The B team returned to action on another dark wet miserable Monday night (There is a theme here !).
This time we travelled to Winwick who like us had recorded one win in the league so far, so the battle for mid-table supremacy was at stake.
The coin went up to draw colours which Culcheth won and opted to play white on odd boards.
Clocks started promptly at 7.30pm, with six players still missing (three from each side).
Slowly the missing players began to arrive and all the games (bar one) got underway….
So to the match……..
Board 5
Andy Coe is quickly building up a reputation as the player to fear,
so much so that his opponent decided not to turn up and Culcheth registered the first point of the match by “default”.
On a more serious note “defaults” are becoming too common in the Warrington league, it is a shame especially when players (like Andy) travel in atrocious conditions to away venues only to find they have no game.
Andy has turned out in all four B team matches this year and has a 100% record. Two wins, and two defaults. Hopefully this is not a common theme for the rest of the season.
Cox,L (Default) 0-1 Coe,A
Culcheth B 1 Winwick 0
Board 4
My game was next to finish.
My opponent was determined to attack my king and threw everything into the attack.
The only issue with this approach was he had also castled the same side, so throwing pieces down this flank also weakens his own king’s defenses.
White continues to throw everything into the attack… but falls foul of a tactical trap
21.f5? exf5 22.gxf5 gxf5 23.Bxf5 Qd5+! 24.Qf3?? Rxf5 and white resigned
Johnson,K 0-1 Cole,S
Culcheth B 2 Winwick 0
Board 1
Damian was making his debut for the B team this season and looked in sharp form……
Having built up an impressive advantage following some slack play by his opponent, Damian dispatched his opponent with ruthless efficiency….
Blacks decision to castle long had backfired on him and the white pieces were now all focused on the queenside ready to pounce…..
21…….Nb8 22.Rc3 Nc6 23.Bxa6 Kb8 24.Rb3 Na5 25.Bb6 and black resigned
The final position is worthy of a diagram on its own !!!!
McCarthy,D 1-0 Clissold,R
Culcheth B 3 Winwick 0
Board 6
Reliable Mike brought the team to 3.5 points and our second win of the season with a hard fought draw on board 6.
To be fair the game looked like heading for a Culcheth win…..
Mike’s advantage here is -3.5 according to Fritz and the computer recommends a number of winning ideas including 30….e3 !
Mike decided to simplify and soon found his advantage disappearing
30…..Nxe1 31.Rxe1 e3 32.Qe4 Rd2 33.Qe8+ and Fritz has this dead level
Fleming,M ½–½ Rotchell,M
Culcheth B 3½ Winwick ½
So with the match won all attention turned to the last two matches
Tom always looks assured and calm at the chess board (even when he is losing !!!).
Today was no exception, as he calmly accepted his opponents early pawn sacrifice, calmly neutralised any threats and slowly but surely took complete control of the position before setting a lovely mating net and all in just 30 moves.
Play concluded
26.Re7 Bf3 27.Qe1 Rf8 28.Qe6+ Qxe6 29.Rxe6 Rf5 30.bxc5 Rh5 and the mating trap is complete !!
Stuttard,D 0-1 Vout,T
Culcheth B 4½ Winwick ½
Board 3
Keith was the last game to finish.
When I joined it Keith had over 20 minutes on his clock and his opponent less than 5 minutes.
What followed was a very entertaining endgame
Keith looked to have lost control of the position and Fritz has his opponent ahead.
What a difference a pawn makes !! Fritz recommends Rxf3 (-0.94) but black took the h pawn and paid the penalty..
Keith now demonstrates how to win a rook and pawn endgame a pawn down !!.
39…….. Rxh5 40.Kb3 Rf5 41.Rc3 Rb5 42.Ka4 Rb7 43.b5 h5 44.Rc4 Kd6 45.Ka5 h4 46.Ka6 Rb8 47.b6 h3 48.Ka7 Rh8 49.b7 h2 50.Rc1 Kd5 51.b8Q Rxb8 52.Kxb8 Kd4 53.Re1
Maudsley,K 1-0 Myles,S
So final match score
Culcheth B 5½ Winwick ½
The B team move up to 3rd in the league – who knows what is possible this season !!!
Well done everyone.
Full Game Scores for completeness
(1) McCarthy,D – Clissold,R [B80]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.Qd2 Be7 8.f3 Nc6 9.0–0–0 Bd7 10.g4 h6 11.Kb1 Qc7 12.h4 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 e5 14.Be3 Be6 15.Rg1 Nd7 16.g5 hxg5 17.hxg5 g6 18.Be2 0–0–0 19.Nd5 Bxd5 20.Qxd5 Rh7 21.Rd3 Nb8 22.Rc3 Nc6 23.Bxa6 Kb8 24.Rb3 Na5 25.Bb6 1–0
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.h3 f6 6.d4 exd4 7.e5 c5 8.0–0 Be7 9.Nbd2 fxe5 10.Re1 Nf6 11.Ne4 0–0 12.Nxe5 Nxe4 13.Rxe4 Qd5 14.Re2 Bd6 15.c4 Qe6 16.b3 Qf6 17.Nd3 Bf5 18.Bb2 Qg6 19.Ne5 Bxe5 20.Rxe5 Bxh3 21.g3 Bg4 22.Qd2 Rae8 23.Rae1 b6 24.b4 Rxe5 25.Rxe5 Rf5 26.Re7 Bf3 27.Qe1 Rf8 28.Qe6+ Qxe6 29.Rxe6 Rf5 30.bxc5 Rh5 0–1
(3) Maudsley,K – Myles,S [B19]
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bd2 Ngf6 12.0–0–0 Bd6 13.Ne4 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Nf6 15.Qe2 Qc7 16.g3 0–0–0 17.c4 c5 18.Bc3 cxd4 19.Nxd4 a6 20.Kb1 Rd7 21.Nb3 Rhd8 22.c5 Bxc5 23.Rxd7 Kxd7 24.Bxf6 gxf6 25.Rc1 b6 26.Qxa6 Ke7 27.Nxc5 bxc5 28.Qc4 Rd5 29.g4 Qa5 30.Qc3 Qa4 31.f3 Qb5 32.Qc4 Qa5 33.a3 Qd2 34.Qc3 Qf4 35.Ka2 f5 36.gxf5 Rxf5 37.b4 cxb4 38.Qxb4+ Qxb4 39.axb4 Rxh5 40.Kb3 Rf5 41.Rc3 Rb5 42.Ka4 Rb7 43.b5 h5 44.Rc4 Kd6 45.Ka5 h4 46.Ka6 Rb8 47.b6 h3 48.Ka7 Rh8 49.b7 h2 50.Rc1 Kd5 51.b8Q Rxb8 52.Kxb8 Kd4 53.Re1 1–0
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 d6 6.f4 a6 7.a4 Rb8 8.Nf3 Nf6 9.0–0 Bg4 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 h5 12.Be3 Qd7 13.Kg2 Nd4 14.Bxd4 cxd4 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.exd5 0–0 17.g4 hxg4 18.hxg4 e5 19.dxe6 fxe6 20.Be4 Qf7 21.f5 exf5 22.gxf5 gxf5 23.Bxf5 Qd5+ 24.Qf3 Rxf5 0–1
(5) Cox,L – Coe,A
[Default] 0–1
(6) Fleming,M – Rotchell,M [C30]
1.e4 d5 2.f3 dxe4 3.fxe4 Nc6 4.Nf3 e5 5.d3 Nf6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Bg3 Bg4 9.Be2 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Bc5 11.Nd2 Qe7 12.c3 0–0–0 13.Nc4 Rd7 14.b4 Bb6 15.Nxb6+ axb6 16.Qc2 Rhd8 17.Be2 h5 18.h3 Kb8 19.0–0 Nxe4 20.dxe4 Rd2 21.Qb3 Rxe2 22.Rxf7 Qg5 23.Rf2 Rxe4 24.Rf3 h4 25.Bf2 Re2 26.Re1 Rxe1+ 27.Bxe1 e4 28.Rf1 Ne5 29.Kh1 Nd3 30.Qc2 Nxe1 31.Rxe1 e3 32.Qe4 Rd2 33.Qe8+ ½–½