Category: News

This is the 2nd report of the week (commencing 31st January) which involved over 60 rapid-play games, with the previous report covering the online international aspect, and this one in respect of our 8-Round Internal Swiss Event.

Wednesday saw the delayed rounds 3 and 4 take place, with rounds 5 & 6 now scheduled for 13th April and rounds 7 & 8 to be played after the League season has ended. We had 26 members take place in Rounds 1 and 2 back in October and we had a further 5 members join the competition on Wednesday.

Round 3 saw 24 members in action, with 6 members taking half point byes due to absence. We had 5 players heading into Round 3 with 100% records, but only two emerged with their record intact as top seed Martin Burns and ungraded Jarek Czyz claimed wins. No.2 seed Karl Lockett wrecked secretary David Hulme’s 100% score, to move into 3rd place as the only member on 2.5 points, with an 11 player pile-up just behind on 2 points.

Round 4 saw the top board clash end in Martin’s favour, so he is now the only player on 100%. Karl notched up his second win of the night to move into 2nd place with 3.5 pts. James Marshall had a night to remember adding 2 points with a notable win against No.5 seed, to join four others on 3 points, who are the highly seeded Harry Gardiner, Rick Renegade, Simon Layhe , and the unseeded Jarek.

It was great to see newcomer Matthew Dean join in, with it being just his 2nd night at the club. Thanks to Marek Jarzynski for playing in Round 3, so there was no one without a game, and to Phil Wright for recording the scores so that the Events Officer could play.

The event looks like being a great success for the club as the number of players involved makes it feel like a typical congress arena. Full scores and pairings for the Swiss competition can  be seen from the LMS and the tab on the Right Hand Side of our Home Page labelled “Club Internal Competitions 2021”

Next week sees a resumption of NSDCA League matches, which starts a sequence of 9 consecutive Wednesdays of league chess at The Mals Club.

This week has seen the club involved Rapidplay chess, with this match against Nairobi the focus of our first report.

On Sunday we embarked on our 2nd International Challenge, thanks to Andrew Crosby’s links with Nairobi Chess Club, which is Kenya’s biggest and longest surviving club. Andrew managed to round up a team of 20 players from Crewe including a couple of guests with links to our opponent’s country.

This Online (Lichess) match commenced at 3pm GMT, which was 6pm in Kenya. It was very much a case of going into the uknown with many opposition players not having recognised ratings, while our intention was to give as many as possible the opportunity to play. This allowed Nairobi a distinct advantage in the lower quartile as their experienced players came up against several very new to online chess in our team.

The match scorecard shows a very even battle over the top 10 boards with Crewe edging the lead 11-9, the next five boards also showed Crewe as slightly superior 5.5 to 4.5, but alas the match was determined on the bottom five boards as Nairobi whitewashed our new players with a dominant 10-0 sector. The final result being 16.5-23.5 in favour of Nairobi.

The match consisted of two games per board, one with white and black against the same opponent, with time limits of 20 minutes plus 10 seconds increments, which is a favourite option for these type of Rapidplay matches.

The event was hailed a great success in both clubs, with coverage extended to the English Chess Federation. An initial match had been played early in 2021 with Nairobi also successful, with both clubs now committed to making this an annual event. So, we at Crewe look forward to 2023 in the hope we can gain our first success in International combat.

It was great to see the Nairobi’s club report referring to the prestigious Crewe Chess Club in England, and we look forward to a long and enjoyable relationship with our Kenyan counterparts, which has been materially  fostered by Andrew Crosby’s enthusiasm for online chess and discovering the Nairobi Chess Club website. Many thanks are due to Roberto Villuela from the Nairobi club who collaborated with Andrew to ensure that both teams could field 20 boards with evenly matched teams.

Match scorecard 

It was nice to see two matches take place at The Mals again on Wednesday (26th) with teams back to the full five board compliment. On one side we had Crewe E hosting Alsager and on the other we had Crewe A vs Crewe D.

Alsager had intended to field two new players but due to a last minute Covid related issue, had to revert to a more experienced team as captain Andy Barker had covered all possibilities by having himself and Neil Hankey in attendance as reserves if needed. Crewe E had a marginal advantage in ratings but the teams were very closely matches overall, being one of the purposes of splitting squad strengths evenly to make all matches interesting. First game to finish involved 9 year old Oskar Jarzynski playing his 3rd league match for the club, all in this month. Opponent Neil Hankey used his time well in a game that swung too and fro, with Oskar having the advantage from the opening, but then Neil fighting back to have chances of winning the end game, before peace was achieved with a draw. The E team took the lead as Julian Bulbeck gained success with the white pieces on board 4, and Neville Layhe added a half point with a draw on board 2. The visitors fought back from a 2-1 deficit as white pieces held sway with John Booth and Andy Barker getting Alsager to the winning post 3-2 !

Meanwhile the other match saw the D team defeat the As by the same 3-2 scoreline. Signifcant here was where the ratings differed by more than 100 pts between players, the higher grade backed up the predicted result with wins, while their were draws where rating differences were less than 100. For the D team it was David Lambton and Pawel Stanny who D-livered the full points, with Adam Fields and Nigel Gardner D-liberately dragging out draws. The A team’s victor was captain Martin Burns on board 1. The D team are the only side with a 100% record in the table and have the luxury of knowing they can afford to lose a match and still retain top spot as all other teams have dropped at least 3 points already. They face closest contenders – the B team in their next match.

Tuesday (25th) saw the start of 4NCL Online Season 5. With a drop in teams entering the event, both our our teams have been moved to higher  divisions as our A(OL) team in division 2 and the B(OL) in division 3.

It was a close encounter for the A team but they lost narrowly to Cornish Choughs 1.5-2.5. Karl Lockett was the standout performer with a win on board 2 and David Lambton excelled against a much higher rated player to pick up a draw with black on board 1.

The B team as usual outperformed the As, and picked up a superb match draw against Hackney Hackers, a team with an average rate over 400 pts higher per board. Harry Gardiner and Jarek Czyz performed (the now expected) miracles to win on top two boards !! Pawel Stanny and Mike Keenan both lower rated by well over 500 pts pushed their opponents all the way before both running out of steam after valiant efforts. A great start to the season for BOL.

The 4NCL competition is so tough that one of the the AOL team will have to face Grand-Master Dr John Nunn in a few weeks time. Captain David Hulme is suggesting we “draw lots” to see which one of our members wins the lottery to play a GM.

Wednesday saw the start to the second half of the League season, as Crewe B played against Crewe C. Both teams were missing regular members, so the B team recruited two replacements while the C team needed one to field five board teams. As usual team grades were evenly matched with less than 100 Rating points the differential. First blood went to the C team with Mike Keenan keeping his wits about him as he beat the quick-fire Oskar after an early onslaught from the nine year old. Matters were levelled up when Reinhard Haack gained success on board 4, playing a board higher than was planned with the original squads. The match was decided in the “engine room” of the teams in the middle order where father and son Neville and Simon Layhe emerged victorious after two hard slogs. The game on board 2 was particularly wild where Simon could easily have fallen on his sword against the experienced Doug Barnett. Neville was able to win an equal looking endgame as his experience came to the fore, to give the B team security of 3 wins from the middle 3 boards. It was left to Karl Lockett to inflict some damage to the Bees and he duly put opposition captain, David Hulme through the wringer to make the final score 3-2.

With a further two matches next week we can expect the Bees to be knocked off their perch.

There were a few Winter Tournament games played, as David Lambton notched up a draw against Lukas Michalek to move into 2nd place in division one, that takes his tally to 5.5/8 just one point behind leader Karl Lockett with a game in hand. Martin Burns and Harry Gardiner played out another draw to keep them in contention in the marathon event, with a total of 24 games possible for each member.

In division 2 the top three players were all in action. Leader Nigel Gardner extended his lead with a win against 3rd placed George Bulbeck, which was amplified by Julian Bulbeck’s win against 2nd placed Lee Tilton. Nigel has an unbeaten 7.5/9, while Lee is on 5.5/8 and George 4/6.

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.