Denton A v Marple A

We managed to put out the strongest team that we had had in my time at the club last night at Denton. I couldn't get in the team :-)

Everything thing was looking good with some reasonable positions and Glenn the exchange up so I retired to the bar to watch the football. Soon after Glenn joined me. "You won?" said I. "Draw" said he. Seems that his opponent got a bind with a well placed knight and Glenn couldn't do anything.

Then Alex also drew from what had become quite an unpleasant position, quickly followed by Sarah who had been a pawn down earlier on but had since equalised. So three draws with the black pieces - not bad.

Daniel's position looked pretty sharp. I thought he was better and that it would simply be a matter of time so I was really surprised when I next looked to find he had resigned. I'm not sure what happened, but it looked to have gone wrong.

Which meant we needed to win the last two games. Alan was 2 pawns up and winning easily, Paul 1 pawn up and a bit of work to do, but should be fine. Paul duly produced a smooth finish to level the match but, unfortunately, Alan had by this time lost the exchange and suddenly it did not look so clear. However, his pawns were good and he played the ending very well to win back the exchange and finish in a winning King and Pawn ending.

Well done all. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you at the curry, and then we have the re-arranged Buxton match 2 days later (12th) at the Navi. I'll be in touch about that.

Cheers

Sean

BD		Denton	Result	Marple
1	B	Ali Jaunooby	1-0	Daniel Fernandez
2	W	Anthony Entwistle	½-½	Alex Longson
3	B	Paul Cawley	0-1	Alan Walton
4	W	David Toole	½-½	Sarah Hegarty
5	B	Kamran Ahmadi	0-1	Paul Kirby
6	W	David Boulden	½-½	Glenn Trueman

Charnley Cup : Marple v Urmston

A 6-0 victory over Urmston takes us into the semi finals of the Charnley cup where we will face the winners of Chorlton and Wilmslow.

First to finsish was Daniel when his opponent couldn't handle the pressure and blundered a piece.  Then George's opponent blundered an exchange leaving George a bit of work which he finished nicely.  The Glenn's opponent blundered or sacced a piece.  It was certainly unsound and Glenn quickly won a further excange and although his opponent played on he had no hope a rook down.

Alex had an interesting game and just when the decisive blow was about to be struck his opponent offered a draw.  Alex declined and won shortly after.  My game was quite interesting for a while.  My opponent ended up with his pieces tied up and uncordinated and when he ran out of moves he tried to swap queens.  Unfortunately for him this opened the position for my peices and the rest, as Fritz would say, was a matter of technique.

Michael was last ti finish. He declined a draw in a Q+2P each ending.  He tried valiantly to win a drawn ending with both flags hanging and his opponents flag fell first.  Had the opponent claimed a draw when he had less than 2 minutes left I am sure that he would had been awarded it.  Please remember that rule!

Next 1st team game is 21 December away at Denton.  Fingers crossed for that one!

Sean

 

Board	Colour	Marple	Result	Urmston
1	W	Fernandez, Daniel	1-0	Johnston, Keith
2	B	Longson, Alex	1-0	Davis, Mark
3	W	Kolbusz, George	1-0	Royle, Joe W
4	B	Hewitt, Sean	1-0	Bellis, Dave
5	W	Trueman, Glenn	1-0	Plunkett, Tim
6	B	Fernandez, Michael	1-0	Randall, Grant
			6-0

 

Regards

 

Sean

 

Macclesfield C v Marple C : 1/11/11

We still remain unbeaten though we have lost our 100% record. With
quite a few players unavailable and then having a couple more struck
down with illness we were unable to field a full team. Since we had
to default 2 boards this is an excellent result against a reasonably
strong Macclesfield team. I had tried to rearrange the fixture but
was unable to contact their C team captain. He returned my calls
when we were en route to Macclesfield having been away on business.
I was pleased with my game in so far as I got a very reasonable
position with a slight edge having made no major blunders and
managed to hold my advantage and build on it steadily. This put my
opponent into severe time trouble which eventually caused him to
blunder. Peter's game was wonderfully controlled and which
progressed through to an interesting winning endgame for him. Neil
had a good position too, probably winning but I suspect did not
have time to win it and accepted a draw. So well done to us for
getting something out of the match.

1 Phil Colville 0 - 1 Jeff Barlow
2 Alan Sime 0 - 1 Peter Kelly
3 Dave Mallinson 0.5 - 0.5 Neil Dainty
4 A Green 1 - 0 default
5 A Howe 1 - 0 default

Totals 2.5 - 2.5

Our next match is away to Ashton on Wednesday 16th November.

Macclesfield 2 Marple 4

Macclesfield put up a good fight against a strong Marple side and gave us a real fright. Michael was a piece up early on but then his opponent got some play and suddenly a huge centre and unstoppable attack and he was mated soon after. Then George, who looked slightly better to me in a sharp middle game fell for a sucker punch knight fork and had to resign. 2-0 down was not part of the plan. However, Paul brushed off the cobwebs to produce a very nice mating finish with queen and knight which we will publish if we can get hold of it and Daniel equalised for us by finishing off his opponent with a nicely controlled and crushing game. This left Alex and I. We both looked level, and kept looking at each other’s games! Alex then appeared to be worse and losing a pawn but amazingly his opponent overlooked a back rank mate threat and walked into it. Realising that we would now win the match on board count I turned down the offer of a draw in a level position and managed to finish the game nicely, though not as nicely as I could have done.

1 Soames, Tony 172 0-1 Fernandez, Daniel 212
2 Risley, Dave 171 0-1 Longson, Alex 206
3 Kumar, Vijay 155 0-1 Kirby, Paul 176
4 Lobo, Denzil 153 1-0 Fernandez, Michael 156
5 Laurence. Geoff 150 1-0 Kolbusz, George 160
6 Caulkett, Pete 148 0-1 Hewitt, Sean 158

Marple B vs Stockport D: 28th April 2011

Marple B RESULT Stockport D

1 Tony Doust 0.5 0.5 A Prime

2 Jeff Barlow 1 0 R Bradney

3 Peter Kelly 1 0 G Lea

4 Trefor Thomas 1 0 Default

5 Barrie Edwards 1 0 Default

TOTALS 4.5 0.5

Well we got our revenge against Stockport D this week, with a handsome win, though their top board player this week was their bottom board player last week and they defaulted on two boards. My game was even for a long time and then my opponent allowed me a pawn fork, though it was a complex position. Anyway after multiple exchanges I came out a piece ahead. The rest is just a matter of technique, they say. A few moves later I also managed to give my opponent a pawn fork! Fortunately I still had a powerful passed pawn and was able to win after re-engaging my brain.

So that was our final game of the season and it looks like we shall finish in a respectable mid table position, maybe third or fourth out of eight. I would like to thank everyone who played for their efforts.

Stockport D vs Marple B: 21st April 2011

The B team narrowly lost against a strong team at Stockport this week.

Stockport D RESULT Marple B

1 V Rushworth 1 0 Jeff Barlow

2 J Kelly 0 1 Peter Kelly

3 M Jackson 0 1 Trefor Thomas

4 I Anderson 1 0 Roy Phillips

5 A Prime 1 0 Barrie Edwards

TOTALS 3 2

I can't comment on the other games apart Peter's on board 2, he seemed to have a massive material advantage (rook) when I first looked and I thought the game would be over quickly; not so! Every time I looked up Peter seemed to have a greater material advantage, but his opponent was reluctant to resign and played on until he was mated. I was disappointed with my game. My opponent answered my 1. e4 with his own version of the Centre Counter which lead to a very open game. He made a mistake sacrificing a piece to take my g pawn then taking my f pawn with his Queen, with check, thinking he would recover his piece or possibly win outright. My queen could however interpose and defend my knight. So I thought perhaps I was winning, but it made my game really difficult. I only had an h pawn on the kingside so my extra piece was needed to shield my exposed king, this in turn became a target. My opponent's mistake began to look like a strategically sound sacrifice! I'm sure I could have done better but as usual I had left myself short of time and managed to blunder my extra piece trying to make the time control.

Next week we have the return fixture against Stockport and an opportunity to reverse this result.

Marple B vs Urmston: 14th April 2011

The B team lost our home fixture against Urmston. They fielded a solid team evenly graded from 127 to 113 and we eventually went down 3.5 - 1.5.

Marple B					Urmston
1 Tony Doust			0	1	Keith Johnston
2 Jeff Barlow			1	0	Joe Royle
3 Peter Kelly			0	1	Jim Bradley
4 Trefor Thomas			0.5	0.5	Tim Plunkett
5 Neil Dainty			0	1	John Reyes
			1.5	3.5

Earlier I had thought we had chances of at least drawing the match with some promising positions on the boards. I was last to finish again though managed to win this one. There was a lot of cat and mouse about my game but I thought I was winning. My opponent was in serious time trouble approaching the time control and I didn't think he was going to make it. I made the mistake of playing for time pressure so when he did make the control I had to try to refocus on winning the position (as I should have in the first place). I managed to side step a draw by perpetual check and force a resignation.

We have an away fixture against Stockport D next Thursday, 21st April and a home fixture against them the following week; it's just like the Champion's League, well, apart from ........

E Cheshire C vs Marple B 23rd March 2011

E Cheshire C RESULT Marple B

1 Bill Tait 0 1 Tony Doust

2 Mike Cunnane 1 0 Jeff Barlow

3 Ian Vaughan 0 1 Peter Kelly

4 Roger Beswick 1 0 Barrie Edwards

5 Roy Burrows 0 1 Neil Dainty

TOTALS 2 3

In the end a comfortable win so well done to all for a good team performance. I say comfortable because we were winning 3 - 1 with just my game to finish and I was ahead in that game or so I thought. I managed to overlook a winning move just one move after making the time control with, of course, everyone watching and everyone else saw it! In spite of this I was still winning but a few moves later made managed to make a grave strategic error by forcing an exchange of minor pieces when ahead. My silicon friend, Fritz, thinks I went from 3 pawns up to 5 pawns down in one move (now that's what I call a blunder) but it was only an exchange! I was now unable to prevent my opponent queening ahead of me. So it really was a case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Luckily everyone else had a good day, so well done to Tony, Peter & Neil. Barrie was a little unlucky to get a late substitue who was graded higher than the rest of their team.

Our last three matches are on successive Thursdays starting on 14th April, please note that the first of these is a rearranged date vs Urmston.

Marple A -v- High Peak : Thurs 10th March

So close, but no cigar.  Things looked like they would be close and so it proved.  First to finish was Alan who looked like he had a promising position but his opponent had a resource that forced Alan to take a draw by repitition.  Andy Jenkins too drew by repetition which was a good result in his first game in ages.  I got horribly outplayed and went down in flames.  Then Alex drew with Robert Shaw in a game that I didn't see too much of.  

Which left George and Terry (who, is it me, but always seems last to finish!).  George had a nice attack, won the exchange and then gave it back at an opportune moment to force the win.  So we needed a draw from Terry, playing someone much higher graded.  He had played well and was unfortunate to drop a pawn. He steered the game into a rook and pawn ending which must have been the best hope for a draw.  The position was difficult, and Terry was short of time and although he nearly held it he couldn't quite do it.

So a 3.5-2.5 loss.  Onto Stockport next week for our penultimate match.  Hopefully we can get a result there.  We have a full team so there are chances.

Bd	Marple A	Home	Away	High Peak
1	Longson, Alex	½	½	Shaw, Robert
2	Walton, Alan	½	½	Olsson, Martin
3	Hewitt, Sean D	0	1	Doney, Ron
4	Kolbusz, George	1	0	Livesey, Nigel
5	Jenkins, Andy	½	½	Rout, John
6	Cowling, Terry	0	1	Davison, Colin
		2½	3½

Marple B v Wilmslow B 10th March 2011

In the end we were soundly beaten by an experienced Wilmslow B team last Thursday. I'm afraid I wasn't able to see much of the other games as I was last to finish again. My opponent played a Caro-Kann which always seems to give me problems. I exchanged pawns and eventually built up a good position though it cost me too much time. There was a turning point in the game where my opponent exchanged my excellent knight on e5 and I had the choice of recapturing with my bishop on f4 or my pawn on d4. I chose the bishop as I thought it better on positional grounds. My silicon friend, Fritz, thinks that the pawn recapture was almost winning by force since Black is obliged to move his defensive knight from f6 allowing a powerful kingside attack utilising the bishop on f4! Tactics rule, o.k? Anyway, instead, my move choice allowed Black counterplay on the queenside. By this time I needed a full point to halve the match but I was now chronically short of time and failed to hold the game. So I shall now brush up on my response to the Caro-Kann and probably not see another until I have forgotten it again!

Marple B Wilmslow B

1 Tony Doust 0 1 Robin Warhurst

2 Jeff Barlow 0 1 Dave Booth

3 Trefor Thomas 1 0 Mike Palmer

4 Roy Phillips 0.5 0.5 Chris Jackson

5 Peter Wilcox 0 1 Mike Garvin

TOTALS 1.5 3.5

Congratulations to Trefor for our only win and to Roy for getting a draw after a long lay-off. We have four matches left now and our next one is away to East Cheshire on Wednesday, 23rd March.

Denton A 1 1/2 -v- 4 1/2 Marple A

We looked forward to the match at Denton knowing that we had a full strength team out plus Michael's brother Daniel (an IM) being available to play as it's half term. It even meant that I had the luxury of being the reserve!

However, Glenn had warned that he may not make it back in time so when ex-Marple player Alan Walton said that he wanted to re-join the club and was available I asked him to standby just in case. And, wouldn't you know, Glenn was delayed so Alan was called up and registered at 5.33pm!

So a very strong side travelled to Championship chasing Denton. First to finish was Alan Walton who had the edge in heavy piece ending but was unable to win. Meanwhile, things started to look good on the other boards. Michael won two pieces for a rook. George was a pawn up. Alex was a pawn up with an attack. Daniel had created light squared weaknesses around the opponents king. Only Paul looked level.

And then they started to fall. Daniel won well, picking up the opposing queen for a rook and finishing off nicely. Then Alex won two more pawns forcing his opponent to resign in a hopeless position. Michael then won on time having played really well with his opponent in big trouble. So the match was won with two games left! George then found his opponent had counter play and dropped the pawn he was up. Soon, with his king exposed he had little option to resing. Which left Paul who turned down a draw and played the winning pawn break, picking up the exchange and showing nice technique to win the endgame.

So, a well deserved victory. A win next week against High Peak in a crunch relegation battle will probably see us safe in Division 1. Fingers crossed!

1. Jaunooby, Ali 0-1 Fernandez, Daniel
2. Cawley, Paul 0-1 Longson, Alex
3. Entwistle, Anthony 1/2 Walton, Alan
4. Toole, Dave 0-1 Kirby, Paul
5. Holt, David 0-1 Fernandez, Michael
6. Ahmadi, Kamran 1-0 Kolbusz, George

Match Result - Chorlton B vs Marple B - 22nd Feb 2011

DIV 3

Chorlton B RESULT Marple B

1 A All-Allak 0 1 Glenn Trueman

2 T Mackrell 0.5 0.5 Tony Doust

3 J Haines 0 1 Jeff Barlow

4 S Duffy 1 0 Peter Wilcox

5 P Forbes 0 1 Barrie Edwards

TOTALS 1.5 3.5

The B team managed to stem its losing streak with an excellent win at Chorlton last night, thanks, in no small measure, to Glenn for kindly agreeing to fill in for Peter Kelly. Glenn duly won his game on board 1 against an ungraded opponent, estimated at 30!. Barrie has been playing some uncharacteristically long games recently but last night he was back to his usual self. He surprised his opponent with his trademark B x f7 sacrifice, fully justified in this game and won in 11 moves. The rest of us had barely got started! Tony drew his match and Peter didn't despite being a piece up at one stage. So I had to get something to secure the win. My opponent played very aggressively, pushing pawns on both sides of the board without castling. To be honest I thought he would win the game and could have done so but let me off the hook through allowing exchanges. When it came to heavy pieces and pawns his advanced pawns and exposed king gave me enough chances so I could simplify to a winning endgame. I must admit to being nervous; it's a long time since I had a kings and single pawn ending in a league match. Anyway if I made any mistakes they weren't exploited and I got my queen and won.

Our next match is in a couple of weeks at home to Wilmslow B.

Jeff

Re: Stockport Reds v Marple A Thu 17 Feb

Hi all,

 

Ah yes, Plan B didn't work for me! I played a different variation to the one I played earlier in the season against the same opponent to make him think of something other than f3 and his usual pawn storm, but I'm not convinced about the particular line that I chose. Although the position is considered equal (even by Fritz - 0.00) I'm not convinced that Black has sufficient counterplay and has to defend accurately throughout. This was largely proved correct when I knew the match score required a win for myself and George to salvage the 3-3 and tried to advance only to let my opponent in, although taking a hot pawn didn't help! I think I'll revert to my patented move order in future, at least I'll have a decent pawn structure which will please Philidor - Plan A!!

 

Terry

 

 

 

In a message dated 02/20/11 12:15:22 GMT Standard Time, sean.d.hewitt@gmail.com writes:

Defeat in a game that I thought we might do well in unfortunately.  Michael felt for an opening trick (that I fell for last year!) to lose an exchange early on and couldn't hold the resulting position.  I wasn't far behind.  I had a nice position but made the cardinal sin of moving a protected piece to an unprotected square.  This led to a combination that ultimately cost me a piece and the game.

So, 2-0 down after less than 90 minutes (and we weren't playing football).  Alex soon drew in a complex position in which he was probably better but was also short of time.  It would have been easy to lose.

Glenn generated an interesting position against his Spanish opponent which looked like it might have enough weaknesses for force a win but there wasn't so another draw and the score was 1-3.

George had a double edged game against Dave Pardoe and despite looking hair raising (to me) at times, it soon became apparent that he would win, which he duly did.

Which meant all rested on Terry, our star performer this year.  Unfortunately, his opponent always had the better position and to be fair finished it nicely in the end.

So four more league games to go.  We probably need a couple of wins to be absolutely safe - lets try for one of those in the next game, at Denton on Wednesday 2nd March!

Stockport Reds  4 - 2  Marple A

Bd	Stockport Reds	Home	Away	Marple A
1	Hulmes, David I	0.5	0.5	Longson, Alexander
2	Taylor, Mike	1	0	Fernandez, Michael
3	Sheppard, Daniel C	1	0	Hewitt, Sean D
4	Pardoe, David	0	1	Kolbusz, George
5	Arnal, Paula Perez	0.5	0.5	Trueman, Glenn
6	Crowther, Michael P	1	0	Cowling, Terry

 

Stockport Reds v Marple A

Defeat in a game that I thought we might do well in unfortunately. Michael fell for an opening trick (that I fell for last year!) to lose an exchange early on and couldn't hold the resulting position. I wasn't far behind. I had a nice position but made the cardinal sin of moving a protected piece to an unprotected square. This led to a combination that ultimately cost me a piece and the game.

So, 2-0 down after less than 90 minutes (and we weren't playing football). Alex soon drew in a complex position in which he was probably better but was also short of time. It would have been easy to lose.

Glenn generated an interesting position against his Spanish opponent which looked like it might have enough weaknesses for force a win but there wasn't so another draw and the score was 1-3.

George had a double edged game against Dave Pardoe and despite looking hair raising (to me) at times, it soon became apparent that he would win, which he duly did.

Which meant all rested on Terry, our star performer this year. Unfortunately, his opponent always had the better position and to be fair finished it nicely in the end.

So four more league games to go. We probably need a couple of wins to be absolutely safe - lets try for one of those in the next game, at Denton on Wednesday 2nd March!

Stockport Reds 4 - 2 Marple A

Bd	Stockport Reds	Home	Away	Marple A
1	Hulmes, David I	0.5	0.5	Longson, Alexander
2	Taylor, Mike	1	0	Fernandez, Michael
3	Sheppard, Daniel C	1	0	Hewitt, Sean D
4	Pardoe, David	0	1	Kolbusz, George
5	Arnal, Paula Perez	0.5	0.5	Trueman, Glenn
6	Crowther, Michael P	1	0	Cowling, Terry