News

A CRACKIN’ NIGHT AT THE MALS !

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:

I would like to share with you all a comment I have just received from one of the Newcastle players.
 DavidEricAshby: Jeremy had a great evening and some well matched games, thank you very much. You have a great atmosphere at Crewe and you are so honourable, pointing out your own mistakes. It’s an honour and a pleasure to come and play.
 

A’s beat B’s in South Cheshire derby

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.

Crewe teams star at Newcastle Jamboree

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.

Cheddleton prove too strong to take 2nd Annual Challenge

Wednesday night saw another full house at the Mals Club, as we hosted Cheddleton in a match contested over 13 (unlucky for us) boards on a glorious summer evening in Mediterranean like temperatures. Teams were arranged so that grade totals were pretty even overall.

The early skirmishes showed Crewe taking an early 2-1 lead following wins for Josh Cross with his first ever win for the host club, and Cheddleton’s junior Charles Swinson levelling matters before Crewe’s rising star Harry Gardiner upset the grades with another swift win. The next hour or so saw the visitors gradually take control commencing with another upset as Jamie Jones won against the grades on board 11 before the first draw of the match on board 10 to keep the scores level. Cheddleton took the lead as Sandra Blackburn took advantage of an unsound sacrifice on board 4 before Crewe were outgunned on boards 6 as 7 with two debutants coming unstuck against experienced opposition. Crewe’s only further success came from Adam Fields on board 9 where three queenside pawns created an extra queen. Rick Renegade tried a piece for a pawn sacrifice with his Bishop, knight and four pawns vs 2 knights and 4 pawns on board 2, but ultimately left both sides without sufficient mating material for a draw. Simon Layhe could not unlock the board 5 game without making matters worse so agreed a draw to leave Cheddleton securely in the lead 7-5. The final game to finish saw Jacob Boswell (Cheddleton’s 16 year old star graded 183) outplay David Hulme on board 1 as he converted a 2 knights and 5 pawns vs 2 bishops and 4 pawns into a comfortable win to make the final score 8-5 to Cheddleton, coincidentally an identical score to the 2017 Challenge.

Congratulations to Cheddleton and thanks to Caroline Mountford for bringing her team from their club. Crewe will be trying hard next year to register their first success in the Annual Chedd Challenge.

The score card can be seen on the League Management System at:

http://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/23568

 

Shield “B” team battered at Newcastle

The South Cheshire B team got off to an inauspicious start to their Summer campaign coming off decidedly second best at Newcastle on Wednesday night. What looked to be an even match on paper was off course played over the  board. We could only muster one draw through Rick Renegade’s effort on top board against Newcastle’s draw master as we were well beaten by 3.5-0.5 as the hosts take an early lead in the table with two wins from their opening two matches.

Meanwhile back at the Mals Club, there was a busy night of Rapid-play games with 14 players in attendance. Simon Layhe has made an impressive start in division 1 scoring an unbeaten 5/6 and leads comfortably from David Hulme (4/8) and David Price on 3/6. Defending champion Rick Renegade has made a sold start with 2.5/3, with junior Harry Gardiner just behind on 2.5/4.

This week sees the “Cheddleton Challenge Match” as the biggest club in the North Staffs League visit Crewe for a return match. We are hoping this year’s match over 14 boards is as keenly contested as last year’s first Challenge which went in Cheddleton’s favour by the score of 8-5.

Shield “A” team start off with win

Wednesday night saw our first South Cheshire Shield Match of 2018, with our “A” team (the defending champions) hosting Alsager. On paper this looked too close to call with the visitors having a big grade advantage on top board, while we had grade advantage on boards 2 & 3, and Alsager a smaller plus on board 4. The match progressed much in our favour as Harry Gardiner won on board 4 before Simon Layhe did likewise on board 3. We were guaranteed victory as Chris Rhodes picked up a draw on board 2, before Amy Lovatt gained her best ever club result with a further win.

In the background the club was a hive of activity as a number of members continued playing Summer tournament games in our Internal Rapid-play, alongside a number of friendly games for our newest members.

AGM News & Awards go to Lovatt & Renegade

This week saw the club’s Annual General Meeting attended by over half of the members – a very unusual event in itself. With the South Cheshire Shield fixtures due to start next week (20th June) this was a rare opportunity to be at the club with no league matches taking place.

The highlight of the AGM was the presentation of awards, as chairman Dave Price presented the trophies.

The first two awards went to (the absent) Rick Renegade whose first season at the club has been a huge success. His first award was for the 2017 Summer Rapid-play where he beat a field of 23 players to score 13.5/17 and pip runner-up Neville Layhe on 12.5/18. His second trophy was for his recent victory in the club’s Annual time & point handicap, where he defeated runner-up Julian Bulbeck in an Armegeddon-style play-off after scoring a perfect 5/5.

The remaining trophies were hoovered up by 16 year-old Amy Lovatt as she collected both the “junior” and “whole club” Player of the Year awards with a spectacular score of 77%, as a result of scoring 30/39 in all counting games including summer rapid-play, time and point handicap, and club matches in the 2017 South Cheshire Shield, 2017/18 NSDCA season and Wirral League. Amy was unbeaten for the “A” team with 4/5, scored 3/5 for the “C” team and had perfect 100% scores for the “B” team (2/2), NSDCA Cups (3/3), 2017 south Cheshire (3/3) and an inspired 11/11 for the “E” team helping them to the NSDCA division 5 title.

Chairman Dave Price was very proud of the club’s achievements in winning NSDCA’s Division 3 and 5 titles, together with the Intermediate Cup (U130) and the 2017 South Cheshire Shield.

Dave took great satisfaction from the fact that we have grown to be the 2nd largest club in the NSDCA running 6 teams, with 27 members representing the club through the NSDCA season and introducing 9 new players to competitive league chess in the last 12 months.

After the AGM, several games were played in the club’s 2018 Summer Rapid-play, which is now well under way and runs until December alongside the club’s long-play tournaments.

Crewe beat Meir in first Challenge Match

Last Monday saw the first of Crewe’s 2018 club challenge matches. Our opponents from Meir hosted this 10-board adventure for it’s maiden voyage. The idea was to try and match up team grades as close as possible, but we could not avoid taking a sight advantage due to unavailability of players on both teams.

Taking up the challenge in true “gung-ho” fashion was junior Harry Gardiner who posted the first result of the night with a blitz-type game in under 20 minutes. He must have thought we were still playing in our Handicap Event which took place a few days earlier, as we took an early 1-0 lead. Phil Wright took advantage of said grade difference to put us 2-0 in the lead around the hour mark. Meir chalked up their first win as Martin Chadwick  played nicely to win on board 9, before a couple of draws were agreed on boards 5 and 7 to leave the match delicately poised. Nigel Gardner extended Crewe’s lead with a neat win on board 8 to take Crewe near the winning line. Meir’s top player Steve Hill found a way to escape against Doug Barnett’s gambit to narrow the scores to 4-3. Dave Price then converted his pressure on board 3 against promising junior Ewan Haas into the full point to ensure Crewe could not lose. Adam Fields confirmed our victory when both players feared pushing for the win would lead to defeat, agreed to a draw on board 4. The final game was quite something to watch as Simon Layhe squeezed the experienced Pete Windows into defeat deep into increment time to give Crewe the flattering final score of 6.5-3.5.

Thanks to Meir for the very pleasant buffet provided and for being excellent and sporting hosts. Captain Bob Perry was very keen to ensure the match goes ahead next year with a named trophy up for grabs !

Rick Renegade wins Annual Handicap

Last night saw 20 members playing in the club’s 4th Annual (time & point) Handicap Event over 5 chaotic rounds of fun, and competitive chess.    

 

With handicaps of up to 2.5 pts being added to players scores over the 5 rounds, it was anyone’s guess who would emerge as the winner. The 2017 champion Rich Wiltshir was brutally handicapped by the contoller’s decision to allow just 4 minutes to complete his games, while other players had between 5 and 15 minutes spread into bands of approx 10 grading points.

Round 1 went according to plan with the exception of youngest player Charlie Dodd winning against the grades to perform the “upset of the competition” and put himself in pole position with his handicap for several rounds. Round 2 saw the greatest amount of upsets with all top three seeds being turned over including the 2017 champ.

Round 3 saw the cream of the competition rising to the top as Rick Renegade and Julian Bulbeck became the only players with 100% records, whiles father and son duo Neville and Simon played out a draw to remain unbeaten and stay in contention with the leaders.

Round 4’s top board game between the two 100%-ers turned out in favour of Rick, but with handicaps left both players on 4 pts. Also on 4 pts were Simon & Neville, while another junior Harry Gardiner took the lead on 4.5 pts with the 1.5 pts handicap after his 3rd win in a row. Newcomers Mike Keenan and Reinhold also won their first games as they started to get familiar with the harsh realities of blitz-type times. With another couple of players having combined scores of 3.5 pts there were 8 contenders who could win the event.

The top board in round 5 gave Harry the chance to win the competition outright if he could beat 100% Rick. A superb effort by young Harry just fell short as Rick won with just seconds remaining. Meanwhile on board 2, Julian managed to overcome Neville’s tactics to ensure a joint lead with 5 pts and a play-off with Rick. Four players finished joint 3rd on 4.5 pts; these were Doug Barnett, Simon, Nigel Gardiner and Harry.

Am armageddon play-off then took place with Julian winning the toss and electing to have black in the hope of achieving a draw. Rick as white was given an extra minute to his alloted time of 6 minutes, with Julian having his allotted 9 minutes. A fantastic game developed as Julian won a piece for a pawn on the king-side while Rick went for the jugular against the queen-side castled black position. With considerable skill, Rick engineered a break through and cutting off his opponent’s king side escape managed to mate with queen and pawns as the black king was forced towards the centre of the board, while time was running low and a material deficit. Approx 12 spectators watched the final and all agreed it was a high quality game to finish off the competition.

Congratulations to Rick on becoming our 4th different winner of the handicap and well played to Julian. Rest assured that Rick can expect a near  impossible task of retaining it next year as the controller will impose a tough handicap and time allocation !

Ready to start the  Armageddon            Rick’s final blow

Crewe Rapid Play Congress Results

Crewe Chess Club held it’s first Rapid play congress at the IBIS Hotel


 

The event had 4 sections and a total of 82 players took part

Open Section

Winner Mike J Surtees   5.5 out of 6

Second place was IM Lawrence Cooper  5 out of 6

Third was Jonathan LB Blackburn  4.5 out of 6.

The grading prize was won by  Colm Buckley

Major Section

Winner  Oleg Cukovs  5.5/6

Second John Hall  5/6

Third Richard Szwajkun 4/6.

The grading prize was won by Micheal Owen 3.5/6.

Intermediate Section

Joint Winners David Pickup and  Karl Lockett both 5/6.

Joint third place was Michael J Fisher and Andrew Townsend both 4.5/6.

The grading prize was won by Philip Shaugnessy 3/6.

Minor Section

Joint Winners Nick D Holmes  and Simon Layhe  with 5/6.

Joint Third Andrew Beswick  and Terry Sulivan  4.5/6.

The grading prize was shared between Richard Bohm and Stuart Hamilton