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