Manic Monday

Played at the Queens Hotel Macclesfield last evening -

Macclesfield A       V      Marple A :    Stockport Lge Div One  : 25/04/16

1 K Smallbone       0-1    A Longson
2 R Shaw            0.5/0.5  M Fernandez
3 C Sizeland          0-1    A Walton
4 A Soames         0.5/0.5 G Trueman
5 C Davison          1-0     A Hall
6 P Cattermole     0-1     T Cowling

                               2-4 

I was very impressed by the number of active players Macclesfield have. In addition to the above match  Macclesfield B were also hosting our B team and their C team were playing at Wilmslow. Even so there were still four or five additional Macc club members playing casual chess. I'm very pleased to see chess is so popular in a town where I spent so much time during my formative years. (Mainly watching the  mighty Macclesfield Town FC but thats another story we won't go into here).

I don't know if Jeff will have the time to write anything about the B match but I was very impressed by the performance of our players who despite being outgraded pulled off a 3.5/2.5 win that perhaps deserved to be a more emphatic victory. Ben (Jacobson) stole the show with a sensational Rook sacrifice that was much admired by the watching audience.

In the A team match  Marple also triumphed. Alan (W) played a very nice attacking game against Chris (Sizeland) and Alex ground down  a very strong opponent in Kieran. I feared the worst for Michael who was a pawn down in a Rook ending but somehow, magically  it seemed to me, he found enough counterplay for half a point. In my game Tony showed himself to be well versed in the White side of Nimzo-Indian theory, we agreed a draw in a position where I thought Tony had a slight edge. Alan (H) was again unlucky reaching a very nice position with pressure against a backward pawn on e6. Colin is a very resourceful player though and he somehow wriggled out and eventually triumphed. So with the score at 3-2 Terry ensured Marple won the match with an excellently played Rook ending against Phil. This was the first game I have seen Phil lose for several years. I thought it was  a nice touch that the final move by Marple in this seasons Stockport League was g2-g1, although I never did find out which piece Terry was intending to promote to.....

Thus ends a successful season for Marple A in the Stockport League. Thanks to all who have played and/or  helped in various ways. It's not all over yet though, we still have a Cup Final and two Manchester League matches to keep us busy.