In our last match before the Christmas interlude we faced a Winwick side who would have been buoyed by their recent victory over St Helens.
Both sides were missing a couple of players but we are perhaps the more fortunate of the two club’s at the moment in terms of squad depth. Therefore whilst losing Tom Quilter and Jonathan Smith for this one was a blow, they were ably deputised for by the returning Marek Mazek and Tom Vout.
The first result of the evening was my own (Damian) for the second week in a row I was facing a familiar foe, this time in the form of Dave Stuttard.
Dave gave me a few things to think about in the opening as he seemed as ever determined to play the opening in gambit style. Soon in the early middlegame however a tactical oversight occurred which gave me the win 0-1.
Stuttard V McCarthy (big board)
Soon after this Tom converted his position against Mike Fleming, from a Philador’s opening Tom as white always looked to be in control. Winning a pawn early on he then went on to trap his opponents Knight and win another 2 pawns, finally Tom returned the knight to reach an overwhelming pawn ending so Mike resigned. 0-2
Ilya was playing Arpad Busznyak who seems to be a new player for Winwick. I recognised Ilya’s opponent from my Padgate chess club days as he used to sometimes drop in for a game. Ilya on this occasion proved too strong for his opponent, demonstrating good understanding of the advanced Caro Kann, Ilya continued probing on the queenside until eventually a pawn fell and soon after the entire queenside collapsed for White. 0-3
With Ilya’s result the match was secure however the night was rounded off in fine fashion as Marek’s opponent’s flag fell in a lost position. Marek had his opponent under pressure for the whole of this game in his favourite exchange variation V the Queen’s Gambit Declined as White. 0-4
Marek V Simeon (Big board link)
Robert’s opponent Ken Johnson seemed to be putting up the most resistance out of all of the opposition. Rob looked to have won a pawn early on but there were still complications. Ken must have gone wrong however (I actually missed the finish) as suddenly that game was over and the scoreline was 0-5.
Well played to all of you, we are league leaders at Christmas! It has been a while since we could say that! Atherton however have two games in hand and could close the gap to one point behind us if they win both of those games…
