Played at Chorlton Chess Club last evening -
Chorlton A V Marple A - Stockport Lge. Div 1 - 03/02/2015
1 J O'Neill 0-1 A Longson
2 R Doney 0-1 M Fernandez
3 D Owen 1-0 I Craft
4 D Knox 0.5/0.5 S Hegarty
5 S Foulkes 0.5/0.5 G Trueman
6 A Beresford 1-0 N Dainty
3-3
I picked Isaac up from Stockport Station feeling pretty rough with a virus that had kept me in the house for the last three days only to discover my passenger was probably in a worse physical state than me. Whilst we compared ailments I began to notice the traffic wasn't moving very well at all and glancing down at the M60 from the "Pyramid" roundabout saw total gridlock in all directions. I later learned there had been a big accident and added to the congestion caused by a benefit football match being staged for a presumably impoverished American family in the Old Trafford area the result was "carmageddon". I was on the verge of contacting one of our players when Sarah rang to say their satnav was forecasting an eta of after 8pm. I then rang Neil, who was also taking Michael to discover they were about three miles behind us.
Fortunately when we finally arrived at Chorlton their Captain Alan (Beresford) had not started the clocks and said he would not seek to take advantage of the situation, an attitude which I thought was very sporting .
So to the chess. I've often wondered why Chorlton do not feature in the race for the title in this league. They certainly have plenty of strength in depth as evinced by the fact that my opponent on Board 5 has a grade of 177. After an unusual move order from Stan we ended up in a relatively tranquil backwater of a g3 Bogo-Indian. I may have missed the opportunity to gain a slight positional advantage in the early middle game, as played the game drifted into a very dull equality and we agreed a draw soon afterwards. 0.5/0.5
Sarah had got what is probably the hardest pairing relative to grade in the Stockport League - Black against David Knox. Most of you know that 25 years ago he was one of the strongest players in the country and when firing on all cylinders is still in my view capable of playing at IM level. After David played the lovely 12Qb1! in an e4 Anti -Slav line (1d4 d5 2c4 e6 3Nc3 c6 4Nf3 dc: 5a4 Bb4 6e4 b5 7Bd2 a5 8ab: Bc3: 9Bc3: cb: 10b3 Bb7 11bc: b4) I feared the worst and when the f pawn started to roll I didn't really see a good line for Black. From this point though Sarahs defensive play was absolutely superb as she found a long sequence of only moves and finally emerged with a slight advantage. The Rook ending that resulted turned out to be drawn though. I was left thinking about the inequities of a grading system that will give Sarah fewer points for this brilliant effort than I will receive for my limp display. 1.0/1.0
It had been a real struggle finding six high graded players for this match. On Sunday Neil had bravely agreed to my request for him to help us out even though we both knew he would be facing an opponent graded at least fifty points above him. For a very long time Neil stayed in the game and looked to me to have good chances against Alan. Ultimately though a very cruel pin on the a2-g8 diagonal with a Rook on f7 and a King on g8 proved decisive. 1.0/2.0
Things got even worse when Isaac lost on Board 3. His Stonewall system didn't come off against Dennis and he spent a long time trying to find some play in an impossible ending where Blacks kingside majority was always likely to be decisive. Although Isaac made Dennis work very hard by about move 50 there was no defence. 1.0/3.0.
So we were up against it now. Michael had Black against Maths Professor Ron Doney. Once again Michael didn't castle and created a very unclear position that I suspected would not be to Rons taste. Although I should perhaps add a "Don't try this at home" warning, if you are very talented playing in this style is one way of achieving a high percentage of wins with the Black pieces. Although the game lasted a long time Michael ultimately clinically "sacrificed" his Rook against a knight on b7 to win the critical a4 pawn and suddenly, from nowhere, Rons King was in a mating net..... 2.0/3.0
Alex' game was the last to finish. The intended Chorlton Board One failed to show and a very late substitute was drafted in. He certainly played well though and if I am being honest I got rather worried as Alex drifted further and further behind on the clock. When I started watching properly Alex had two minor pieces against a Rook, but arguably an out of play Knight on a4. What worried me most though was the fact that Alex had less than ten minutes left whilst Jim had over twenty. The next passage of play was instructive as Alex great strength exerted itself on Blacks position. Slowly Alex invaded and when f7 couldn't be defended it was game over. 3.0/3.0
So our 100% record in the Stockport League is over, but in the circumstances I am not unhappy. After all at 7.30pm I thought the most likely result was a 6-0 defeat on time.
Many thanks to all who played/drove.
PS - Dont miss Alans (Walton) exploits at Gib. He's getting great results and several of his games are already on the Chessgames site.
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