Category: News

It’s been a busy two weeks since my last posting, so we have six results to report on, more additions to our membership and further progress with our 3 sections in the Club Championship.

31st October: the second league div 2 derby between our C and D teams ended up with a repeat win for the D’s by 2.5-1.5. Wins for Martin Frisher and George Bulbeck supported by a draw from Dave Lambton were enough to overcome Ebube Christian’s lone success for the C team as Andrew Raeburn’s draw was not enough. The D team have made an excellent start to the season with 7 pts from 4 matches and next up travel to Cheddleton.

The E team played Cheddleton D in div 3 on the same night and won more comfortably as every player contributed with wins for Joe Moxon, Richard Fish and Adam Fields , while captain Nigel Gardner was happy to take a draw.

7th November: three matches as our B team played away to Alsager in div 1, the C team at home against Alsager B in div 2, and there was another derby between our H & G teams in div 4.

The B team were strengthened as Lee Farrington played his first match of the season but this was not enough to salvage any match points as our only win came from Martin Frisher and Carmel Barwick was held to a draw.

The C team also had reinforcements as Harry Gardiner was drafted into the team putting the team’s rating above 7200. There were wins for Harry Gardiner, Karl Lockett and Rick Renegade in a 3-1 success that notched up the first mathc points of the season at the 4th attempt.

The G team were favourites to beat the H team in the derby and did not disappoint. Captain Steve Ballantyne and Jamie Roberts got the key wins with a draw from Phil Grocott proving enough to tip the result, as Kobus Nienaber won for the H team and Mike Keenan drew.

Friday 10th November: The E team were in action again as they played at Cheddleton – this time against their C team. With teams evenly matched there was little to separate them, but we narrowly failed to collect any ponts from the match as we could only achieve three draws from Joe , Nigel and Kobus.

The club continues to attract new members with new faces appearing most weeks. Where possible everyone is encouraged to join in the internal club championship, and assigned to one of our 8 league teams.

This week (14th November) promises to be another busy night at the club with four of our teams in action in the main match room, while newcomers are welcomed to the social room under the guidance of chairman Dave Price.

After last week’s mixed results, this week has seen three matches with Crewe victorious in all three.

The Match Room was in full bloom, with our B team facing Cheddleton A in div 1, our G team playing Fenton D and the H team playing Alsager D in div 4.

The B team started as favourites as Cheddleton have suffered the loss of key players moving from the area and fielded a much lower rated team than expected. Carmel Barwick continued her dominating form with a win on board 2, and Simon Layhe held their one higher rated player to a draw on board 1. Board 3 was too complicated to decipher before Martin Frisher emerged with a win to secure the match points. Jarek Czyz making a rare appearance for the club secured a tough end game draw after seeming to be in the ascendancy earlier on. Final score 3-1 to the B team.

The G team’s planned squad were all available against Fenton. Skipper Steve Ballantyne set the ball rolling with a comfortable win on board 4, before Fenton levelled on board 2. Youngster Jamie Roberts provided a big win on board 3 (in the words of captain Steve) by playing a great endgame to force his opponent to resign as he could not stop a pawn from queening. Pawel immediately offered a draw on board 1 to clinch the match. Final score 2.5-1.5 to the G team.

The H team gave league debuts to Tim Weston on board 2 and Andrew Caccamo on board 4. With Alsager fielding brand new young players throughout the team line ups were agreed well in advance to ensure everyone would have a reasonable equal game. In addition opposition captain Neil Hankey acted as a reserve and so played an extra graded game with our Mike Keenan, with a further extra game given to Dan Parkin making his debut for Crewe against another new junior from Alsager. Andrew won on board 4 first, before Pete Kanalos added another win on bd 3. Kobus Nienaber used all his experience to get the win on board 1, while Tim was held to a draw. Final score 3.5- 0.5 to the H team.

Alongside these matches, there were a few games in the club championship as Harry Gardiner and Neville Layhe notched up wins in div 1. In div 2 Richard Fish added another full point to his tally while Julian Bulbeck and Oskar Jarzynski shared a draw.

All in all, a most enjoyable night with 18 competitive games taking place with another dozen members playing social chess in the coaching room.

We have played four more league matches over the last few days:

Friday 13th Oct – The F team travelled to play Cheddleton D in division 3 and came away with a share of the spoils thanks to wins by Neville on board 1 and Dave Price on board 2.

Tuesday 17th October – 3 matches:

C team vs Fenton B in div 2 – we came off second best against highly rated opponents with a 3-1 reverse, with our solitary success coming from Andrew Raeburn on board 1.

D team vs Alsager B in div 2. With teams evenly matched Alsager brought three of the team that represented Alsager C last week. The D team were victorious thanks to wins from George Bulbeck (bd 2) and Chinenye on bd 3, backed up with a draw on bd 1 from captain Dave Lambton.

The H team travelled to Fenton to take on their D team in division 4. Teams were very closely matched as we fell to a narrow defeat as Kobus drew on board 1 and Mike had our only win on bd 2.

The internal Club Championship saw games in all 3 sections, as Harry won in div 1, Oskar, Julian B, James C all won in div 2 and newcomer Tim Weston started with a win in div 3.

The new NSDCA season only started last week for us and already we have seen 7 of our 8 teams in action, with 30 of our members being involved.

Tuesday 3rd October saw two derbies at the Caritas, with C playing D in division 2 and F playing E in division 3. They were both close matches with the D team pipping the C team by 2.5-1.5 and the F team emerging with a 3-1 success. In theory the C & E teams are stronger than their derby rivals, but such is the competitive nature that nothing can be taken for granted.

Monday 9th October saw the G team travel to The Gables to face a new team comprising juniors. Our experienced players came away with a 4-0 win, while two additional boards were played to give graded games for more members of both clubs.

Tuesday 10th – the defending league champions (our “A” team) had a hard fought draw with our B team, where all games were won with the black pieces !

Also at the Cariras , the E team faced a strong Alsager “C” team in division 3, and produced a superb 3-1 win.

Meanwhile our D team played away at Fenton in division 2, where Fenton’s B team was as highly rated as our B team (who were division 1 runners-up last season), and came away with an excellent 2-2 draw.

There has been good progress with our Club championship sections, with all 3 sections being very active alongside the league matches. In addition there continues to be a thriving session in the coaching room, with an average of 35-40 members overall attending the club each week.

Full details of all results – both league and club championships can be seen from our “Fixtures & Tables” link above.

The only team not yet in action has been the “H” team which kick-off next Tuesday at Fenton in division 4.

Tuesday 26th saw the completion of both Summer Knockout competitions.

In the Open final, Harry won the toss for choice of white against Carmel but quickly lost a piece and faced imminent defeat and so resigned, leaving Carmel with yet another trophy to add to her collection, making it four trophies since rejoining the club in November. It bodes very well for the future of the club with these two rapidly improving while at the tender ages of 22 and 20 respectively.

The U1600 knockout final was contested by Julian Bulbeck and Andrew Crosby, where Julian had the upper hand with the white pieces and went on to put his name on the club’s “Honours List” as the winner of the first U1600 knockout. In doing so he joined his son (George) to become the first father and son to win club competitions in our short history !

There were half a dozen other games played in the club championships, with wins for Cyrus Pereira in div 1, Richard Fish and Chinenye Basil-Nwachuku in div 2, Mike Keenan and Jamie Roberts in div 3, while Neville Layhe and David Lambton shared a draw in div 1.

Next Tuesday, sees the start of the NSDCA League season with two derbies taking place where the C team play the D team in league div 2, and the E vs F teams in div 3.

As summer changes to autumn, so does Crewe CC change: this Tuesday St Mary’s saw the last semi-final of the Summer KO, and more early round games in all 3 divisions of the Crewe Club Championship. Horse trading continues for team members on the 8 (!) planned teams which Crewe will be entering in the league. Crewe are, of course, league champions.

In Division 3 of the championship, Gerald got his first point on the board, beating another newcomer Noah.

Divison 2 saw Chairman Price get the better of Julian B. Phil Grocott joined the early leaders by beating Steve Ballantyne. It was great to see another newcomer match-up, as Ebube beat Joe.Moxon.

We had some rated friendlies as well, notably with young Oscar playing well and showing he can grind out a long ending if needed; 11 year old veteran Oscar beat a new member, Jamie Roberts.

In Division 1 of the championship, Martin set a mating trap which Dave Lambton fell into, so Dave had to resign quickly. Karl and Neville slugged it out in a level endgame,until just the bare kings were left, though even at that point Karl looked like he wanted to play on!

The top of the bill game was the big semi-final clash between Carmel Barwick and George Bulbeck, with Harry Gardiner lurking to see who he would meet in the final. Carmel is the club’s official Jobava evangelist, and so George with white played… the Jobava! He seemed to hold the advantage against the club champ, but Carmel defended solidly. For a change George was not even in time trouble. Try as he might, he could not break down Carmel’s defence and in the end George went for a perpetual check. This meant that an Armageddon blitz play-off was needed, Carmel had 6 minutes against George’s 5, but a draw would mean George would go to the final. Of course, with Carmel now playing white she played … the Jobava! This time she won comfortably, as George started to drop material in the blitz finish.

Cup collector Carmel has been seen out and about shopping for a bigger trophy cabinet, but will hungry Harry manage to spoil her plans? Watch this space for the result of the final.

(The photo below show the young guns about to play the Armageddon)

Congratulations to Lukasz on winning this special trophy fot the second year running, to become the first club member to win this event more than once since its conception in 2015, after eight years of different winners !

The 9th annual Handicap took place (for the first time) at our new venue at The St Mary’s Caritas Centre, where a record number of 32 contested in the spacious conditions. As usual, the start was a little chaotic as the planned pairings from the previous evening had to be amended to accommodate several late entries, a last minute withdrawal and the arrival of a brand new member.

The usual format was adopted whereby the highest rated players had just 5 minutes to complete their games, with an extra minute awarded to players in bands of 100 rating points, and 14 minutes given to the lowest rated players. Then to make it it tougher for the strongest players, handicaps are given ranging from scratch to 2 pts to add to a member’s score achieved over 5 rounds, ensuring nearly everyone has a good chance of winning the competition. In another twist all previous winners had one minute deducted from their standard times and a half point deducted from any standard handicap.

A swiss style pairing system is employed so that all higher rated players should win their 1st round games, but as usual there were a couple of early shocks as the top seed lost his first game to a newcomer Chinenye Basil-Nwachuku, and junior Jamie Roberts beat another strong player to boost his handicap. Most of the other top seeds won their first games as expected.

Round 2 ended with 8 players on 2 pts (excl handicaps), including three previous winners – Harry Gardiner, Rick Renegade and defending champion Lukasz, together with Martin Burns, Karl Lockett, Neville Layhe, new member Andy Raeburn and Chinenye who provided another shock in defeating club champion Carmel Barwick.

Round 3 saw previous winners Harry & Rick paired together with the resulting draw denting their trophy chances. With Karl beating Chinenye and Lukasz defeating Andy, this pair was joined by Martin Burns on 3/3, but the overall leader was Jamie who added a second win to add to his handicap of 1.5 pts.

In Round 4, Lukasz managed a tight win against Martin, and Karl’s chances were scuppered by Harry. Jamie was then paired with Carmel who proved too strong, and Chinenye beat Martin Frisher to move into the joint lead with Lukasz.

The winner between Lukasz and Chinenye would be the outright champion if there was a positive result in their game, while several players were hoping a draw on top board would lead to a play-off as we have had several times before. A sound opening from Chineneye with black appeared to give him the ascendancy on top of his 3 minute starting advantage, gaining a pawn in exchange for some pressure from white’s more open position. After a few tactical moves, Lukasz’s pressure caused a mistake giving a piece advantage and then built up an unstoppable attack to force resignation.

Final positions:

Winner – Lukasz Michalek 5/5

Runners up – Harry and Rick 4.5/5

As usual it was a most enjoyable night for all involved, with special thanks to David Roberts (Jamie’s dad) for assisting controller David Hulme.

Tuesday (5th September) saw the two semi-finals contested in the Summer U1600 Knockout. Both favourites emerged successful As Andrew Crosby with black, and Julian Bulbeck with white overcame resistance to contest the final, due to be played on 19th or 26th September.

There were about half a dozen games played in the Club Championship, with a couple of matches in each of divisions 1,2 and 3, which are now underway. George Bulbeck and Harry Gardiner started their campaigns with a win each in division 1, while Richard Fish and Doug Barnett were winners in division 2, and in division 3 Mark Randell and George Jelliss did the same. It’s early days in the club championships but it is great to see a hand full of new members joining in these competitions which are very much the bread and butter of the club’s success of a growing membership.

We look forward to our very popular Annual Time & Point Handicap to be played on Tuesday (12th), where the winner will be awarded the Les Hall Memorial Trophy at the 2024 AGM prizegiving. Please contact club secretary David Hulme if you wish to play in this event, or would like more details on how the times and handicaps work.

Tuesday (29th August) saw the completion of the Summer Shield competition. The “A” team hosted Meir and captain Steve Ballantyne provided the following report – A good win for the A team last night. Oskar started well and won a central pawn early on, a little later he gained another pawn. He advanced his c and d pawns supported by his rooks. His opponent resigned as he could not stop his pawn becoming a queen. 1-0.  Phil played well again 5/6 for him in the SCS. He laid a trap for his opponent offering his knight for free knowing if it was taken Phil’s Queen was check mating next move. His opponent took the knight 2-0. I definitely had a won game, 2 rooks and 5 pawns against a rook, knight and 2 pawns. I was that engrossed in advancing my pawns on the a and b file that i let his knight fork my king and rook. I still had the advantage as my pawns were nearly home. He kept checking me with his knight and rook. I glanced over to board1 and the game was very tight. I offered my opponent the draw to win the match, he nearly bit my hand off. With the match won board 1 players decided on a draw. 3-1. Many thanks to Dave Lambton for standing in for Jules. Good luck with your operation next week Jules.  Cheers, Steve.

The B team ran out 3-1 winners against Kidsgrove with the highlight seeing three new members making the debuts for the club – Ebube Christian, Joe Moxon and Gerald Parton. The points were earned by wins from Ebube, Joe and Adam Fields.

In addition to the two matches there were several games played in the Summer knockouts with Harry Gardiner clinching the first place in the Open final and George Bulbeck winning his quarter-final tie break to progress to the semis where he faces club champion Carmel. In the U1600 knockout the two remaining quarter-finals were played with Pete Kanalos and Julian Bulbeck progressing to the semis. The Club Championship 2023/24 also got underway as Cyrus Pereira clocked up the first point of the new campaign.

This week should see more action in the knockout as well as a number of games in the three divisions of the Club championship.

Hopefully all members are aware the new league season starts on 3rd October for us with a division 3 derby between our E & F teams.

We have our Annual Time & Point Blitz Handicap taking place on Tuesday 12th September, which promises to be a fun filled night for everyone.

1. 29th August – Two South Cheshire Shield Matches (last of the summer season) and Summer Knockout remaining quarter-finals and first semi-finals
2. 5th September – all remaining Summer KO semi-finals
3. 12th September – The Annual Time & Point (Blitz) Handicap for the Les Hall Memorial Trophy – all members invited to play
4. 19th/26th September – Summer Knockout finals and start of Winter Club Championships – with at least 3 sections

In other news the NSDCA is adding a 4th division to league chess this season, so we will be running EIGHT teams – with two in each division.

For anyone wanting more details please contact:

A) Karl Lockett if you wish to play in the Winter Club Championship, which could start on 5th September for those keen to get back to competitive action.

B) David Hulme if you wish to play in the Blitz Handicap on 12th September, which is normally a great night for everyone.

C) Any captain (Martin B, David H, Karl, David L, Nigel, Dave P,Steve) if you want to know more about team plans for the new season. Fixtures are not yet published but normally start 1st week in October