1 C Mills (155) 0 I Lentzos (e170) 1
2 S Shepherd (154) 0.5 G Trueman (159) 0.5
3 K Moran (142) 0 N Livesey (147) 1
4 C Guffogg (134) 0 A Jenkins (127) 1
5 R Warhurst (115) 0 C Baker (126) 1
6A Flynn (95) 0 T Cowling (125) 1
0.5 5.5
After attempting cryogenic chess at Altrincham I arrived prepared for Arctic tundra conditions only to find a warm, comfortable club room (different from the one used for the Cup match) and Boddingtons Best Bitter on sale at £2.30 a pint. Quite a contrast from the £7.95 I paid for a glass (yes a glass) of wine at the Daventry Court Hotel at the weekend.
Anyway to the match...Andys opponent played an old style of the Queens Gambit against him (e3,b3,Bb2), this set up was very popular in the latter half on the C19 and is still worth considering today. Here however Chris seemed to waste a little time and after Blacks c5 break he was doing well. Further strong play from Andy won the exchange and faced with both material and positional negativity Chris promptly resigned.
Wilmslow 0 Marple C 1
Meanwhile I was also on the Black side of a Queens Gambit. Steve played one of my favourites, the Exchange Variation, against me. One of the reasons I like this line is that in games between players of similar strengths Black has very few winning chances. This proved to be the case here , I equalised but nothing more and we agreed a draw in a very dull position. With Andy having already won and things looking good on the other boards though this seemed ok.
Wilmslow 0.5 Marple C 1.5
On board 6 Terry faced a highly speculatrive Nf7: sacrifice. As Terry commented it is unusual for a Nf7: sac to be followed up by e3 next move and I think Tony would agree he never got enough compensation for the material. Terry calmly consolidated and when his Rook reached the 7th rank it was all over. So all the games where we had Black had finished and we had 2.5 points.
Wimslow 0.5 Marple C 2.5
Ioannis was playing a very interesting game where he had castled Queenside and Colin Kingside. Although Colin came up with an intersting idea based around Bd4 as soon as I saw a White pawn reach f6 I felt the end was not too far away and so it proved....
Wilmslow 0.5 Marple C 3.5
Chris opponent met his usual opening move with the symmetmetrical variation which I think is one of Blacks best defences. Here however in the critical early d4 line Chris' fine play led to Robin having a very dodgy Tarrasch structure with weak pawns on c6 and d5. Eventually Robin succumbed to a Rook invasion on the eighth but he had been losing for a long time.
Wilmslow 0.5 Marple C 4.5
In the final game to finish Nigel seemed to have held a nagging plus for a long time. Although it got down to a Queen +Knight position Kevin was desperately short of time and Nigels Queen was busy setting up mating nets from the unusual square c1. Eventually Kevin ran out of both time and moves.
Wilmslow 0.5 Marple 5.5
So a terrfic result as on paper there wasn't that much between the teams. Thanks to all for playing.
Glenn.
Great result everyone !!
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