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Tuesday 28 January 2014

Marple C V E Cheshire B 27/01/14

Here's the scorecard from last evening.

Marple C                     E Cheshire B   27/01/14  Stockport Lge. Div 2

1 P Kirby         1-0       T Rickards
2 G Trueman    1-0       P Bamford
3 N Livesey       0-1       N Flaherty
4 A Jenkins        1-0        A Stokes
5 C Baker         0-1        D Taylor
6 T Cowling      0-1        B Tait

                         3-3

Unfortunately Tony Kay was unable to play through illness and his place in the line up was taken by Terry. Some people may have thought this would be a relatively easy match but I was far from certain. Although they have few star players East  Cheshire do have the strength in depth to put out two competitive teams at Division two level. Here they had made every effort to put out their strongest possible team with Tudor Rickards making a rare excursion into the B team.

My game was the first to finish. I played an interesting and sharp variation against the Pirc, but one that I suspect is positionally dubious. Here it worked out very well for me as Paul soon lost material and resigned.
Returning from the post mortem my first view was of Nigel turning over his King. He had seemed to me to be doing well early on so something nasty must have happened.

On Board 4 , Andys opponent had sacrificed a piece for very little. Although the play was interesting Andy seemed always to be in control and he found a nice concluding sequence driving his opponents King to the eighth rank!

From an opening that seemed to transpose several times Paul outplayed Tudor and won a piece. Like Andy he was never in any trouble and although the game lasted a long time I was always sure he was going to win and this proved to be the case. This was an excellent result against an opponent who has been something of a bete noire  for both Paul and myself.

So at 3-1 things were looking promising but there was a sting in the tale. Terry had lost a piece and although he tried everything possible to gain some play there was nothing to be done against his opponents extremely accurate moves.

We now needed half a point to win the match. With the Black pieces Chris had made all the running in his game and White had what seemed a difficult IQP position with his Bishop on b2 glumly looking at his d4 pawn. When we looked at the position afterwards Chris did very little wrong but in one key line allowed a rather beautiful d5 line clearance idea. Incredibly the best Chris could do was reach a lost N+P's ending one pawn down. David was then remorseless in his play and eventually Chris had to resign. As Andy said to me last week  "Chess is a cruel and difficult game".

So the match finished 3-3, which means forthcoming matches particularly against East Cheshire A (10th Feb) and Stockport B (15 April) become even more crucial.

Thanks to all who played, particularly Terry for standing in at short notice.

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Match result: Macclesfield B vs Marple D: 20-01-2014

Marple D achieved an excellent away win against Macclesfield B.  Our opponents had taken maximum points from games this season.  We were out-graded on all boards, particularly so on the top two; both Macclesfield players being over 150.

1.    Denzil Lobo             0-1        Andy Jenkins
2.    Chris Sizeland     
0.5-0.5     Chris Baker
3.    Marc Jouannet        0-1        Terry Cowling
4.    Richard Murphy      1-0         Trefor Thomas
5.    Brian Woodhall       0-1        Jeff Barlow

Result                        1.5-3.5


Andy and Terry finished first, both winning; I'm afraid I saw nothing of these, Andy sent me his game, saying he may add some analysis later. It looks like an interesting exchange sacrifice, with a very neat finish, 2-0

Andy Jenkins v Denzil Lobo
 
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 c5 3.e3 a6 4.c3 Nc6 5.Bd3 Bg4 6.Nbd2 e6 7.h3 Bh5 8.0–0 Nf6 9.Qc2 c4 10.Be2 Bd6 11.Re1 0–0 12.e4 Bg6 13.Bf1 Nxe4 14.Nxe4 Bxe4 15.Rxe4 dxe4 16.Qxe4 Na5 17.Ng5 g6 18.Qh4 h5 19.Be2 Kg7 20.Qe4 Be7 21.Nf3 Qd5 22.Qf4 Rh8 23.Ne5 Bf6 24.Bf3 Bxe5 25.dxe5 Qd8 26.Qg3 Qd3 27.Bg5 Rh7 28.Rd1 Qf5 29.Bf6+ Kf8 30.Rd4 Qb1+ 31.Kh2 Qxb2 32.Be4 Qc1 33.Rd7 Rb8 34.f4 h4 35.Bxh4 Nc6 36.Bf6 Ke8 37.Rc7 Nd8 38.Bxg6 Rh6 39.Bxf7+  1–0
 
My game was next to finish.  I played a Grand Prix attack against the Sicilian, though it became more of a positional manoeuvring game with white restricting black's options.  My opponent eventually left a rook hanging deep behind his lines.  Could my queen take it and get back safely.  I decided it could and so it proved. So we were now 3-0 up, winning all the white boards.

Trefor's game was hard fought and came down to a rook and pawns endgame (the only bit I saw) unfortunately his opponent had two pawns and Trefor had none, 3-1.

Chris sent me his self assessment, at my request. "On board two, Chris Sizewell (151) played the Trompowsky Attack against Chris who launched a counter-attack that should have been winning. As things clarified, CB chose the wrong move order and missed a simple win of the exchange. He then faced a very tricky double rook and pawn endgame with both players under time pressure, which he managed to draw."

Well done everyone.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Match Result - Marple v Holmes Chapel (Charnley Cup)

Here is the match card from last night

Marple A Holmes Chapel
1 Daniel Fernandez 1 0 P Bennet
2 Alex Longson 1 0 J Turner
3 Andrew Horton 1 0 R Clark
4 John Bentley 1 0 WALKOVER
5 Michael Fernandez 1 0 A Raeburn
6 Alan Walton 1 0 I Bates
6 0

The night didn't get off to a great start as me and Andrew managed to get stuck on the same piece of road for about half an hour.  At one point we were seriously wondering whether we would get there at all.  'Fortunately' we were not alone in this endeavour and a number of Holmes Chapel players were also late.  In the end we started at 8pm after agreeing to reduce the time control to 75 minutes each.  Unfortunately Mike Hancock had an emergency at work and so Holmes Chapel had to default board 4.  At least John could get home a bit earlier.

Alan was first to finish after a comfortable win on 6 on the white side of the Tromp.  White had won a pawn early on and also had a better structure so the ending was just a technical exercise in converting.  2-0 Marple

Daniel was next to finish.  After employing his trademark Polish Defence 1.d4 b5!?  it seemed that he was struggling somewhat in the middlegame - at least I though whites pieces were more active.  Pat chose a passive continuation and handed the initiative to Daniel in the endgame after which the game ended quite quickly.  A good demonstration of how even a small number of units can create a dangerous attacking force in the endgame (in this case rook and knight).  3-0 Marple

I thought I was a bit better in my game against J Turner but was tempted to offer a draw as it would seal us the match.  However, as I couldn't see Michael losing I decided to press on and go for the win, which I eventually achieved.  I'm not sure if my play was very accurate, but it followed a nice strategic arc as in the end I had 3 connected passed pawns in the centre which was more than enough to win the rook endgame.  The opening was 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 - Rossolimo Sicilian.  4-0 Marple.

Marple was a pawn up in his game from the opening though White seemed to have reasonable compensation, typical for the Sicilian Morra Gambit.  Michael went on to convert the extra pawn using a nice tactic along the way (...d5).  5-0 Marple.

Andrew was last to finish - literally with 16 seconds on his clock.  He appeared to be under heavy pressure throughout the game, perhaps making a mistake out of the opening (Spanish - Breyer System) allowing white a promising piece sac.  It was a very complicated game however and in the end his higher playing strength counted for more.  6-0 Marple

It's always nice to get a whitewash - and against strong opponents such as Holmes Chapel we should feel pretty proud.  We are now through to the semi finals of the cup where I believe we play East Cheshire.

Thursday 16 January 2014

Match Result: Stockport C vs Marple D: 14-01-2014

Marple D achieved a splendid win after a hard fought match away to Stockport C last Tuesday.

1.    John Kelly            0-1        Tony Kay
2.    Marc Jackson       1-0        Andy Jenkins
3.    David Preen         0-1        Chris Baker
4.    Ian Anderson     0.5-0.5    Terry Cowling
5.    Anthony Prime    0-1        Jeff Barlow

Result                        1.5-3.5

Andy was first to finish, losing to Marc Jackson, one of his bogey players.  I didn't see anything of his game.  Chris was playing David Preen and was next to finish. (Chris kindly provided the following summary.)  Chris had white in highly positional symmetrical English opening. The game was very level for the first 20 moves until a slip by David suddenly allowed Chris some tactics that gained a pawn after a series of exchanges and left him with good prospects in the ensuing end game. Immediately afterwards, David blundered losing a knight and resigned.
The scores were now level then Tony won his game to make it 2-1 for Marple.  Terry's ended in a draw though he was several pawns up.  So we would win the match if I could get anything from my game.  I was playing white against the French Defence, which I often play as Black, but I was surprised by Black's third move.  After 1. e4 e6, 2. d4 d5, 3. Nc3 he played h6, a novelty for me, though not unknown as I later discovered. I am still not sure of the point of this.  I played e5, probably not best but familiar ground and cramping Black's kingside.  I ended up with a plus but down on time.  Black eventually freed his position with c5 to level things.  After a series of exchanges I found myself unable to save my e5 pawn and at this point was probably losing if Black had taken his chance to advance his own e pawn. Instead he chose to double his rooks on the f-file, which looks natural but gave me a chance to get back in and win his e pawn. My opponent then fell far behind on the clock and his position collapsed leaving me with a won game. This gave us the match win if a little fortunately in my case.

 For those interested I append the moves.

 

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 h6 4.e5 b6 5.Qg4 Ba6 6.Bxa6 Nxa6 7.a3 Qd7 8.Qe2 Nb8 9.Nf3 Ne7 10.0–0 Ng6 11.Be3 Be7 12.b4 0–0 13.h3 f6 14.Qd3 Qe8 15.Rae1 fxe5 16.Nxe5 Nxe5 17.dxe5 Kh8 18.Bd2 c5 19.bxc5 Bxc5 20.Ne2 Nc6 21.Be3 Nxe5 22.Qc3 Nc4 23.Bxh6 Qg6 24.Bc1 Rf7 25.Nf4 Qf6 26.Qxf6 Rxf6 27.Nxe6 Bxa3 28.Bxa3 Nxa3 29.Nd4 Raf8 30.c3 Nc4 31.Re2 a5 32.f3 a4 33.Ra1 a3 34.Nb5 Ra8 35.Rea2 Ra5 36.Nxa3 Nxa3 37.Rxa3 Rxa3 38.Rxa3 Rd6 39.Rb3 d4 40.cxd4 Rxd4 41.Rxb6 Rd2 42.Kh2 Kh7 43.Kg3 Rd4 44.Re6 g6 45.Re4 Rd5 46.f4 Kg7 47.Re3 Kf6 48.Kg4 Rd4 49.h4 Rd2 50.g3 Rd5 51.Kf3. Black lost on time, 1–0
 
Afterwards Chris pointed out that, 51 Re5 would have been an excellent move, if Black exchanges it is a simple win, if not then h5 is strong.



 

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Match Result - Marple v Heywood

Here is the result from last nights Manchester League clash at home to Heywood

1 Daniel Fernandez 1 - 0 Marek Mazek
2 Alex Longson 0.5 - 0.5 Martin Hamer
3 Michael Fernandez 1 - 0 Stephen Horrocks
4 Sarah Hegarty 0 - 1 Matthew Fanning
5 Ioannis Lentzos 1 - 0 Bill O'Rourke
6 Glenn Trueman 0.5 - 0.5 Steve Fanning
7 Paul Kirby 1 - 0 Nugith Jayawarna

5 - 2

This was a very hard fought match with some very interesting games.

Glenn had a solid enough draw on 6. He tempted his opponent into a 2 Knights Tango but the game turned out to be a Bogo Indian. Both players played solidly and a draw seemed a fair result. 0.5 - 0.5

Paul had a typical space advantage from the opening which was a Benoni structure except white has played exd5 rather than cxd5. These generally favour white - Paul played a powerful game, got a strong attack which netted a couple of pawns and maintained the initiative in the endgame. This, coupled with blacks hopelessly passive bishop on a8 lead to a swift resignation. 1.5 - 0.5 Marple

Michael's opponent played the ...gxf6 Caro Kann and moire or less equalised. However, Michael continued to press in the double rook endgame and managed to make progress. He looked to have a relatively straight forward technical win but things got a little trickier. In the end he managed to win a rook and rooks pawn v rook endgame with a study like finish (discovered check by the king)! 2.5 - 0.5 Marple

Daniel's game was crazy, even by his standards. He outplayed Marek in the middlegame placing all of his pieces aggressively presing the centre and kingside. Indeed by move 30 it seemed a miracle that blacks position was holding together. I should mention that both players spent about 15 minutes on the first 30 moves - something I've not seen at this level. Daniel often plays fast and I guess Marek was trying to not lose face but I really don't know. Anyway Daniel came up with an imaginative piece sac to get at the black king, but as Paul pointed out afterwards missed the knockout blow at the crucial moment. Marek launched a counter attack which is where things got pretty crazy. To cut a long story short Daniel's king ended up marching from g1 to g7 whereas Mareks king journeyed from g7 to a6 (all this with queens and rooks on the board). Probably black was winning at some point but he didn't play decisively enough and in the end Daniel was able to combine threats against the king and his 3 passed pawns on the kingside to force victory. 3.5 - 0.5 Marple

My game was highly embarrassing. I was black in a Closed Catalan which is generally slightly more comfortable for white unless black knows exactly what he is doing. I remembered some stuff but wasn't entirely comfortable. Anyway I think my opponent must have played the wrong move order as I managed to get quite a promising position and later exchanged my queen for rook, bishop and pawn. Despite the approximate balance in material I believe I was more or less winning due to my dominating kinght on e5, the general activity of my pieces and the weakness of his dark squares. I won another pawn and the position simplified to me having rook, 2 bishops and 7 pawns versus queen, bishop and 5 pawns. On top of this whites pieces were horribly passive and I had the simple plan of simply pushing my a pawn to victory. It was here I made a horrific blunder (...Kg7 allowing e5!) which turned the game on its head. I can only put this down to arrogance / fatal complacency as it was literally whites only trick in the position - one which I was looking to avoid but missed something very simple. After this I was probably lucky to survive as I think I played quite badly for a couple of moves after the 'shock' of missing e5! 4 - 1 Marple

Sarah was black in a 6.Bg5 Najdorf. It was a complex game where black seemed to gradually get the upper hand, but a blunder in time trouble turned the tables and white ended up with a mating attack. 4 - 2 Marple

Ioannis played a nice controlled game and eventually ground Bill down from a 4 v 3 rook endgame (Keith would be proud)! 5 - 2 Marple

So in the end a convincing win after some excellent fighting chess from both teams. That leaves us with 2 wins, a draw and a loss in the Manchester League so a god recovery after a sticky start. We are also in the semi-finals if the cup playing away at Bolton on the 13th Feb.

Thanks everyone for playing

Thursday 2 January 2014

Christmas Quiz Answers

The winner of this years quiz is Chris with an incredible 10/10. Here are the answers -

1. Only Euwe
2. Can the Kan
3. Ultravox - Vienna
4. Marvin Gaye - Abrahams,Martin & John
5. Don Mclean - Castles in the Air
6. Althea & Donner - Uptown Top Ranking
7. When Smokey sings I hear Vitoilins(h) (Awful pun but anything to get Alvis Vitolins mentioned)
8. Bobbys Girl
9.Marianne Faithful - This little Bird
10.Oasis - Wonderwall (The game was Tim Wall V Dean Ippolito  from 1998)

As winner perhaps Chris will compile a "Chess in Opera" quiz?!