Played at Flixton Conservative Club last evening -
Urmston 1 V Marple 1 Manchester League Div. 1 16/10/2014
1 P Wheldon 0-1 M Fernandez
2 M Rawlinson 0.5/0.5 I Lentzos
3 M Devis 0-1 S Tranter
4 D Owen 0.5/0.5 G Trueman
5 J Hopkins 0.5/0.5 P Kirby
6 J Reyes 1-0 C Baker
7 J Pendlebury 1-0 A Jenkins
3.5: 3.5
Undeterred by illlnesses , heavy traffic and persistent rain we arrived at the well-appointed Flixton Conservative Club for what proved to be a well matched encounter.
Michael played a superb game going right down the main line of a very strong and experienced Sicilian defender. He seemed to retain the initiative throughout and eventually unleashed a very powerful pseudo Bishop sac on h6.In an impossible situation his opponent tried a desperate Bg2: sacrifice of his own hoping for a perpetual check but it was never going to be sufficient and he soon resigned.
Like the writer of these lines Ioannis seems to be getting a lot of Black games at the moment. Here he defended very well against the two Bishops in an endgame where there was lots going on beneath the surface. Eventually White won a pawn on g7 but Ioannis was able to get enough play to hold the draw.
Steve was making his debut for Marple. He played an opening he knows well with great aplomb and to be honest I thought he had won the game outright with a lovely Rook exchange sac on d7. Fair play to his opponent though, he found a superb defence with an unlikely Queen move that forced play into an ending.With B+N+P V R though Steve was still winning and he ground down Mr Devis to make a winning
start.
Playing my eleventh Black in my last fourteen games I faced a deferred c3 system against my Sicilian from Dennis. Luckily for me we both missed an opportunity for White to win a pawn on move 9. Although Fritz thinks I get enough play for it I certainly wouldn't have been comfortable. Some moves later I missed a chance for a slight edge by breaking up the White centre with f6. After that Dennis accurate moves produced a position where although Black looked okay White had all the opportunities. I was a bit surprised when we agreed to a draw but it may have been Dennis was fed up with being continually coughed at - Sorry
Dennis.
Paul said he thought that he had a slight edge against his opponents Slav system (as indeed I did) but if it was there it somehow disappeared into the Flixton air. By the time a draw was agreed the position looked to me to be well balanced.
Chris' opponent John started with a very interesting move 1c3. Although this doesn't look like a try for a big advantage the problem for Black is he can easily find himself defending a position that he doesn't normally play. Julian Hodgson won lots of games with this move in the 70's and 80's and Blacks best course of action is not obvious to me. What Chris responded with was absolutely fine and led to what looked like a levellish middlegame. Unfortunately Chris overlooked a capture on f5 that not only won a vital central pawn but also totally disrupted the Black position. Efficient play from John then ensured he took the full point.
Andys game was rather cruel. He met his opponents b6 system with play that looked Grandmasterly and eventually reached a position where his opponents Kingside was totally devoid of pawns. Although this looked great for White the more I looked at the position the more I realised Black still had chances if he arranged his pieces well in front of his King - which he did. Andy then played an exchange sac that looked promising but Black found a winning defence. Chess can be a very tough game sometimes.
So honours even in the end. Thanks to all who played/drove, our next Manchester League Div 1 fixture is the little matter of an away trip to play Stockport 1 on the 30th of October.
Glenn.
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