News

Apologies for the late composure of this note as February has already kicked off with about 10 games played last night, on top of the 3 league matches. I am increasingly awestruck as the club grows in popularity as underlined last night. We had 58 of our members at the club (including several potential newbies) even when many of the regular juniors were absent.

Starting with the top section – division 1 – and the potential Club Champion. It seems Harry is determined as ever to retain the prestigious title as he continues on his merry way. His dominance is highlighted with his current score of 8/9 (unbeaten again so far) being way ahead of second place – Andy Raeburn on 4.5/9. It seems everyone is determined to help Harry as we keep taking points off each other. The only exceptions to this are Carmel (2/2) and returning member Jim Grange (1.5/2), but it is difficult to see how they can catch the runaway leader. The scrap to avoid relegation currently has the original No.1 seed at the bottom of the pack – showing how competitive this tournament has become !

Division 2 sees George Bulbeck leading the way as he attempts to improve on last season’s 3rd position to try and regain his spot in the 1st division. George has a narrow advantage (4/5) over 2nd place Kumar (3.5/5). With five of the 13 players having only played one game, they will find increasingly difficult to catch up. The bottom of the table sees last season’s 3rd division promoted player yet to notch up any points, showing the jump in standards/rating between the sections.

In division 3 Phil Grocott maintains the lead with a superb 6.5/7 and a current tourney rating of 1687. H team captain Tim Weston is his closest rival with 4.5/6 just ahead of Mal Green 4/6 and Steve Ballantyne 4/7. Three players sit at the foot of the table with only 1/2 point on the scoreboard to date, so there is likely to be a lot of tension in the run-in. With Pete Kanalos not seen at the club for some time they all need to overtake his single point to be safe.

Division 4 continues to be led by two of our summer recruits. Simon Humphries with 7/9 is being chased by Sam Ollier 6/7, with Sam having the upper hand due to his win in the head to head. Gerald Parton with 5.5/8 has yet to play Sam so their game could be vital in deciding who wins the division. Youngster Jack Patullo is the only player to defeat Sam so far and with 4/6 could yet feature in the promotion race. Based on current ratings the leading 4 players in this division are all higher rated than 6 of the Div 3 players, so there will likely be a sizeable restructure at the end of this season in addition to the automatic promotion/relegation places.

Division 5 continues to provide a solid grounding for newcomers to the club. Having started with 13 players it has now expanded to 17. Barrie Wood another of our Summer recruits has dominated this section until recently. With 11/15 and just one more game scheduled, there will be an anxious wait to see if anyone can catch him. 2nd placed Andrew Caccamo has returned to the club after a year out and is closing the gap now having scored 8/10 with Mayank Patil hot on Andrew’s heels in 3rd place (6/8) and yet to play Andrew. Several other players have only dropped a couple of points so could easily appear as contenders, but have played many less games than Barrie. Most pleasing is watching the number of members joining in this competition with most recent additions being Jasper Ludlow, Richard Berrisford, Jo Estridge and Wallace Hung.

Over the last 3 weeks of January we had average attendances of 56 members, plus visting teams ensuring there is always lots going on at the club. The latest count shows we now have 84 members with a possible 10 more in the pipeline having visited the club since 1st January !!

Yesterday, Crewe G had a triumphant night, beating Crewe H 4-0! In fairness, as a team we were rated some 400 points higher, which is very unusual considering we are normally rated at least 200 points lower than our opponents…

I was concentrating on my game on board 4 and glanced every now and then at board 3. The game seemed even, with the queens chasing each other around an island of pawns, but next time I watched , I saw that both queens were still on the board… but they were both white! Board 1 had already secured a victory before anyone could realise it and my game was also a success (of course, it was: I have the unbeatable pen!).

Only board 2 remained in play… it was the last game to finish, not only in this match but in the whole club, which would not have been unusual had it not been for the most curious way of playing it. Both players had around 5 minutes left on the clock and all the pieces were still on the chessboard, save for two knights. A quick look at the notation revealed that they had only made 18 moves! I am renowned for running out of time, but board 2 took it to the next level.

Midnight was approaching and, all of a sudden, both players started to move the pieces quickly, as if the knights were about to be turned into mice and the chessboard into a pumpkin… nearly all pieces were exchanged and the game ended when White realised that Black’s pawn promotion was inevitable. The curious thing about this game is that it took hours to get to move 18 and only 5 minutes from move 19 to the final move 63!

What a night!

It was a bad start to the New Year when we had to postpone all of our matches scheduled on the first night (6th January) due to the weather. Even so January has seen us play 14 matches, with 8 in the league and 6 in the Cup comepetitions (see pt 1 of the news). Of the 8 league matches, 2 were derbies and we managed 2 wins with 1 draw and suffered 3 losses.

League Div 1 saw very little action with only two matches played in the month, which allowed Holmes Chapel A to go joint top, and Crewe B notching up a 4-0 whitewash over our C team to move towards mid-table safety. As previously reported it is almost impossible for Crewe to retain the 1st division title this season as Alsager “A”, Holmes Chapel “A” and Macclesfield seemed destined to slug it out.

In Div 2, our E team had a superb win against Crewe D to join the pack chasing promotion, while Stafford leap-frogged from 5th to top by beating Cheddleton “A” on the last Friday of the month. Just 3 pts separate the top 5 teams and with all teams to play each of the contenders it is just too tight to call. Alsager B – although languishing in 6th position could finish top if they win all of their remaining games, and bottom placed Newcastle are far stronger now than at the start of the season and will have a big impact on who wins promotion.

Division 3 has the only team with a 100% record as Holmes Chapel B continue to dominate the division. Only second placed Cheddleton B can pose a serious threat. For our part Crewe G have performed admirably so far to pick up 7 pts from 7 matches to maintain mid table safety, while our brothers in Crewe H find it tough going in a relegation battle. Last time out Crewe H won their first match of the season at Kidsgrove to raise hopes of avoiding the drop. This was thanks mainly to two members stepping in as cover with Simon Humphries (bd 4 win) and Sam Ollier (bd2 draw) supporting captain Tim’s vital win.

Division 4 sees both of our teams exceeding expectations. Steve Ballantyne’s I team are just one point behind leaders Cheddleton C but have played one more game. However with four matches to go the I team have it in their own hands to win the division as they have to play the league leaders both home and away. The story of the season for us so far, is our J team (10th team !!) having the incredible record of Played 8 and drawing all 8. I am not aware of any team ever having a record like this in the NSDCA …. perhaps Colin Abell may provide some stats to back this up (or challenge it) in due course.

Division 5 is very much under the control of Meir’s experienced team. Having only dropped one point from their 8 matches they are massive favourites to take the Div 5 trophy, although Cheddeton’s D team and Holmes Chapel’s C team are breathing down their necks. From Crewe’s point of view our two teams were never likely to threaten the leaders, but we have given 18 members the chance to play league chess, with many playing league chess for the first time and our L team comprising 8 juniors with an average age of approx 12.

All in all we have provided 70 members to play in the league so far this season, for which we should all be very proud, and allows league chess to continue to grow in the North Staffs District.

January has seen us involved in 6 Cup matches, covering all four of the NSDCA competitions – Open, Major (U1825), Inter (U1600) and Perry (U1375).

The first match saw our big guns deployed on the 8th Jan when our Open “A” team faced tough opposition from Holmes Chapel. The task was made much more difficult as two of our top five players were unavailable. Captain Carmel took matters in hand and calmly assembled our team, with all six players contributing to a sound victory 4-2 as previously reported on here by Martin Burns – the displaced captain of our Cup Holders. Martin will relish the challenge of leading our Open Cup B team when we face Alsager in the quarter-final. Oddly enough the “A” team are through to the final already as they await the outcome of the top half of the draw involving Alsager, Crewe B, and Macclesfield.

In the Intermediate Cup we were handed a walk-over as Northwich failed to raise a team. Consequently George Bulbeck’s team will play away against either Kidsgrove or Alsager in the final in an attempt to retain the trophy won under Nigel Gardner’s leadership last season.

In the Major Cup we played Alsager last week in the semi-final. Looking to get into our 4th consecutive final we came unstuck against spirited opponents. Despite outgrading our opponents on all five boards we were unable to find success in any game and were knocked out 3.5-1.5.

The Perry Cup saw all three of our teams in action. First up our defending champions (Perry 1) led by Steve Ballantyne played Alsager on 13th Jan. Again we outrated our opponents on every board and emerged successfully as Mario Scarpa and Keith Dudeney won their games with black on boards 2 and 4 respectively, while captain Steve got the crucial half point to ensure success in the knowledge that a 2-2 draw would have meant Alsager proceeded on tie break. The team face a daunting semi-final against the Gables Perry 3 team who possess a rapidly improving squad of youngsters under the skilful guidance of Chris Hankey.

Our junior Perry 3 team made the trip to Meir to play their quarter-final on Wednesday (21st). Freddie Lee-Cooper took a valuable scalp to win on board 2, but Meir’s vastly experienced team proved too strong in the remaining games to win 3-1 and progress to the semis.

Our Perry 2 team made the long trip to Leek to face Cheddleton on Friday (23rd) and in an evenly rated match, found the top two boards tough going as Cheddleton fielded two juniors who will soon surpass the 1375 rating limit. Dave Roberts’ win on board 3 proved our only success on the evening as we were knocked out 3-1 like our Perry 3 team earlier in the week.

My team had a hard fought win against Kidsgrove on Tuesday. They were all long games. First to finish was our Board 1. Alan said it was one of the toughest games he has played  0 – 1.  I offered to play on board 1 but my offer was declined. Alan is a big part of my team and has played on board 1 whenever he is available. Thank you Alan. My game was next to finish and i beat Julian Cook for the first time  1 – 1. Boards 3/4 were very late finishes. Keith played very well in a tight game and his opponent lost on time. Well done Keith you’re getting your confidence back. 2 – 1. Phil was in big time trouble, less than 20 seconds on his clock. The 10 minute games he plays on Lichess comes in handy when he’s short on time. Eventually a draw was agreed. Well done Phil. I for one would not be able to move that quick under pressure. 2.5 -1.5. Well pleased with my teams efforts.

Cheers, Steve

Yesterday we confronted the strongest team of the league. So far Holmes Chapel B never lost a game and yesterday was no exception. Rating 600 higher than us, it was nearly inevitable. I was running out of time and managed to force a draw instead of losing, which seemed good at the time, but analysing the game the next morning revealed that I missed a mate in 4 moves, trading a crushing victory for a mere draw. What a shame! Have a look at the game here.

Worthy of note was Tommy’s excellent victory on board 1! He delivered a masterful performance against a stronger opponent, showcasing composure and skill. In a fixture against the league’s pre-eminent unbeaten side, Tommy’s triumph stood out as a real inspiration for the team.

Well played, Tommy—what a performance!

Our Juniors took on Stafford Library, Alsager Owls and the Potteries juniors on Saturday 17th January at The New Finney Gardens.

The event had an open section and a U1300 section

Chris Hankey had done an excellent job attracting a total of 10 teams of 5 players. 4 Teams supporting the potteries juniors, 3 teams from the Alsager Owls, 2 teams from Crewe and 1 from Staffordshire Libraries.

This was the maximum capacity of venue meaning the Open section had to play the first 3 rounds in another room.

We had 3 Crewe Payers in a 5 player Open challenge, Tommy, Oskar and James. Well Done James with a clean sweep and took the Annual trophy home.

In the U1300 section we had 3 new players supporting Crewe for the first time. A big thankyou to Memhet, Jasper and Oliver.

All of our 10 players did excellent but we were out playing by potteries junior A team.

Congratulation to the potteries juniors who won theU1300 team trophy

A big thankyou to all our players and Parents who supported Crewe

Below is a picture of some of our proud players.

Full results

The first week of the year did not quite go to plan; bugs had weakened some of our number, and with snow and ice around Crewe, some matches were cancelled. The club did open though, and a few internal matches were played by the diehards.

We were lucky to dodge Storm Goretti (even so, our bin did not get collected, humph) and on Thursday 8 January our new year really got started. The Open Cup team started the attempt to win the trophy for the third year in a row. Their chances were considerably improved by the appointment of a new, stronger, and generally better, team captain. Thanks to Captain Carmel for the report below.

“A huge thank you to everyone for last night. Particularly to Richard for making the long journey.

It turns out that the Holmes Chapel team at full strength were no match for us.

The black on odds strategy worked perfectly.

David L on board 6 (a crucial board) played a brilliant game, soundly outplaying his lower rated opponent and securing the first point for the team.
My game should have been a draw, but Mike very kindly let me mate him in a dead equal major piece endgame.
Richard, despite his long journey, demonstrated his superb class and experience by holding the frustrated FM to a draw with no difficulties. A true MVP.
I didn’t see much of Kamil’s game, but his opponent was looking very stressed and worried throughout most of it, so I assume Kamil made a comfortable draw on board 4.
Simon secured us the match by forcing a draw with a position that was apparently very promising for him – a true team player!
Last to finish was Harry, who very calmly navigated his way through a time scramble and found a neat tactic that saved his game. It may have been winning at some point for Harry, but he wisely forced a draw soon after.

Perhaps our biggest advantage was having our own spectator and supporter from Crewe. It was great to see Alex Brown there, who came along to support Richard and the rest of us!

Thanks again everyone, it was a real privilege to play alongside such a team.”