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