Marple secure place in Charnley Cup Final

Played at the Navigation last evening -

Marple                 V       Stockport     Charnley Cup Semi-Final   26/02/2015

1 A Longson      1-0        A Reeve
2 M Fernandez  0.5/0.5  P Cawley
3 J Bentley         0.5/0.5 D Toole
4 J Horton          1-0       M Taylor
5 S Hegarty        1-0       A Coe
6 G Trueman      1-0       J Kelly

                            5-1

Stockport arrived in Marple with a somewhat depleted team,  at least two players short of their strongest line-up because of illness and work commitments. Although this made us favourites there was plenty of good chess played by both sides and the final score was somewhat flattering.

My opponent was John Kelly. Although this probably looked like a relatively easy victory for me to the watching  spectators they wouldn't have been aware that the last time we played (albeit it in a five minute game) I was very lucky to swindle a draw after losing a Rook. This time the boot was on the other foot as John let my fianchettoed Bishop gobble up first the pawn on b7 and then his Rook on a8. I was slightly nervous with memories of Nunn-Petrosian from Hastings in the 70's coming to my mind. However on this occasion the sac wasn't really sound and I soon managed to consolidate and John resigned (1-0).

John (Bentley) then drew with Dave Toole. John was obviously not very well and I was grateful that he had turned up. To make matters worse Dave launched a four pawn attack against Johns KID.I was somewhat concerned as to how this line would turn out but John was able to reach a position where a draw was agreed. (1.5-0.5).

Board two saw Michael take on Paul Cawley for what seems about the fifth time in the last year. This particular encounter saw Michael secure a spatial advantage but ultimately a hole on d4 gave Paul enough play for a draw. (2.0-1.0).

Jamie played a very interesting game against Mike Taylor "sacrificing" his Queen for three minor pieces. In general I prefer to have the minor pieces and this turned out to be the case here. Eventually Mike felt he had no option but to lash out with d5 although after this Jamie's prosecution of his attack was clinical and soon Mike had to resign. (3.0-1.0).

Sarah faced a double fianchetto from Andy Coe. To me the key factor was, were Sarahs doubled Rooks on the h file well or badly placed? After Andy erred Sarah found a very fine sequence of moves to give her a winning attack with just two Rooks and one Knight on the board.We had definitely won. (4.0 - 1.0).

The final game to finish on board one was another double fianchetto from White. This was a long  quality manoevering game between two players of the highest class. One problem for Andy (Reeve) was that he was always about twenty minutes behind on the clock. Slowly Alex tightened the screw and the White position went from equalish, to just about tenable, to lost without Andy seeming to do much wrong. He resigned without about 25 seconds left on the clock. (5.0 -1.0).

So we  are now in the final and will have to find the time to record a novelty single and get fitted for the cup final suits.......