt that Les lived for the game of chess and would always be available to help the club in any way he could. Although club nights would not start until 6.30 or 7.30, he would be there early setting up the club ready for whatever matches or games were to be played. If any team was short of a player at the 11th hour – we knew who to call and he would always make himself available.

Les’s enthusiasm had been instrumental in establishing Crewe Chess club over the last 7 years, and it was his drive and energy that made sure Crewe Congresses were put back on the national chess agenda and helped make the club the success it is today.

He will be sadly missed by all

The club will not be the same without him.

Our thoughts are with Liz and family

Apologies if anyone thinks this is a Rugby score, but it was infact the final result of the inaugural “Northwich challenge” initiated by our club and organised by David Hulme. Always on the look out to spread the good name of Crewe Chess Club we embarked on another new adventure, this time challenging Warrington League side Northwich to a Rapidplay match over as many boards as they could muster. From an initial idea of 10 or 12 a-side the hosts kept on increasing the potential numbers until it was agreed as 17 boards per side with two games per board – one as white and black.

We did our best to match up teams evenly, but this was a mission impossible and although 700 points sounds a big difference, when you consider it was over 34 boards, it gave an average difference of just 20 grading points, or as we like to say in “old money” approx 3 ECF grading points before the new rating system was introduced with 4 digit grades, as opposed to the previous 3 digit system.

We must thank Richard Betts for all his work with the Northwich team, and comment on the superb playing conditions at their venue – The Gladstone Club. Round 1 commenced around 7.40pm with special consideration given to youngsters Alfie Dillon of Northwich and Oskar Jarzynski of Crewe, who were making their club debuts, together with Chris Marais and Marek Jarzynski, as well as a couple more on the Northwich side.

Crewe’s extra experience of playing Rapid-play time controls with 10 second increments gave the visitors (Crewe) a big advantage as they took control of the match with a 12-5 lead at half-time (the end of round 1.).

Round 2 saw Northwich put up a superb fight taking 6 points off the top 8 boards, with Crewe’s lower order providing the strength in depth to engineer a 9-8 scoreline in our favour and an overall match score of 21-13 for Crewe.

The highlights of the evening from Crewe’s point of view was the three members making their club debuts. The big-hitters with two wins for Crewe were Karl Lockett, Julian Bulbeck, Nigel Gardner and Pawel Stanny, while 9 year old Oskar deserves special mention with his contribution of 1.5 pts as well.

It is intended that a return match takes place at The Mals Club later on this season, where Northwich will be gunning for revenge.

The full match score can be seen by following our fixtures link on the home page of our website.

We’ve had another busy week, with two online League matches, three teams playing in the NSDCA and a few more internal games in our three Winter Competitions.

Tuesday night saw the final round (No 7) of the 4NCL online Season 4, with our A team playing Bradford Knights in division 3 and the B team playing Ashton in division 4. The AOL team concluded the campaign with a narrow 2.5-1.5 win against an experienced team, thanks to a draw on top board by David Lambton, and wins from captain David Hulme, and player of the season Simon Layhe. The team finished 5th in the group of 8, which is the AOL team’s highest ever finish in the 4NCL online league. The BOL team had a night to forget, with a rare blank. Thanks to a good start to the season they also finished 5th in their group, having been serious promotion contenders until the final two rounds.

Wednesday night was a busy night at The Mals again, as our A team hosted Alsager and the E team hosted the C team. The “A” team were too strong for Alsager and won comfortably 3.5-1.5 much in line with a big grade advantage on the lower boards. Skipper Martin Burns had a draw on top board, after earlier wins from Lee Tilton, Kobus Nienaber and Phil Wright.

The E  vs C clash was expected to be a tight match with slight grade advantage to the E team. However the C team managed to emerge as clear winners with a 4-1 scoreline due to successes by Karl Lockett, Doug Barnett, Dave Price and Pawel Stanny. The E team’s point was gained by George Bulbeck who was promoted from board 5 to 4, and is in a rich vain of form with seven successive wins in league and club competition.

The internal tournaments saw David Lambton join the lead with 4 pts in division 1, while Nigel Gardner extended his lead in division 2 with a draw to take him to 6/7, and stretch his run to an unbeaten 9 games this season including league and club competition.

Next week we have a 17-board Rapidplay challenge match at Northwich on Monday which promises to be great fun, while Wednesday’s club night is a match free zone so should be full of internal competition games.

Crewe Chess Club continues to glow and grow following the return of OTB (over the board) chess recently. Wednesday (10th) was another marvellous night for the youngest club in the NSDCA, as another derby took place in the League alongside a whole pack of seriously contested internal tournament games.

On Centre Stage we had Crewe B playing Crewe D. The result does not reflect how close the match really was, but then it rarely does, and in the cold light of day it’s a results focused business and the D team dynamically led by skipper Nigel Gardner gained a superb 4-1 win to overtake the bumbling Bees at the top of the VMS League. With all of the D team contributing to the scoreboard, there were several highlights as Pawel Stanny, David Lambton and Rick  Renegade all won their battles, with Nigel Gardner and Julian Bulbeck securing draws. A full and entertaining report is provided by Nigel on the “Nigel’s Match Reports” tab of our website.

Alongside the five board league match we had six players competing in division 1 of our internal event, four more in division 2, two more in division 3 and another two more playing a grading game as they are in different divisions. Then on top of all this we had three juniors receiving coaching, and another three members playing friendly chess. In total we had 32 members playing and several parents spectating, as we achieved a new record attendance of members on a club night.

For anyone reading our News Reports, we really would recommend a visit to  The Mals Club on a Wednesday evening if you are interested in playing chess on a friendly or competitive basis.

Next Wednesday (17th) promises to be another jam-packed evening with two league matches taking place and another hand full of internal competition games. On Tuesday our two 4NCL online teams are in action playing in Round 7 of the National League (which has approx 180 teams involved).

A special date to note is Monday 22nd November, when the club embarks on another new venture as we plan to play at Northwich Chess Club in a 15-board Rapidplay match of two games per player.

We’ve had a couple of busy and interesting evenings this week with Round 6 of the 4NCL Online League, a rescheduled League Fixture brought forward and progress in two of our internal tournaments.

Tuesday night (2nd) saw the AOL team play East Kilbride Strollers in division 3 of the 4NCL online league, while the BOL team faced St Andrews White Cross in division 4. Due to a mix up with instructions, two of our games were played with slightly incorrect time limits of 45 mins/10 secs increments instead of the intended 45/15. This only came to our notice after games had been completed and where under normal FIDE rules the results would stand, the 4NCL rules instruct that games be scored as 0-0. The upshot of this is that our A team have been awarded a 2-1 win, when a 2-2 draw would be fairer and the B team have been penalised with a 2-1 defeat when the score should have been 2-2. We have decided to appeal against the 4NCL rule in the interests of fair play, and await their response. The actual games themselves saw David Hulme and Simon Layhe win for the AOL team, while Dave Price and Kobus Nienaber won for BOL, but Kobus result has been scored as 0-0 to date.

The AOL team look likely to avoid finishing in the relegation slots for the first time in four seasons, while the BOL team are 3rd in their group but unlikely to make it into the top two promotion slots, with one more round to play before the play-offs commence.

Wednesday night saw another full house at The Mals with 29 members present including a couple of new faces. Centre stage was taken by the league clash between the A & B team. The teams have been arranged so they are all closely rated overall, and on this occasion the A team were slightly higher. First game to finish saw a draw on board 4 as Kobus (A team) drew with Steve Ballantyne, before Reinhard Haack put the Bees in the ascendancy on board 5. The board 2 game ended in deadlock as David Lambton (acting as an A team substitute) held Simon Layhe. The decisive result came on board 3 where James Marshall won to ensure the B team would go top of the early season table. It was left to A team skipper Martin Burns to salvage some pride for his team as he put opposition skipper David Hulme to the sword as the last game finished just after News at Ten had concluded.

The Bees get chance to extend their lead next Wednesday when they face the D team, but no doubt captain Nigel Gardner will come up with a Devilish Deal to Derail the Bees.

With another pack of games played in the Winter Internal Division 1 and 2 sections there was a top of the table clash in division 1, where Karl Lockett was able to take the lead with a win that takes his score to 4/5, with Doug Barnett (3/6) and Jarek Czyz (1/3) also victorious.

Division 2 saw leader Nigel Gardner extend the gap with another point to take his tally to 5.5/6, and George Bulbeck cementing his 3rd position to move to 3/4.

The club made a long awaited return to league chess on Wednesday, as we had four teams in action all playing in the same division of the North Staffs temporary  structure caused by the Covid pandemic. As all our teams are in the same section we have decided to set up five teams with a pretty similar total rating.

The “A” team played the “D” team, while the B played the C; with the E team starting next week with a short trip to Alsager on Tuesday.

The D team got off to a flying start to the campaign with a 4-1 win as Rick Rengade, David Lambton, Julian Bulbeck and captain Nigel Gardner were all successful, and youngster George Bulbeck salvaging a board for the A team as he made his league debut for the club (as did David for the D team, although already playing in the 4NCL online team). An entertaining full match report can be seen on Nigel’s Match Reports tab.

The match between the B and C teams ended in a draw, with David Hulme and Reinhard Haack collecting the B team’s wins and Dave Price and George Jellis for the C team, with a draw on board 2 between Simon Layhe (B) and Doug Barnett (C).

Even with 20 members involved in league matches, there was still an opportunity for Harry Gardiner to add a further point to his haul in the club’s internal Winter Division 1 tournament, as he joined Karl Lockett at the top of the table.

The week ahead starting 1st November, will see the E team travel to Alsager while Round 6 of the Online 4NCL matches takes place at the same time. Wednesday will see the B team against the A team in the North Staffs League with numerous members continuing the Winter Internal Tournaments which ensure every member gets to play competitive games if they wish.