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Friday 13 December 2019

Limit league v Ashton, away, 11 Dec 2019

Ashton 3.5 Marple 0.5

David Preen 0 Ben Newton 1 
Tony Doust = Jack Mundy  
Phil Macneill 0 Dawn Supatan 1 
Paul Maxim 0 Max Rogers 1


Sunday 1 December 2019

Limit League, 28 Nov 2019, Marple v Ashton. Result 2-2

Hard-fought draw

1 Tony Doust (black) = Ben Newton
2 Martin Cutts 1-0 Phil Shaughnessy
3 Neil Dainty 0-1 Tyrone Supatan
4 Paul Maxim = Mr Newton

On top board, Tony earned a good draw in a French defence against yet another Ashton wunderkind. His young opponent, graded 114, had a reasonable advantage by move 13 but multiple exchanges led to a sterile position.

On board 4, Paul sacrificed his queen to gain a stalemate. 

On board 1, I fell asleep around move 12 and was soon well down (on Stockfish) after Phil sacrificed a bishop for two pawns and an attack. Dogged defence reduced the lead and, at last, I made a decent move that snagged a knight and ended Phil's attack. I had knight, bishop and two pawns against his horde of 7 pawns. Draws were offered by both players and declined by both, but I was able to queen a pawn to take the full point after three hours.

Friday 8 November 2019

NEW KIT, NEW TENANTS AND A WIN!

Last night's match at the Navi was evenly matched but at half past nine we were 3-1 up and sure of victory.

                          Marple B       3-2       Urmston

1.   130? Jonathan Bennett    1-0  Jordi Bitlloch    139
2.   131   Tony Kay.                 0-1  Mark Whaley   144
3.   110   Tony Doust               0-1  Grant Randall  110
4.   90?? Matthew McGrogan 1-0  Tim Plunkett       90
5.    95    Neil Dainty               1-0  Frank Kenny      86

My game became easy when Frank pinned my queen with his bishop letting me take said bishop!  I didn't see enough of the other games to comment, but you can see that Johnny and Matt also won.  

A good opportunity to say what a pleasure it is to play at the Navi now.  The very generous donation of boards, sets and tables from Martin and clearest.co.uk has coincided with (not sure if that's good grammar Martin?) the new tenants making huge improvements to the lighting.  They also turn the heating on!  And the whole pub is smarter and livelier too.

Tuesday 29 October 2019

Flawless, but not Faultless

Wilmslow v Marple A: 28 October 2019


The result (home team first) was-


1. R Evans v Glenn Trueman    0.5/0.5

2. K Moran v Alan Hall            0.5/0.5

3. C Mills v David Fowler        0.5/0.5

4. D Mowat v David Preen       0.5/0.5

5. A Kerr v Tony Doust            0.5/0.5

6. M. Palmer v                         DEFAULT


Result                                       3.5/2.5

Every game was closely contested, and as far as I could see we made no mistakes but were pressed hard in every game by a strong Wilmslow team. A very creditable performance, although my request to have the bottom board eliminated because it didn't suit us was met with a stony silence.

R Evans v Glenn Trueman 0.5/0.5

R Evans v Glenn Trueman 0.5/0.5

K Moran v Alan Hall 0.5/0.5

C Mills v David Fowler 0.5/0.5

D Mowat v David Preen 0.5/0.5

A Kerr v Tony Doust 0.5/0.5

M Palmer v  DEFAULT 1-0
 v Alan Hall 0.5/0.5

C Mills v David Fowler 0.5/0.5

D Mowat v David Preen 0.5/0.5

A Kerr v Tony Doust 0.5/0.5

M Palmer v  DEFAULT 1-0

Tuesday 22 October 2019

Limit League, Wilmslow v Marple, 21 Oct 2019

Wilmslow 0, Marple 4

1. Ashley Weinberg 0 Tony Doust 1
2. Michael Craven 0 Neil Dainty 1
3. David Broadridge 0 Paul Maxim 1
4. Susan Thompson 0 Joseph Anderson 1

Well done, all. First win of the season.

Saturday 19 October 2019

Limit League 17 Oct 2019, Marple 1 Stockport 3

1. Tony Doust 1/2 Ian Anderson 1/2
2. David Preen 0 Anthony Prime 1
3. Neil Dainty 1/2 John Kelly 1/2
4. Paul Maxim 0 David Peatfield 1


Sunday 13 October 2019

Lions Led By Donkey

Stockport Chess League, 9 October 2019: Denton v Marple A: Result 3-3


The Result of the Match was as follows (home team first)


1. Dave Boulden v Alan Hall 1-0
2. Phil Boyd v Terry Cowling 0.5-0.5
3. Martin Murray v Jonathan Bennett 0-1
4. Stan Bradley v  David Fowler 0.5-0.5
5. R J Tonkin v Chris Baker 0-1
6. A Williamson v Paul Horrocks 1-0

A spirited performance at Denton in which Marple A secured a draw against a tricky opposition was marred only by our team captain, and first board, managing to lose a won game (and not the first time either). He has been dropped for the next A team game and fined a week's wages.

This gives us a total after two league games of 3 out of a possible 4 points, and all to play for in future games.





Friday 11 October 2019

Limit League, 10 Oct 2019: Marple 1 Macclesfield 3

Martin Cutts 0-1 John Astley
Neil Dee drew with Mick Renshaw
Paul Maxim 0-1 Tom Robson
Joseph Anderson drew with Steve Dawson

Good results for Neil and Joseph against strong opponents.  Neil Dainty

Wednesday 2 October 2019

Limit League: Stockport 2.5 v Marple 1.5, 1 Oct 2019

After a calamitous opening, Matthew staged a fine comeback on debut to win his game on board 3. Martin got Dutched, played like a baboon (in keeping with the tropical conditions), and was losing at move 34 when time pressure led his opponent to agree a draw. 

Those who stayed late saw a fine endgame finish by junior Kyle Pelling in a different match. From being grade 50 in 2017, Kyle is now at 139 and was runner-up in the 2019 UK Chess Challenge Northern Gigafinal Under 12. Could be one to avoid if playing Heywood.

A Prime v M Cutts – draw
J Kelly 1-0 Tony Doust
C Murfin 0-1 Matthew McGrogan
D Peatfield 1-0 Neil Dainty

Saturday 28 September 2019

'O Brave New World'- Thursday's SDCL game against Stockport B

Marple A 3.5: Stockport B 2.5

The first game of the new season and a hard fought match against Stockport B saw us winning narrowly despite being out graded overall by almost 100 rating points.

Every single game was hard fought, close and went to the wire. Especial thanks go our two recent recruits, Jonathan Bennett and Paul Horrocks, who between them scored a decisive 1.5 (and indeed Paul was likely to have gone on to win in the last game to finish, but short of time wisely accepted an offer of a draw that secured us the win).

Let's keep it up for the rest of the season!


Monday 9 September 2019

Lessons to be learned

This game took place last week and following a brief discussion after the match Chris kindly offered to run through it for me.  In fact he did more than that and produced the following annotated game.

This game contains no brilliancies or particularly clever moves and of itself it isn’t particularly interesting – winding down to a draw after an exchange of queens on the 15th move.  But what it might offer is an example of how poor piece placement during the opening moves and a failure to appreciate the pawn structure can hamstring you later on.  As we will see I ended up with a particularly sorry pair of bishops that could offer no support to my other pieces.

My own observation is that I should have played c5 on the14th move to release my white squared bishop with a discovered attack on White’s centre.


Forrest,Brian - Dee,Neil [B06] 
Manchester Summer league vs Bury Marple (1), 29.08.2019
[Chris]

1.e4 d6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.h3 Bg7 5.Bc4 0–0 6.a3 [This move by white just seems to waste a tempo!]

6...e5 [If you play c5 here you transpose into a Sicilian Dragon position that looks good for black because the white knight on f3 blocks the usual K-side pawn advance and the pawn on a3 looks like a wasted move. Your e5 blocks your bishop on G7 and in some future situation you might want your e-pawn on e6 to block out his bishop on c4. Of course sometimes "the book" does involve putting a pawn in the way of a fianchettoed bishop, but there needs to be a very good reason for doing so.]

7.d3 c6 [During the opening phase, the biggest priority is to get your minor pieces established on decent squares, secure your king and connect your rooks and deal with pawn structure as all this is underway. Your white square bishop already starts to look like a problem piece. You might consider Re8 then Be3 to exchange it off with his WSB. If meanwhile he puts his knight on d5, you can then play c6 to drive it away without loss of tempo.]

8.0–0 [Another pawn move whilst your Q side pieces remain at home and his WSB will be perfectly happy on a2 Meanwhile b5 has not helped your pawn structure.]

8...b5 9.Ba2 Bb7 [Your WSB has very little future on this square. It would be better on e6 after appropriate preparation. Another placement to have considered earlier on was on a6, supported by your knight. Generally speaking, in opening/middle game positions where there are no tactics going on, the best thing to do is to seek moves that improve piece placement or create outposts for minor pieces to settle on.]

10.Ne2 Nbd7 11.Ng3 d5 12.Nh2 dxe4 [The series of exchanges starting here leave your BSB still imprisoned and your K-side knight with hardly any squares to go to. Meanwhile his pieces have better activity. I quite like the look of d4 followed by a Q-side pawn advance that would give you a big Q-side space advantage and might be hard for him to cope with.]

13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.dxe4 Nf6 15.Qxd8 Raxd8 16.f3 Rd7 [Doubling rooks at this point looks sensible on the surface but looking more generally, the placement and hence activity of your minor pieces is awful! For example you might think about how to improve your knight - is there a square where it could be more effective? e6 looks pretty good to me and it could go via e8 & c7. If white plays Bg5, you can block with f6 strengthening your e-pawn. Your BSB will probably escape via f8 and perhaps go to c5 supported by then by your knight.]

17.c3 Rfd8 18.Bg5 h6 19.Bh4 g5 20.Bf2 a6 21.h4 Rd2 [Getting a rook on the 7th is always tempting but the real priority is still to activate your minor pieces. White's piece activity means that your rooks won't do any damage on their own and they really are on their own! Your rooks are well placed as they are so Ne8 to get the knight towards a better square looks a lot more constructive to me.]

22.Rab1 Re2 23.hxg5 hxg5 24.Rfe1 Rdd2 [This results in terrible placement of your rook after the exchanges. You needed to play RxR so as to keep your remaining rook active on the open d file.]

25.Rxe2 Rxe2 [The exchanges on the 7th have put you in a very awkward situation! You want to play Rd2 but then Be3 happens and you lose your g pawn.]

26.Ng4 [Looks like a blunder by white as it wrecks his K-side pawn structure.]

26...Nxg4 27.fxg4 Kf8 [Bc8 was much better. It starts to activate your bishop, attacks g4 and covers d7 which is a square you don't want white to occupy with his rook. I think after your move a draw is a fair outcome.]

28.Rd1 Ke7 29.Bc5+ Ke8 30.Rf1 f6 31.Be6 Rd2 32.b4 Rd8 33.Bf5 Kf7

½–½

Friday 6 September 2019

Tuesday night's game against Worsley

The Marple team was under extra pressure when Glen told us we needed to score one and a half points to avoid relegation in the South East Lancs Summer League, especially as we were having to default on bottom board. On board 1, Glen reached a drawn position fairly quickly against a strong player but we were heavily outgraded on all the other boards so the situation looked a bit gloomy.

I had black on Board 2 against Mike Connor (147) but managed to get the necessary win (we lost on all the other boards).

When I manage to win a game, it rarely involves a middle game checkmate so this game was pretty unusual for me. I think the mating pattern was rather nice (Mike actually resigned when it was mate in one). Here is the game...


1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 c6 [The Catalan. A bit similar to The English that I like to play with white. I have hardly ever faced this with black though.]

4.Bg2 Bf5 [I decided to get the QB outside the pawn chain afer some thought. It proved a good decision as things developed and is the most popular move in Chessbase.]

5.Nf3 e6 6.0–0 Be7 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.Nd2 0–0 9.Re1 [After this I kept checking to see that white cannot advance his pawns so as to trap one of my minor pieces.]

9...Re8 10.cxd5 exd5 [Keep the pawn on c6 to oppose white's bishop.]

11.f3 Qb6 [The pawn on d4 is undefended and this move draws away one of the white knights covering what is looking like a very important e4 square.]

12.Nb3 Bb4 [This bishop can't cover e4 so I thought it would be good to exchange it for a knight that can.]

13.a3 Bxc3 14.bxc3 Nf8 [Re-routing to e6 as I don't want him to post a knight on c5 where it covers e4 etc.]

15.Nc5 Ne6 16.Be3 [I was surprised by this move. e4 is better.]

16...Qc7 [Fritz prefers 15. .. Nxc5 17. dxc5 Qb3, but I correctly anticipated the next few moves and liked the look of RQR tripled on the e-file.]

17.Nxe6 Rxe6 18.Bf2 Rae8 19.Ra2 Qe7 20.e3 Nd7 [I spent a long time on this move. I really liked my position but couldn't see how to improve - I sort of wanted white to move again to show his hand. I eventually decided that this knight would stand well on c4 if I can get it there.]

21.c4 Nb6 22.cxd5 Nxd5 [At first sight, e4 looks devastating but I had seen well in advance that Nc3 would fork Q & R.]

23.Qb3 [Played after a very long think and not the best. In fact e4 with loss of the exchange was the best move, though I would be doing pretty well then of course.]

23...Nxe3 24.Rb2 [Bxe3 is better but I should still have a winning endgame.]

24...Nxg2 25.Rxe6 Bxe6 [This is the killer move which I think my opponent must have missed. It gives me the tempo I need to protect the knight. The white king is trapped in a rather attractive mating net.]

26.Qa4 Bh3 27.Qxa7 Ne1 28.Qxb7 Nxf3+ 29.Kh1 Qe1+ [Mate on the next turn!]

0–1




Monday 18 March 2019

EIGHTY APPROACHING NINETY THREE? or is it?

Bear with me on this one, all will be revealed in due course.  But now I have your interest here is the result of Thursday's match:

              Marple B   1.5 - 3.5  Altrincham B

1.   107  D Preen       0-1    A Lane           129    -22
2.   100  N Dainty   0.5-0.5 N Lowe           128    -28
3.     93  A Doust       1-0    T Tomkins      127    -34
4.     99  T Thomas    0-1   V Kakarparthi  119   -20
5.     94  N Dee.         0-1   W McCartney  108   -14

So we were out-graded by an average of twenty three points with Altrincham's top three boards all equally strong.

My game with Nick Lowe was first to finish.  We met only a few weeks ago in an A-team match and once again I was pleased to get a draw. After my twentieth move we each had two rooks, bishop and seven pawns with the e-file open but locked.  Nick accepted my offer and my German overseer was unable to find an error by either player.

On board five Neil's castled king was under seige and his defiant defence eventually crumbled.  Nothing to be ashamed of as Bill was graded 141 only a couple of years ago.

Trefor too only lost after putting up a good fight and it was only Vijay's strong endgame play that won the point.  David also had an equal game which was the last to finish.

Which leaves me with our only win to comment on (and that headline to explain. Ed.)   Put simply Tomtom Kins was the latest to face the Douster; and dousted he was!  The game seemed equal but Tom's position collapsed and he resigned in a remarkably good humoured and sporting manner when Tony forked his king and rook.  

Now it not be unreasonable to think that if you've just passed your eightieth birthday and your grade is 93 it may not be long before the larger number becomes the smaller.  Not so!  In case you haven't noticed, Tony's SDCL performance after fifteen games this season is a mighty 122. Better even than (better not mention names! Ed.).  He then followed that with a strong performance in the Blackpool Chess Congress scoring 3.5 from 5 games with a tournament performance of 118.

So perhaps my headline should have read 80 getting on 120!  Happy Birthday!