Young Guns (Go For It)

Played at Stockport Chess Club last evening -

Stockport A             V      Marple A   :Stockport Lge. Div. One: 10/11/15

1 A Reeve               0-1      A Longson
2 P Siddall              0-1      A Horton
3 P Cawley             0-1       M Fernandez
4 D Toole                0-1       I Craft
5 M Taylor           0.5/0.5   G Trueman
6 D Sheppard      0.5/0.5    S Hegarty

                               1-5

Like last weeks Charnley Cup match the final score doesn't really reflect the intensity of the contest. Stockport are a strong team but as I exchanged teamlists with the Stockport Captain the thought crossed my mind that only one Marple player was over fifty (your aged correspondent) whilst probably only one of the Stockport line up was under fifty. Ability does decline with age but not as much as motivation and perhaps most importantly of all energy levels.

Sarah had very kindly allowed me to swap boards to bring to an end a long sequence of Black games.I then proceeded to squander any possible White advantage with a  very poor game of chess. My only defence is that after working all day plus driving 200 miles I was simply too tired to calculate anything properly.I should also point out that Mike was very tired too. I did miss an opportunity for a significant advantage (+1.15 according to Fritzy) on my 17th move, though it does perhaps show just how difficult chess is when an intensive post-mortem  with Mike, David Hulmes and myself didn't come anywhere near  revealing what the best play for both sides was. Between us we must have at least fifty years experience of playing this particular line of the Queens Gambit!. The line I did play led to what I now think is an equal position. However at the time I thought I was a bit worse and also being  fifteen minutes down on the clock was happy to agree to a draw. (0.5/0.5).On the way home I learnt that Helmut Schmidt had died, it brought to mind one of his quotes "The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement"

On board one Alex was involved in the latest instalment  of his battle with Andy  Reeves favourite defence. With typically powerful play it seemed to me that Alex was building up a big advantage with excellent central control. It wasn't too much of a surprise when I learned that Andy had resigned. Although I have now seen it many,many times the apparent ease with which Alex defeats very strong opponents is still astounding. (1.5/0.5).

Meanwhile Sarah was battling with Dan Sheppard. Dan is a very interesting creative player and I was somewhat worried when he seemed to have the advantage. I then missed quite a lot of the game but discovered Sarah had somehow navigated her way to a R+P ending in which  she was a pawn down but clearly drawn. (2.0/1.0)

So we were a point up but the remaining three games were all difficult to call. Worryingly the Marple players were all behind on the clock. I consoled myself that they are three of the best quickplay exponents in the UK and  this factor came increasingly into play. Isaac had been playing a very unclear position but showed remarkable sang-froid in a difficult Rook ending allowing Dave a protected passed a pawn and then demonstrating it wasn't really going anywhere. Soon Isaacs better King became the deciding factor and Dave had no choice but to resign. (3.0/1.0).

Andys (H) board location prevented me from seeing too much of the action but it seems that Phil sacrificed too many pawns for an attack that wasn't going to break through against the correct defence. However at one point Phil had 20 minutes left to Andys 5. Fortunately though Andy was able to secure a won position and Phil resigned with Andy having 92 seconds left on his clock. (4.0/1.0).

In the final game to finish Paul Cawley had been playing very solidly for a long time, no mean feat against Michael with the Black pieces. As the time started to run out though Michaels remorseless technical skills came to the fore and in the twinkling of an eye Michael was clearly winning a Bishop ending. (5.0/1.0).

As always many thanks to all who played/drove. I do appreciate the efforts everyone made to play, although the result looks comfortable it required a good turnout from our higher graded players to make this score possible.

Finally Alan Smith didn't play for Stockport  in this match. I do want to thank him though for the marvellous book he has given me "The Classical Era in Modern Chess" (McFarland). Its a sumptuous work full of wonderful information which I will be able to regale you with over the coming months.