Category: News

Thursday night (17th August), saw Steve Ballantyne’s A team make the short trip to Kidsgrove and below is his account of the evening.

A very good win at Kidsgrove.  Phil and I finished at the same time just after 10pm to make it 0-2. Phil won a pawn early on and later captured a knight. His pressure was too much for his opponent and Phil managed to get a pawn home for a queen and his opponent resigned. I was a Bishop up in my game, but all his pieces were on white squares so my black bishop was redundant. He defended very well but on move 46 i managed to break through. Andrew had a good start but was pegged back in the middle game. However after a blunder on move 30 by his opponent Andrew took full advantage and it was 0-3. What can i say about Jules, another sound game on board 1. He tried hard to break through but his opponent responded every time with a good defence, so a draw was agreed.  Phil has had a good SCS with 4/5. A very happy Captain !!

The main playing room looked pretty desserted last night, with about 15 members in the room as a similar number of juniors occupied the coaching room, while we had our south Cheshire B team playing at Fenton.

It was a tough night as we suffered a 4-0 whitewash at the hands of the runaway champions – so congratulations to Fenton on regaining the South Cheshire Shield.

Meanwhile back at The Caritas there were some “big clashes” in the Open Knockout. First to finish was Neville Layhe as the underdog who held Harry Gardiner to a draw, before coming off second best in the Armageddon tie break that sees Harry through to the semi-finals. Next to finish was Karl Lockett who knocked out Lukasz Michalek in what looked an exciting game after Lukasz’s Grob attack opening. This was the last game to complete in Round 2, so now Karl faces Chairman Dave in the quarter-finals. The other clash saw Carmel Barwick knockout Martin Burns in their quarter-final game, as she inflicted Martin’s first defeat in 18 games going back to March. Both players have seen their ratings climb steadily in the last few months, with Martin up approx 70 pts to 1970 since January, while Carmel has moved from approx 1650 to around the 1800 level now over the same period. However according to our secretary’s investigations Carmel’s rating is missing a recent congress where she should add at least 25 points to her rating and should now leapfrog to approx 1840.

We also had a newcomer (Joe Moxon) playing a long-play rated game, while juniors Kryspin Kaputsa and Noah Smith shared the spoils in a brace of Rated rapidplay games.

Three of our members headed off to play in the Lancaster Congress this weekend, with Simon Layhe pitting himself against the strongest players in the Open Section seeded 23rd out of 28, Carmel Barwick played in the U1900 seeded 20th out of 24, while Dave Price played in the Inter U1750 seeded 17th out of 26.

Simon and Dave finished much in line with their seeded positions, but Carmel excelled to end in a 5-way pile up for 2nd place on 3.5pts . She was the only player in this pack to have played the outright winner who scored a perfect 5/5, and so could have finished higher had the pairings been similar to the others in this pack. This rounds off a superb week for Carmel and should see her rating fly over the 1800 level, making her the greatest improver from our club over the last 12 months !

Fenton were the visitors last night in the crunch top of the table match in the South Cheshire Shield, against our unbeaten “A” team, where the winners were likely to become champions.

Unfortunately for us, it was not to be, and captain Steve Ballantyne’s brief report sums up the match – Crewe A lost last night to Fenton 1-3. We were 0-2 down and Pav was even on pieces but low on time and could not find a way to break through so a draw was agreed. With the match lost Jules agreed to a draw so everyone could travel home earlier.

In our Summer knockouts, Carmel Barwick beat the top seed Bart Fajfer to head into the quarter-finals where she faces the No 2 seed – Martin Burns.

In the U1600 knockout, Pete Kanalos won his first round game to progress to the last eight.

Tuesday night (25th July) saw Crewe’s mayor visit our club in it’s new premises at The St Mary’s Caritas Centre. This was to see how the club was developing after we had secured a grant from the Town Council. The grant has already been used to purchase over 20 Digital clocks, and we have orders in place for more new boards and sets as well as a new storage cupboard.

As he arrived at around 7pm, the club was buzzing with activity as approx 25 existing members were boosted by an influx of more than a dozen potential new members comprising mainly of juniors from the local community.

Shortly afterwards the Mayor awarded the Club’s Player of the Year trophy to Carmel Barwick after a stunning season as she claimed the Club championship and the Swiss Rapidplay competitions.

The visit was expected to last no more than 30 minutes, but he was so impressed with way the club embraced the local community he stayed for about one and a half hours and even expressed a hope to pop in on another club night.

Carmel being presented player of the year trophy

Crewe Chairman Dave Price thanking the Mayor for his support towards the grant application.

He was invited to play our 11 year-old star, Oskar Jarzynski and was delighted to accept the challenge as he recalled playing the game at a similar age, but could not hide his disappointment at coming off 2nd best.

Last week (18th July) the club held it’s AGM at The St Mary’s Caritas Centre.

The main items to note were

It had been a very successful year for the club with membership growing (from 41 to 59 members) to become the largest club in the NSDCA. We had won the NSDCA’s 1st division for the first time, as well as the Major and Minor Knockout.

After 9 years residence at The Mals Club, the growth of the club forced us to seek out larger premises resulting in our recent move to The Caritas Centre.

1. The committee was extended to recognise the significant growth of the club in the last 12 months, to comprise chair, secretary, treasurer, Events officer, Website officer and Club Steward – with some cabinet shuffleing taking place.
2. Annual subscriptions were increased following our recent move with Adult fees now being £30 p.a and juniors (under 18 years of age) at £20 p.a
3. Provisional plans were made to run 6 teams in the league for the 2023/24 season, with deadline of 31st August to submit details.
4. Trophies were awarded to: Lukasz Michalek for the Les Hall Memorial Trophy/Time & Point Handicap, Division 3 champion Phil Grocott, Div 2 champion Pawel Stanny and Junior player of the year Oskar Jarzynski. Other trophy winners were unable to attend (Simon Layhe and Carmel Barwick)

This is just a reminder to all members that we will be holding our AGM this Tuesday, starting at 7.30pm.

It’s your chance to have a say in how we run the club, and to see the numerous Tropies awarded to the winners (over the last 12 months).

Everyone should have received an Agenda and Reports pack, but if any member has not got them please contact the secretary or any other committee member.

We would like as many as possible to attend, and expect to have a bit of fun with some chess games as soon as the meeting is over.

Last night (13th July) saw the 2nd episode of the WC Trophy – the comically named challenge between Wallasey and Crewe. The first match took place in August 2022 over 8 boards, but last night involved far more players as Crewe hired a mini-bus and driver to take the team to Wallasey. Thanks to the organisers Alan Kelly (Wallasey) and Dave Price (Crewe) the match was played over 14 boards, with teams evenly matched. After Wallasey had raced into an early 3-0 lead it looked they would gain revenge, but from this position Crewe overhauled the hosts with a dominant performance with 7 wins and 3 draws from the top 10 boards, and ultimately were runaway winners by 9.5-4.5.

As a beaming Dave Price was awarded the Cup on Crewe’s behalf, he generously donated a consolation prize to the runners-up from Wallasey ….. half a toilet roll …

And then Alan Kelly threw down the gauntlet for the 2024 challenge to take place in Crewe, aiming to increase the teams to 20 boards per side.

Thanks to Alan and the hosting team at Wallasey who also provided a very pleasant buffet, which kept the travelling army from Crewe well satisfied as they returned home in the early hours.

The full result can be seen from the LMS link, with pictures below

https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node

Crewe win the Trophy and Wallasey Win the Toilet Roll

Use link below to read Wallasey’s report https://www.wallaseychessclub.uk/news/49

Thanks to Steve Ballantyne for the brief report on last night’s South Cheshire Shield match

A very hard fought win for Crewe “A” last night.  After going one nil down things were not looking good on boards 3 and 4, both of the young lads were playing very well. Phil lost a central pawn early on and was under pressure, eventually he won the pawn back and got his Rook onto the 7th row which caused problems for his opponent. Much later his opponent resigned and Phil maintained his 100% record. Next to finish was Pav, after a shaky start his pressure proved too much and we were 1-2 to the good. Jules immediately offered his opponent the draw which was accepted, giving Crewe A the win.

I just thought i would give Nev a mention. Nev is well known in the club for his Stonewall but his defensive play as black and his pawn positioning is superb. The new members and other members of the club could learn a lot from Nev, me included.

Cheers, Steve.

Last night saw the final game being played in Division 2 of the internal Club Championship. Here the previous deadline of 31st May had been extended by the Events Officer to allow Pawel Stanny to play his two remaining games, which he did winning both. This means he has now won the tournament so congratulations go to him. Last season was a successful one for Pawel whose rating has increased by about 100 points over the previous 12 months. Commiserations go to George Bulbeck who was sitting on top of the table when the deadline for the event was extended. However he can be proud of a rating increase of about 85 points in the last 12 months and hopefully will take his place in Division 1 in the future, something his performance and rating deserve. What is particularly noteworthy is the fact that in both division 1 and division 2 of the club’s internal tournament all games were completed by the eleven players in each division. Even though these tournaments lasted throughout the season, this is credit to not only the Events Officer who drove the competitions but by all 22 players who made the effort to take part. Hopefully everyone enjoyed their games (whatever the result) and will be back for more of the same next season.

The Summer Shield match involving Crewe’s B team provided the interest in the main hall battling against Newcastle. The first game to conclude was that of Nigel Gardner who achieved a draw. Additional interest was provided by two juniors playing their first game for the club at the the longer classical time controls. Jamie Roberts, one of those youngsters, played well early on achieving the better position in the middle game, however a series of piece exchanges left him a bishop down. This was further traded down leaving a rook endgame where his opponent had several pawns advantage marching forward on one side of the board. To the onlooking spectators this seemed just a matter of time before his opponent would announce checkmate, however Jamie then made a rook move which had to be taken as it checked his opponent’s king, however on doing so it was realised that Jamie was then in stalemate meaning Jamie had remarkedly achieved a draw from an otherwise lost position. The game of the other new player James Coney swung both ways at different times however James had a central passed pawn which he managed to advance to the 7th Rank. This obviously had to be taken leaving a rook endgame. This lead on to to a king and pawn endgame where James skilfully managed to queen his extra pawn, achieving a win in his first game for the club. The team’s win was sealed by Neville Layhe on top board who thwarted his opponents passed pawn on the 7th rank to lead into an endgame three pawns up, not surprisingly he was able to convert this for the win.

Jamie is Black and Black to play can you find Jamie’s move?

As well as a number of other friendly games taking place in the main hall, the second room used by the club was busy with a number of youngsters of varying abilities, a few of whom were visiting the club for the first time, receiving coaching and advice from some of the more experienced players at the club. I am sure they all not only enjoyed it but also learnt a lot from it so hopefully we will see some of those youngsters return in the future. Thanks go to Dave Price, Karl Lockett, Harry Gardiner, Martin Frischer and Julian Bulbeck who helped out with this.