Category: News

On Tuesday our title chasing “A” team had the short journey to Alsager for their penultimate match of the campaign. Captain Dave Price gave the following report : ” A great result from our A team – First to finish was Harry (board 4) when his opening looked a bit messy and his opponent sacked a piece not only stopping Harry from castling but won the piece back. Harry kept his cool and took his time to grind his opponent down and skewered queen and Rook. Simon (on bd 3) was second to finish beating an ex Crewe player. On bd 2 Chris had less time than his opponent, and he was  offered a draw as they had opposite coloured bishops. Chris had a great attack and  he declined thinking a win was possible, but had to accept the draw with less than 2 minutes on the clock. With Crewe now leading 2.5 – 0.5, Amy was offered a draw with just over 1 min on the clock against nearly 6 mins. Amy declined the draw played a fantastic end game using the King to support a queening pawn which led to her opponent’s resignation. A fantastic end game with time pressure and all eyes on the game a real joy to watch.” This result leaves the “A” team facing a title-decider when they play Newcastle on 19th September at The Bridge Club.

On Wednesday night, the B team concluded their South Cheshire campaign with a win over Stafford to leap above them into 3rd place in the table. A really close match according to Stafford skipper Peter Evans could easily have gone either way. We were on the fortunate side of the scores to emerge with a 3-1 result thanks to wins from Rick Renegade on bd 1 as white made a critical mistake with just seconds left and Julian Bulbeck’s win on bd 2 was a 50/50 call, while Kobus Nienaber was the other victorious player. Thanks to skipper Les Hall our B team have used 9 players in this campaign, while our “A” team have retained the same 4 players for each match to date. The B team have turned round their season completely, having picked up NO points from their first 4 matches, to gain 7 pts in the other 4 matches – a remarkable improvement.

Meanwhile the club had another busy night of internal competition and friendly games with Bart Fajfer closing the gap at the top of Rapid-play division 1 with a further two wins, to take his score to a perfect 8/8 and remain in 2nd place, trailing the leader by just 2.5 pts. With 10 games in hand there is little doubt Bart will shortly emerge as the leader as he heads towards the trophy.

News from our ubiquitous secretary Les Hall:

Saturday Doug Barnett and your’s truly attended Darnhall and Handsworth Rapidplay, Doug came joint 3rd in the Intermediate with 4/6 and I got 3.5/6, so a good day out, all results on Chessresults.com

WELL DONE TO BOTH

It was another busy summer’s night at the Mals Club on Wednesday as our South Cheshire B team hosted Alsager. This was a close run match with the visitor’s grades just shading the advantage but the B team managed to overcome this. First board to finish was a superb result for our Adam Fields as he beat one of the Crewe old-boys playing for Alsager. On board 4 Kobus Nienaber held out for a draw despite being some 20+ grading pts below his opponent (another ex Crewe player). When Julian Bulbeck added another draw on bd 2 this ensured we had at least a share of the match points, leaving the bd 1 game in play where we had a 20+ grade point advantage. An unbalanced game developed with Neville Layhe agreeing a draw against Alsager captain Andy Barker to push Crewe over the winning line by narrow score of 2.5-1.5. The B team play their final match of the SCS season next week against Stafford where a win would catapult the team up to 3rd place in the table.

Junior Harry Gardiner had a very busy night in the Club’s division 1 of the Rapid-play. Firstly he played against the top graded player Bart Fajfer losing both games as would have been predicted. Next he took on the leader David Hulme and took a fully deserved 1.5 pts in the 2 games outplaying the 1st team captain. In the 2nd game he played a brilliant sacrifice leading to a back rank mate after deflecting the defending pieces in further forced exchanges. Harry then threw down the gauntlet to the 2016 RP champion Rich Wiltshir playing two more games. Again in the 2nd game he stifled his opponents position to such an extent that Rich had little choice but to try a risky sacrifice, that indeed proved to be unsound as Harry ramped up the pressure. In all 6 games  Harry must have conceded an average well over the 40 pts max used in grade calculations. A superb effort to score 2.5 pts on the night against the top 3 players in the competition and take him to 4th place.

David continues to lead RP division 1 with 10.5/18, but with newcomer Bart Fajfer currently on 100% after 6 games, it may not be too long before he overtakes the leader and 2nd place Rich Wiltshir (7/11) with junior Harry in 4th place with 6/12.

Nigel Gardner continues to romp away in Div 2 of the Long-play as he added another win to take his score to a perfect 4/4.

Last week saw both of our South Cheshire Shield teams in action. Tuesday night it was the B team who traveled to Alsager for the Wooden Spoon battle with the teams having only 1 point between them going into the match. Alsager were more intent on giving games to their members than concerned about results as witnessed by the late substitution on board 2 as Neville Jones stood down to allow Mike Williams to play. This gave Crewe a big grading advantage which eventually led to a 4-0 win for our Bees as Neville Layhe, David Hulme, Les Hall and Kobus Nienaber all picked up wins. The result did not reflect the close nature of all the games, and the end score could have been just as easily reversed !

Wednesday night it was the turn of our A team to host Stafford. Harry Gardiner set the wheels in motion with a good win on board 4. Harry gained a crucial pawn advantage which was vital in the end game as it could not have been stopped from queening without another pawn queening elsewhere. Next to finish was Simon Layhe’s game on board 3 where the position came completely blocked by opposing pawn chains leading to the inevitable draw. On board 1 Amy Lovatt realised a draw would help the team and maturely offered this to her opponent which was duly accepted. Almost as soon as this was agreed, the board 2 game concluded with a resignation as Chris Rhodes had forged a piece advantage and an unstoppable position. This ensured a 3-1 win to keep the “A” team hot on the heels of leaders Newcastle, who lead the table by 1 point with two matches remaining each including the potential title decider at Newcastle on 19th September.

Meanwhile there was another excellent club night with 18 members in attendance despite a number being on summer vacation. A further 7 rapid-play and 3 long-play tournament games took place as well as a hand full of friendly games. David Hulme took the opportunity to extend his lead in RP division 1 with two more wins to take his score to 10/16. With Simon Layhe occupied in the South Cheshire match, Rich Wiltshir added two wins to take him up the table into joint 2nd with running score of 5/8. As can be noted David has played twice as many games as his nearest rivals to gain the upper hand. At least there is over four months left for competitors to catch up.

Wednesday night saw 14 members at the club with a mix of long play, rapid-play and friendly games taking place. In division 1 of the RP, David Hulme extended his lead with a further 2 wins from 4 games to take his tally to 8 pts from 14 games, while 2nd placed Simon Layhe sits on 5pts with 6 games in hand on David and Neville Layhe has 4/8 in 3rd place. The majority of players have only completed a couple of games so far and accordingly have great opportunity to catch the leaders with the tournament running until 31st December.

In the Long-play section, Nigel Gardner has made a superb start with a 100% score from his first 3 games. With the long-play sections running until 31st May 2019, there has only been a sparse number of games played to date.

Thursday night saw our B team travel to Stafford for a South Cheshire Shield match. It was not a good start as the team were trailing 2-0, with losses on boards 3 & 4, leaving Neville Layhe (bd 1) and David Hulme to try and salvage the B’s first point of the SCS campaign. David managed to claw a win, before Neville applied superb pressure to push for victory on top board and ensure the Bees get the first point of the SCS season.

Full details of the SCS league and the club’s Rapid-play and Long-play tournaments can be seen on the LMS and from the links on the right side of our home page.

Wednesday night was a quieter night at the Mals as holiday season kicked in with 18 members in attendance. The main event of the evening was the South Cheshire Shield Derby between our A and B teams which was brought forward by five weeks from the schedule to ensure fair play was observed in the league.

Junior Harry Gardiner started the ball rolling for the “A” team with a win against B team captain Les Hall on board 4. It seems young Harry is learning to use his allotted time better as for the first time (witnessed by club reporter) he used more time on his clock than the opponent. His patience was rewarded after a level middle game turned to his advantage with a kingside break through to make the score 1-0. Simon Layhe on board 3 doubled the A’s advantage as he exploited his opponents over exuberant attack by chasing the king out into the open. When faced with the chance to win Queen for a major piece, Simon coolly turned this down as his King hunt was completed four moves later with a combination of two rooks and a Knight delivering the mate. The B team did their best to put a dent in the A team’s title efforts when Neville Layhe won the board 2 battle to leave Rick Renegade (B team) and Amy Lovatt in play on board 1. Rick’s usual aggressive play led to a huge imbalance as he held Q,R,B and 7 pawns vs Amy’s RRBBN and 4 pawns. As the game developed Amy was able to co-ordinate all of her heavy artillery before Rick could muster his forces together and ended the game with a superb mating attack against the king-side castled position to ensure the A team won 3-1.

A look at the league table on the LMS shows Newcastle still leading the way with 11 pts (P6 W5 D1 and board difference of +10) while our “A” team have 8 pts (P5 W3 D2 and bd diff of +8). It seems the title will most likely go down to the last match of the season on 19th September when Newcastle host our “A” team unless of course we have some slip ups in the meantime.

The remaining club members played a mixture of long-play and rapid-play competition games as well as a hand full of friendlies.

With both of our South Cheshire Shield teams in action over the last 7 days we were hoping to make good progress in our efforts to retain the League Trophy. However things did not go to plan for either team. First up the B team entertained Newcastle, the league leaders at the Mals Club on Wednesday. Les Hall the captain reported that the game was played in a great spirit as the visitors took the spoils with a 3-1 win to extend their lead at the top of the table. Our only success came with a win by Neville Layhe on board 2. It is apparent that our Bees are wilting in the summer sun as they now prop up the league table.

Thursday night saw our A team head off to Stafford to defend their unbeaten record. They came back home with a share of the match points following the 2-2 draw, as all players won with the white pieces. For us, it was Amy Lovatt and Simon Layhe with the wins on boards 1 and 3, that ensured the As remain unbeaten.

The table is headed by Newcastle with 9pts from 5 matches, and our A team in 2nd place with 6pts from 4 matches. It would appear the title is a two horse race, although Stafford and Alsager would like to put dents in anyone else’s title aspirations. Full details of all matches can be seen from clicking on the link on the right-hand side of this site.

Wednesday night saw the club room packed to the rafters as our South Cheshire Shield “A” team hosted league leaders Newcastle. Our visitors brought along an additional member to their 4-player team to enjoy some friendly chess with our own players.

The match itself was a classic as both sides slugged it out in attempt to gain supremacy in the race for the Shield title. First out of the traps to put a point on the scorecard was our quickfire junior Harry Gardiner with a hard earned win on board 4 which could so easily have ended up in defeat. Next to finish was a rare defeat for another of our juniors – Amy Lovatt. Promoting her to board 1 will reap its rewards in due course with tough games, but on this occasion the experienced campaigner (and newly elected NSDCA Honorary Prseident) John Day took advantage of Amy’s clock management to bring her downfall in a game she would surely have won with a few more seconds in hand as a tricky Rook and pawn endgame needed careful attention. Next to finish was the board 2 battle where Newcastle’s even younger star Joe Hirst (age 11) fought toe-to-toe with our Chris Rhodes. With both players well into increment time peace was agreed with a draw to leave the match still in the balance. The board 3 game was a delight to watch as Simon Layhe tried desperately to find a winning line with a pawn advantage, while stuck on the end of a “mate-in-one” threat from his wily opponent Alberto Gissi. After much tussling Alberto found a purpeptual check to ensure the match was drawn 2-2. It would seem the league title will be decided when the teams meet again in the last scheduled fixture in September.

As mentioned in the opening sentence the club was packed with nearly 30 players in attendance, including the 5 from Newcastle on a Summer’s night with scorching temperatures. Our own members played a mixture of Summer Rapid-play and Long-play tournament games as well as friendlies for those that preferred less competition. However what makes us so proud was the following message picked up by chairman Dave Price from Newcastle’s David Ashby which read:

Apologies for this late report as your writer was absent from the club last Wednesday attending the Wirral League AGM.

The “A” team emerged with a big win by the score of 3.5-0.5, to keep them in contention for the South Cheshire Shield title. Despite being significantly outgraded on top two boards, Amy Lovatt picked up a full point and Chris Rhodes took a share of the spoils against Rick Renegade. Lower down the order the grades distinctly favoured the team as Simon Layhe won on board 3 and Harry Gardiner also did likewise on board 4. The “A” team face a tough match against title contenders Newcastle this Wednesday (25th), before both of our teams play on consecutive nights next week with the B team hosting Newcastle before the A’s travel to Stafford on Thursday.

The news from the Wirral AGM is that we have a 7-board knock-out match in the 1st round against Frodsham, while the league (division 2) sees a new team from Wrexham admitted (and expected to be very strong), while Atticus go up to division 1, and Wallasey 2 (relegated from div 1) join us in division 2. We have one less league fixture as last year’s division 3 champions were granted permission to remain in division 3 in order to improve the balance of overall numbers in each division.

News has just arrived to say Crewe teams were joint winners of the Open Section and outright winners of the U130 section at tonight’s Jamboree Event. Congratulations to both teams.

The Open team pulled a rabbit out of the hat by including Newcastle’s top player Alex Richardson (grade 182 rapid) alongside Rick Renegade, Chris Rhodes and Doug Barnett.

The U130 team included juniors Lukasz Michalek, Harry Gardiner and Amy Lovatt as well as club chair Dave Price (who was probably carried along by the youthful exuberance of his team mates)

Our third team consisted of Neville Layhe, Simon Layhe, Nigel Gardner and Les Hall

Thanks to secretary Les Hall for getting the message through to your News Reporter so promptly.