News

Here is captain Steve Ballantyne’s summary of last night’s match vs Alsager in the South Cheshire Shield – our first ever match at our new venue.

A good team performance last night from Crewe A.   First to finish was Phil, he gained a Knight early on and won quite easily in the end. Next to finish was Jules who played a solid game and was 2 pawns up in an end game which proved too strong for his opponent. Oskar took us over the line with a draw. In an end game with 4 pawns and a Rook against 4 Pawns a Rook and a Bishop he played his Pawns so strong forcing his opponent to offer a draw. Well done Oskar. With the match already won Andrew and Neville agreed a draw. To be honest if we had needed the win i think Andrew would have won, he had a Bishop and a Knight against a Rook. Well done Crewe A for a strong performance all round. 

A big thank you to Nigel for once again being the perfect host. He even supplied the Teams with water.

All Crewe’s results in the SCS can be seen from our “fixtures + tables” tab on our website.

The following events are lined up for the summer period (June to September)

1. South Cheshire Shield – two teams in the summer league captained by Steve Ballantyne and Dave Price
2. Conclusion of the 2022/23 Club Championships – deadline extended from 31st May to 20th June.
3. Summer knock-outs: two sections of individual long play – one rated U1600 and the other Open rated. 1st round draws to take place on 13th June, with games to be played by: Round 1 by 4th July, Round 2 by 1st August, Round 3 by 29th August, semi-finals and final during September.
4. Summer Rapid-plays: two sections of individual all-play-all with both colours, rated like the knockouts. Time control 15m/5s to allow more games to be played on any evening, and meeting ECF grading criteria. All games to be played by last Tuesday in September.
5. Friendly and social chess, as well as coaching sessions, each week depending on demand and availability.

PLEASE CONTACT DAVID HULME TO CONFIRM ENTRY FOR THE KNOCKOUTS. YOU CAN JOIN THE RAPIDPLAY COMPETITIONS SIMPLY BY CHALLENGING ANY OTHER MEMBER IN YOUR SECTION THAT WISHES TO PLAY.

Wow what a brilliant night for Crewe Chess Club on our opening night at the new St Mary’s Caritas Centre (Tuesday 6th). It was the 4th and final night of our 2022/23 Swiss Rapidplay to play Rounds 7 and 8, where we hoped it would be a busy night and we were not disappointed by a new record attendance of 42. There were 9 more players added to the competition to take the entry numbers well over the 50 mark.

The competition was fierce as ever, with three players starting the night on 5/6 being long time leader Martin Burns, defending champion Jarek Czyz and new club champion Carmel Barwick. The Round 7 pairings threw together Martin and Carmel with the latter producing the win, while Jarek defeated David Lambton to stay in the joint lead.

The final round saw Carmel paired on board 1 with Karl Lockett who trailed by one point, and Harry Gardiner 5.5/7 paired with Jarek (6/7) on Board 2. If Karl could hold Carmel then Harry or Jarek could catch her. As Jarek could not find a way to beat Harry, it was Carmel who swept all in front of her to win the key game and gain her 2nd club trophy in successive weeks, after securing the Club Championship last week.

Congratulations to Carmel on an excellent campaign to win the event.

Thanks to new captain Steve Ballantyne for the following report on the first match.

A well earned draw last night (Wed 31st May) for Crewe A.   First game to finish was Andrew, he made a huge blunder very early on and lost his Rook for free, so before 8.30 we were 1-0 down. Next to finish was Phil, he played well and gained a Rook late on, his opponent eventually resigned 1-1. Pav played his usual solid game and was a pawn up which in the end proved too strong and his opponent also resigned 1-2.  All eyes were on board 1. In a fascinating game with both players short on time Dylan had 3 pawns and a Knight and Julian had 6 Pawns. We thought at first that Jules had the advantage but Dylan played exceptional in an end game. Both players got a round of applause at the end. 2-2 a fair result I think.

Wednesday 31st May saw another packed house, as we played at The Mals for the final time. There was just four club Championship games taking place, with two each in divisions 1 and 2.

In division 2, there was a win for James Marshall, but the shock of the night saw Julian Bulbeck defeat his own son George as he allowed his clock to run out of time. This result could possibly prevent the planned coronation for George, as Pawel Stanny has two games to play and trails by 1.5 pts.

In division 1, David Hulme secured his division 1 status with a fortunate win against Richard Fish, that leaves Richard in the relegation spot.

However the most important game of the night saw the club chairman playing Carmel Barwick, with the championship at stake for Carmel and relegation looming for Dave Price. From what I could see of the game, Carmel’s position looked very cramped but this was probably just part of a master-plan to lure an over commitment from white’s pieces to allow a deadly counter offensive. By the time all other games were over, every one remaining was concentrated and watching to see if Dave could stop Carmel from becoming club champion. With Carmel’s time deep into increments, she found her heavy artillery all aiming at Dave’s king. With a neat deflection on the queenside, she created a big pin before pushing a pawn that left a piece helpless. Faced with this Dave went on a wild counter attack only to leave his defences wide open as Carmel produced the killer blows to win the game, followed by generous applause from the gathered spectators.

All in all, a fitting climax to end the club’s 9 year residence at The Mals.

Congratulations to the new Club Champion – Carmel Barwick.

Hopefully some photo to be added …

On Tuesday 30th May, we went to play in the final of the NSDCA U1825 Knockout (Major Cup). Both teams were missing a couple of their highest rated players, which led to Crewe having a massive advantage in ratings of approx 1200 points over the five boards.

As has been the case many times during the season this meant nothing, when firstly Neville Layhe’s stonewall was grinded to a halt on board 5 with an agreed draw. Then there was another draw on board 2 as Rick Renegade’s grenades were comfortably shot down by opposition skipper Steve Emmerton. Next to finish was board 1, only this time there was an upset as Fenton’s Glyn Valentine was allowed to have two queen-side pawns running free and duly converted the win to leave Fenton – the massive underdogs – on the cusp of the biggest Cup upset since 1978 when Man Utd lost to the 2nd division Saints !… and this was before it was dark.

Meanwhile on board 3, our captain David Hulme (with the biggest rating advantage) was staring defeat in the eye after his opponent had counter attacked wonderfully to win a pawn followed by picking up two knights for a rook and then another pawn. On board 4, Julian Hawthorne had gained a pawn but was struggling to make decisive inroads. The games went on and on …. with David wriggling around as his opponent dropped a knight by mistake but still had many winning options with an extra 3 pawns. In the chaos of playing in increment time David had fluked his way to an endgame with King and Rook vs King and knight. At around 10.35pm Julian’s opponent gifted a piece giving Julian the win and making the score 2-2. Everyone watching the board 3 game unfold was sure it would be a draw giving Fenton the cup on tie break, but unfortunately for the hosts one last blunder lost the knight and immediate resignation followed just after 10.40pm and 97 moves, handing the Major Cup to (the very lucky team from) Crewe. Commiserations to Fenton.

Details to follow in next couple of days

Tuesday 23 May – The U1600 team (ratings that is – not age) made the short trip to Alsager for the Intermediate Cup Final, with an advantage in ratings that made us start as favourites. However the new 4 digit system is not always the best indicator and on this occasion Alsager came up trumps with the last hand. After wins by Andrew Crosby (bd 4) and Adam Fields (bd 5) we appeared to be in control, but the hosts pulled two crackers out of the hat to level the match with wins on boards 1 and 2, to leave captain Nigel with the destiny of the Cup in his hands. With the advantage of a pawn gained, it all looked so promising, but Alsager had a star in the making as junior Isaac Stanley withstood everything Nigel could throw at him. Defending superbly to earn a crucial draw, led to the result being decided by the tie-break rule of “Board Count” which worked in Alsager’s favour thanks to the wins on top two boards couting better than our two wins. Congratulations to Alsager who happen to be the first team to beat us in the NSDCA Inter Cup competition since 2015/16 season (although Covid did interupt us all) !

On the same night our champions-elect “A” team went to Fenton. Without Bart Fajfer due to work, Simon Layhe stepped into the breach on board 1, and held the higher rated Alex Richardson to a draw. Captain Martin Burns on board 2 had a pleasing win, as Harry Gardiner and Karl Lockett finished the campaign off with victories to round off a fantastic campaign for the “A” team, who ran out clear winners of the NSDCA’s 1st Division, four points clear of 2nd place – our own Crewe B team. Harry finished the season as top scorer in division 1 with 10.5 pts from 12 games.

Friday 26th May – The E team concluded their excellent season with a 3-1 win against Cheddleton D where all of the team got on the score card. There were draws for Doug Barnett (bd 2), Phil Grocott (bd 3), while Matthew Dean added a full point on bd 4. The icing on the cake came from James Marshall who was elevated to board 1, and came home with a full point. The team narrowly lost the NSDCA division 3 title to Alsager B, who were much higher rated than us, as we finished just one point behind them. The most pleasing aspect for captain Dave Price was that the team managed to give league experience to 17 members with at least half-a-dozen playing NSDCA league chess for the first time.

Wednesday 24th May, saw the penultiate night in our Club Championship competitions. In division 3, Mark Randell added another point to his tally to move on to 5 pts and secure 2nd place behind Phil Grocott. In div 2, Pawel Stanny was held to a draw by Oskar Jarzynski, and so with 5.5pts can no longer catch leader George Bulbeck who has 7 pts. Although Pawel has two games to play, the deadline of 31st May makes it impossible to catch George, who has one game remaining. Hopefully George will play his final game on 31st to remove any doubt of the rightful div 2 champion.

The Club Championship (division 1) will go down to the wire, and with 52 of the 55 possible games played, the title will be decided when Carmel Barwick takes on Dave Price. Carmel (7/9) needs a win to be outright champion by overtaking Martin Burns (7.5/10), with this result also having a big effect on the relegation battle. If Dave can add to his tally of 2pts, then Richard Fish ( 2pts) and David Hulme (2.5pts) could be relegated as they play each other in the “last chance saloon”. The only other remaining game is between Lukasz Michalek (6/9) and Jules Hawthorne (5.5/9) who have both performed well above their ratings. It promises to be a tense night at The Mals as we finish our 9 year tenure, before moving to the new Caritas Centre on Tuesday 6th June.

The South Cheshire Shield (SCS) gets underway on Wednesday 31st as our SCS A team plays at Newcastle. On Tuesday the 30th we play our 4th KO final of the season in the Major Cup (U1825) when we go to Fenton.

Wed 17th May – another busy and exciting night at The Mals, with two big matches and a packed playing room, with the best part of 50 people in attendance covering visiting players, club members and parents.

The Main Event of the Evening was the Open Knockout Final played over 6 boards between ourselves and Alsager. It was evident before the start that Alsager were determined to go “all-in” (in poker terms) as their team was significantly strengthened by the presence of old boy Simon Hood making his first appearance since 2015 (last rating 183 = 2070) slotting in on board 2 to move all their regular players down the batting order. The early skirmishes went in our favour as captain Martin Burns got us off to a winning start on board 4, before Karl Lockett won comfortably on board 6 and Simon Layhe was happy with a draw on board 2 to get us near the winning line. Next to finish was board 5, where Alsager’s underdog (Tim Twentyman) produced the first shock of the night to chalk one unexpectedly back with a good finish under time pressure. Then there was a further twist on board 3, as Alsager’s John Booth stunned our player with an immediate mate in a game that seemed to be there for the taking, but was much more evenly balanced than we had calculated. This all left the match in the hands of Jonathan Blackburn, Alsager and the league’s leading player, as he played a common theme of giving up a pawn for plenty of attacking opportunity and slowly turning the screw. Even in the knowledge that a draw would win the cup for Alsager, Jonathan calmly pushed home his activity advantage to finish with a flourish as the visitors turned out to be worthy winners of the Open knockout with congratulations to Alsager !

Meanwhile the C team were hoping to keep slim hopes of the division 2 title alive, only to be outplayed by title chasing (and now hot favourites) Newcastle. It was a rare occurrence for Carmel Barwick to come off second best as Dylan Cooper proved too strong on board 2, after the visitors had already chalked up two wins on the lower boards in this 4 board match. With a 3-0 deficit captain David Lambton declined a draw offer on board 1, and was duly rewarded with the scalp of a player rated approx 1900, to finish the C team’s campaign with a guarantee of 3rd place in the table behind Newcastle and Stafford.

There was only one internal Club Championship game this week that saw a Division 1 relegation battle between bottom placed chairman Dave Price, and 3rd bottom Events Officer David Hulme. Chairman Dave played a far superior opening as black to produce pressure. In an attempt to escape the building pressure, David H miscalculated badly and dropped a piece for a pawn. From there the chairman spared no mercy and put David to the sword with a well controlled execution. This leaves David H on 2.5/9, while Dave P and Richard F have 2/8 in the battle to avoid relegation.

Friday 12th May was the date Crewe became champions of the NSDCA for the first time since the club was resurrected by Dave Price and 4 colleagues in June 2014 !!

Martin Burns has captained the “A” team with distinction this season and has been able to field the most consistent team in the league, with himself as ever-present alongside Harry Gardiner and Karl Lockett, while top board Bart Fajfer has played 9 of the 11 matches to date. With one match remaining the league title was secured as Cheddleton A beat Fenton A on Friday to make it impossible for Fenton to catch our own “A” team.

With an outstanding set of performances, Harry has led the player charts scoring 9.5 from 11 so far, with Karl just behind on 7.5 pts. Special praise must go to Bart who has faced the strongest players in the league and still managed to achieve a success rate of over 60% on board 1. Skipper Mart may have only scored 4/11 to date, but has taken on the board 1 mantle whenever necessary and allowed Harry & Karl to bat lower down the order to achieve the big scores.

Congratulations to Martin and the team – photo to be added