News

“Experts” say that January is a depressing month; the Christmas licence to stuff your face and drink more than usual has expired; some have to go back to work or school; some foolishly try fitness fads, or even worse, stop doing stuff that they like doing; it’s dead cold; and so on.

Do not despair, I am glad to be able to cast some light into the darkness. In January there is an excellent chess congress in the pleasant town of Telford. The venue is plush and warm. They have a nice cafe. If you win a couple of games, no matter what section you are in, you might get the chance to play on a “live” board, which means that when you blunder there could be someone, maybe in Turin or Truro, who is watching and laughing. This year several of our members ignored the government weather warnings and headed down. Harry, Simon, Martin, Andy, Dave P, Jamie, Dave R, Doug, Mal and Peter were all there. Our best scorer was Jamie Roberts, who got 3.5 /5 in his section. I hope Harry will send in one of his games, as he found a very nice mating trap which deserves a look. Check out the Telford Congress website, and go do it next year!

Even better news, on 7 January Crewe CC opened up again after the Christmas break. Sadly, more snow and fog meant that not all visiting teams could make it, but Crewe A managed to scrape a win, against Crewe C, with Richard and Harry winning on the top 2 boards.

Nod of gratitude to Nige, who has restocked the club cafe.

Mario has put in another excellent report on our website for the I team.

On the 14 January there was no league action at St Mary’s, but the G team did get a win away at the Gables. Special mention to Ebube, who won his game, though he did cause his captain a bit of pre-match panic as he thought we were playing at home! On the night before the V team won 4-0, also at the Gables.

So the 14^th it was a quieter night than normal, but there was still some action in the match room, as the internal competitions continue. In 1603 James of Scotland came down to take over the English throne, and at the club there could be an event of similar significance. Andy Raeburn won again in the Crewe CC Championship, and is still the clear leader after reaching the halfway stage. Others could catch up, but could we have a scottish club champion for the first time? Division 2 is currently lead by Ebube and Divison 3 by Nathan, Division 4 looks very interesting, as 2 of our junior members Tommy Cooke and William Hogben, are in first and second respectively. They are both pretty good players already and I suspect their ratings will continue to climb.

If the above is not good news enough then just think, spring is on its way.

All the best.

Last night we had our first game of the year. Unfortunately, we lost 2^1/2 – 1^1/2 and that would be all there is to say… or would it?

Malcolm managed to secure a draw, thus granting us the extra half point that prevents the match from being classified as a crushing defeat—it sounds much better than 3-0, doesn’t it? Gerald won straight away before I even finished my first pint of Coke. Nowadays, he seems to dispose of his opponents very rapidly, unlike myself, who linger in the struggle until the very (and in this case, bitter) end. I played on board 1 against someone rated some 200 points higher than me. Considering that, I’m quite satisfied that, despite my loss, I made him sweat to exhaustion and gave him some good headaches… time pressure did, however, get the best of me in the end, as one blunder leads to another…

I would like to thank Chairman Price for hosting such a pleasant evening. There was a fine buffet, supplemented this year by the fabulous baking skills of Gee, who outdid herself with loads of delectable cake. Dave P heroically organised the traditional chase-the-ace contest; extra cards had to be found to accommodate the large throng clamouring to join in. Mario won the poker; he’s a bit of a shark, it turns out. Dave H even sorted out a team blitz event, so there was a bit of chess going on. (Shocking, we know.)

We bade farewell and (dare we say?) good riddance to Kobus, who has been threatening to emigrate for ages. It feels like a few have left us for other parts this year: Wallasey, Nottingham, Cornwall, Germany, Poland, Malta (though that last one keeps coming back) and so on. They will all be missed—eventually.

The match room (in contrast to the social room) is normally a place of silence and tension, strained nerves, and in Frisher’s immortal words, of joy and misery, but for one night, it was given over to laughter, music (regrettably) and talk of cabbages and kings.

We had a couple of new visitors, most notably Alfie, who came in with his devoted servant Phil:

There will be no club night for the next two Tuesdays. This should give you all a chance to polish up your game in readiness for the second half of the season. The next club night will be on 7^th January 2025.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a cracking start to the year!
See you all in 2025!

Not surprising really, seeing as how 3/5ths of the first division teams are from Crewe, but the A team had to face back-to-back derbies recently.

First up was the Crewe C derby.

I managed to get an early point on the board for us, after Karl walked into some back rank problems. All the old timers in the club are getting worried about having to face 12 year old Oskar, and this time it was Dave Hulme’s turn. Anyone who follows the news at all knows that Oskar just keeps improving as he gets taller. He had Dave on the ropes early on, picking up a pawn and clamping down on the queenside, Lucky for the “A”s he then allowed Dave to escape and win a pawn, and the game then drifted into a draw. Harry blew open Andy’s defences to seal a nice win, and Richard beat Kamil. 3-1 to Crewe A.

Then came the big one: we have had AvB, now for BvA. Dave Dastardly Lambton had outdone himself this time. An old dirty trick, pulled by many a team in the past, was that he put himself on board one, rightly thinking that Richard Lee would just beat whoever sat down in front of him. Sure enough, Richard kept a plus all the way, then started collecting material in a convincing display of endgame technique. Anyway, that game was was the last to finish, I am doing this the wrong way around, just like in Pulp Fiction, another tale of the dodgy. Going back to the start, there was an strange occurrence on board 4; Dave H lost to Martin Frisher. Not that strange you might think, as their ratings are pretty similar. What really got club members scuttling over, from all corners, was that the game was over in 5 moves. When I say over, I mean checkmate was on the board.

I had what I thought was an edge all the way through my game against Gee, but she won the crucial battle, the blitz finish. The main dirty trick pulled off by the B captain was that he had only gone and flown in an ex club champion for the match! As Harry said , it was lovely, and not so lovely, to see Carmel back in the country. Carmel and Harry played a rook ending to death, but even though Harry nearly smashed his clock to bits at one point when he had only a second left, the game was drawn. Crewe B 2.5- Crewe A 1.5.

So Crewe B beat Crewe A again; the history book on the shelf is always repeating itself.

Crewe B have been in fine form and head into the new year well in front of the pack. Let’s hope they can win the league for Crewe CC.

ps. Dave H was mocked without mercy after the match, but on the way home I remembered that I resigned a league game in 5 moves, many a year ago, after a “pre-move” lost me a piece. That may or may not make him feel better.

Last night, Crewe I played an away match at the Fenton Chess Club, which, for those who haven’t yet seen it, makes quite a first impression. The chess club shares its premises with a snooker club, which you have to walk through to reach the chess room. I was already intrigued by the atmosphere, wondering whether I was heading to a chess match or stepping into the setting of an exciting crime movie (a genre I rather like). Before even reaching the chessboard, I found myself pondering whether to use the Loan Sharking Gambit or the Money Laundering Defence… but given the nature of the situation, I decided to stick with the Italian Opening – it fits both narratives quite well.

…Little did I know my opponent would respond with the French Defence (Franco-Benoni variation). You can see the entire game below.

As a team, we lost by the narrowest of margins: three boards ended in draws, while one was lost, resulting in a final score of 2^½ – 1^½. Yet, achieving such a result against opponents rated around 100 points higher than us feels like a triumph. In total, their team had a combined rating 348 points higher than ours! Here is the breakdown of the ratings:

Board 1: 1469 – 1329 = 140
Board 2: 1401 – 1326 = 75
Board 3: 1340 – 1250 = 90
Board 4: 1236 – 1193 = 43

Not bad at all!

A big congratulations to the 3 junior players who travelled to Staffordshire Junior Chess Championships 2024.

In the U11s Jack Patullo scored an impressive 4/6 and finished joint 3rd and joint Staffordshire champion

Well done Jack

Oskar Jarzynski and Tommy Cooke both played in the U14s

Oskar scored an excellent 5.5/6 and was joint first in the section winning the Staffordshire trophy for the second year in a row.

Tommy scored an impressive 4/6 finishing joint 3rd

Results – Staffordshire Junior Chess Championships 2024

A busy month has seen the club play 19 league matches with just 4 defeats and a couple of draws but the most important news is that G team captain Steve Ballantyne is back home following a recent hospital emergency as he awaits further operations.

The league tables all make positive reading with Crewe B, D, F & H all topping their respective divisions, albeit very early in the season and no doubt making targets for all chasing teams from other clubs and not to mention our other teams in each division.

Division 1 has only seen 6 matches played with both of our A & C teams being frustrated by postponements.

Division 2 has seen a total of 8 matches played with our D & E teams having played 4 each already. Although the D team heads the table, it is expected Macclesfield will be strong favourites as their team is rated far higher than all other teams in the division.

Division 3 has 9 teams involved with our F & G teams having a hectic schedule. The F team have excelled so far and collected 8 pts from 6 matches to lead the table. With several teams having strong players on boards 1 and 2, we will do well to keep in touch with Newcastle and Gables who have games in hand in a closely contested division.

The H team have been the surprise package and have now won 7 consecutive matches to move onto 15 pts after starting with a loss and a draw. It’s hard to believe 9 matches have already been played just two months into an 8 month season. With every other team having games in hand the H team will be watching how they progress. Just one player has featured in all 9 matches and that is Tim Weston who has been in fine form with 8 wins. Our I team has performed extremely well under the enthusiastic captaincy of Mario Scarpa, with 8 pts from 7 matches sits nicely in 3rd position

In the U1300 division our U team, captained by Mal Green will hopefully stay in contention with the opposition from The Gables.

The internal Club Championships now have four sections, and are all on a slow burner mainly due to the packed league fixture schedule over the first two months of the league season. Activity should increase after the xmas break but before then the club has two more match nights and our xmas social night on 17th December.

Some say that there is no greater pleasure than coming home and being welcomed by the smell of freshly baked bread. Yesterday, I programmed the bread maker so that it would be ready by the time I returned from the match and… my goodness… yes, there is indeed a greater pleasure: being welcomed by the smell of bread after having crushed the enemy team with a glorious 3^1/2 – ^1/2.

Peter and Gerald were the quickest to win on boards 3 and 4, Mike secured an excellent draw on board 2, and, unbelievable as it sounds, I won on time! Yes, there is no typo: I won. Time is normally a factor I lose on, so it is refreshing to have turned things around for a change. My game was roughly even until my opponent fell into a couple of traps I set, which gave me a positional advantage.

Last night Crewe H vs Crewe I resulted in 2.5 – 1.5, which is consistent with last week game. Simply put, Crewe H has far stronger players than we have, which is why the results, though unpleasant, did not come as a surprise. Looking at the combined ELO of the teams, we had a 105 points disadvantage last week, while yesterday we were down by 385!
This is worth remembering, because it makes the predictable defeats not as crushing as they could have been, which is rather encouraging.
Another predictable thing was that I would run out of time… which I did. I was about to lose anyway, since Finn was a few pawns up on their way to promotion but, technically, I lost on time.

Nonetheless I am proud of my 26^th move (Qd6). While not spectacular, at least it gives a hint of elegance of the game.

I always thought it would be dead easy to be an Italian poet; if you are Italian of course. I mean, everything rhymes already. However, it is maybe not so easy if you are an Italian poet writing in English. Mario, our newest team captain, does an excellent job in his recent match reports:

Cheddleton D v Crewe I

Towards the end game I made a blunder due to time pressure, thus wasting the advantage I had and became vulnerable… but I still managed to then corner the opponent and force a draw by perpetual check.
My opponent had still roughly half an hour left while I only had three minutes and, considering he was rating 120 more than me, drawing was my safest option.
Michael was down a piece when I first lurked by his board, but he retook the upper hand shortly after. And Peter had an elegant ending making his horse jump through the enemy pawns and eating them as if they were carrots.

We then won also our final battle, also known as the return journey: we had more speed cameras on that route than we had pieces on all our chessboard combined… luckily none flashed.

Crewe I then narrowly lost to Crewe H. The crucial game was the board one match between Tim Weston and Mario. Mario was looking very comfortable, but Tim unleashed a tactical storm and crashed through. As Mario describes it:

Every chess player knows your pain, Mario.

This year there are just 5 teams in the NSDCA first division, and 3 of them are from Crewe Chess Club. A bad start for us, the A Team’s first match, against Holmes Chapel, has been cancelled twice already. Word on the street is that a new floor is being laid in their venue. The new floor has been specially designed, (possibly) with all the latest noise reduction technology, to help chess players concentrate the better. As you know, our St Mary’s venue already has brilliant, FIDE standard, flooring. Any potential new members are welcome to come and walk about on it a bit. We have not yet managed to get noise reduction technology fitted to the club secretary, but we are working on it.

Events took an even worse turn when Crewe A lost Crewe B. Or, the league got off to a great start when Crewe B beat Crewe A. Depends what side of the fence you sit on. My view is from the A Team side; not nice, like an unweeded garden that goes to seed, things rank and gross in nature posses it merely. Early on Harry lost a pawn to Dave L; maybe he could have got a draw, but he was outplayed in the ending too, and we were 1-0 down. I was “winning” after about 8 moves against Martin F, then staggered off a cliff in the tactical fog. Richard bagged a point on board 1 against Lee. I was confident Bart would win against Gee; he was an exchange up and was hogging all the space. Time waits for no Bart though, and with minutes left, he mucked things up.
Crewe B – 3: Crewe A -1.

Crewe A then had to play the reigning league champs, and deadly rivals, Alsager. Harry’s opponent went all in with a piece sac, but it did not work, Harry tidied up nicely to get us a point. Richard found it tough against Mr Blackburn, and had to resign. Bart got a useful draw on board 2. This meant I had to win my game. After playing the opening like a clown, I somehow finally managed to get to a winning position. Only problem was this had taken me ages and I was playing more on less on the incremeent. I was a bit mad at myself when I realised that suddenly I had given Alan, my opponent, a chance for perpetual check. I looked at him, he smiled and started to put his hand across the board, With a heavy heart I nodded and said “draw”. At this point he looked at me as though I had farted, and he quickly withdrew the hand. He clearly thought I was going to lose, somehow. Then, instead a going for the perpetual, he made the losing move himself. Not my best win ever, but it did mean we had won the match.

Early doors, but at the time of writing our 10 (yup, 10) league teams are still in it to win it.

Crewe B are the current league leaders.
Crewe D are killing it and are division 2 leaders.
Crewe F, are division 3 leaders.
Crewe H are ….go on,guess…… are division 4 leaders.
Stop press; Tim Weston has now won 7 out of 7 league games!