Author: Culcheth Chess Club - Admin

As the 2025 WDCL season draws to a close our side on Monday night took part in the Final of the Kalmar Cup. They were to face a Northwich team who had recently been crowned league champions.

Our night didn’t get off to the best of starts when one of our players confirmed to play on board 2 didn’t arrive. A quick phone call and it seemed there had been a mix up with the dates. Most fortunately team captain Andy Coe had come along for the match in a non playing capacity and as he was a similar grade to the missing player he could slot straight into the lineup.

The teams lined up like this:

The first game of the night to finish was on board 3. Shlok, who had felt he had a promising position somehow touched the wrong piece. Unfortunately for Shlok this mean the unavoidable loss of material and therefore his position soon after collapsed. 1-0 to Northwich

The match was soon level again when Damian won on top board, this game had emerged from a quiet opening but an early opening of the a file led to some pressure on James’s A pawn. This pawn ended up dropping and with no counterplay and a passed white b pawn about to race up the board James decided to resign 1-1

New recruit Ambrose Lam was in fine form against Liam Whittaker, Ambrose used a nice tactic early in the game to win a pawn, at one stage both players had pawns on the seventh rank but it was the Culcheth player who calculated his way to victory 1-2 Culcheth

Whittaker V Lam – Big Board

Isaiah Slater on board 5 had achieved an excellent position early on in his game. Whittaker managed to keep this game going longer then had looked likely at the start but eventually Isaiah manged to break through on the Kingside finishing the game with a nice checkmate. 1-3 Culcheth.

Slater V Whittaker Big Board

On board 2 Adrian Breakspear had Andy Coe on the ropes for much of the game, it seemed likely that Northwich were going to pull this point back as the game headed into Rook and 3 pawns v Rook and 1 Pawn in the Northwich player’s favour. But then something extraordinary happened, pushing for the win in time pressure Breakspear went wrong and allowed Andy to win back a pawn, worse still this pawn had unleashed Andy’s one remaining pawn as a lethal passer. With the white king but off there was no stopping it’s promotion as Andy went on to take advantage and convert the position. 1-4

So well done everyone, we at last have some silverware from this season.

The A team will play in the Peninsular Cup final next week to see if they can add to this.

Grandmaster Keith Arkell

Opportunities to play against Grandmasters don’t occur regularly for us Journeyman level club players. So I was particularly pleased to be drawn against Grandmaster Keith Arkell in round 3 of the Rhyl Open.

I was even more pleased to hold the draw! I even wondered at one point if I might be able to get more but he is a stubborn defender. Game below:

Link to pop out board

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/game/?p=FX/eJVoWB0qLqW/Ozz35WysGuYOb3s2jDZYD2NJQHzeOF/IYTaDTW28mzJ8MkjwgKMsdDxURSVdG6miSbMVqhw==

We are now roughly half way through the 2024-25 season, Culcheth entered two teams in the league this year. An A team to defend their title in division 1 and a B team to complete in division 3. As well as this we entered a side in the grade restricted Richard Furness League and sides in each of the cup competitions.

In division 1 early year defeats against Winwick, Skelmersdale and Northwich got us off to a slower then usual start this season. Our team is definitely in a perios of transition no longer boasting the strength in depth of yesteryear. Despite this it has been good to see new players rising through the ranks to take their place. Shlok Maheshwari and Isaiah Slater for example have recently found themselves playing in the A team and scoring fine wins.

As the season has progressed the A team currently find themselves just off the pace with half a dozen or so matches left to play.

The B team have quite often had Captain Jonathan Miller scrambling around for players this year as a number of players are listed as either panelled or additional to the A team. It has been great to see this give opportunities to some of the lower rated newer players however and I think the fact we are in division 3 helps with this. For the past few season’s our second side has taken part in division 1 which really is a tough birthplace for new players.

Currently six games in the B team find themselves joint top of division 3

Phil Dawson has this year captained the Richard Furness league side, again he has done a great job of picking some of the players who might not normally play league chess such as Mike Selway and young players Mark Williams and Shlok have also featured with success, the RF side currently find themselves top of this closely contested division.

Due to bye’s and fixture postponements and bye’s there is not a huge amount to report upon from the cup competitions. We did play two games in the Peninsular cup in which our A team progressed V Winwick, whilst our 2nd side were defeated V Wigan.

The Kalmar cup side received a bye into round 2 whilst, our George Davision team were eliminated in a thrilling match v Stockton Heath which has already been reported on this website.

Finally I leave you with a close encounter between Atherton’s Martin Lythgoe and Nick Burriss which ended in a draw. (A smaller link is at the top of the page)

Lythgoe V Burriss