Author: Culcheth Chess Club - Admin

Another Narrow Defeat

The Mighty Bees hosted Northwich A on 3 May and even though neither team had much to play for from a League perspective it was a vigorously contested match which ended in a 3-2 defeat for us. The fact that after 9 Division One games our points deficit is only 9 is testament to how narrow most of our defeats have been.

The first game to finish was Alex’s on Board 4. With all due respect it was something of a comedy of errors and rather chaotic. Alex won a pawn early on and thought he saw a chance to win another one with a temporary Knight sacrifice. However, his idea was tactically flawed and should have lost him the Knight – but his opponent missed this. Despite his King being caught in the middle Alex looked to have the upper hand but then ended up losing the exchange for a pawn which handed his opponent the advantage. Something approaching justice was done when they agreed to draw. 0.5 – 0.5

On Board 3 Andy, playing Black, achieved a solid set up in a Kings Indian Defence against White’s g3 set up. Unfortunately he attempted a Q-side pawn break which was unsound and shortly thereafter he lost the exchange by force. In adversity Andy played actively but his experienced opponent held firm and converted his material advantage into a win. 0.5 – 1.5

My heart sank when I realised that I would be playing a junior on Board 5. Ever since I won against an 8 year-old many years ago in a congress in South Wales who burst into tears and had to be comforted by his father, I always feel that such games are unwinnable no matter what the outcome. Not that my 15 year-old opponent ever looked likely to become tearful or upset – not least because he scarcely put a foot wrong in game that remained very even throughout. He offered me a draw on numerous occasions, and after repeating moves and being utterly bereft of a plan to make progress, I agreed. 1.0 – 2.0

On top board Rob was playing a different opponent to the one for whom he had prepared – but one that he had played once before. Quite by chance he repeated the opening line he had played in their previous encounter varying slightly on move 7. Both players traded minor inaccuracies to reach a tense middlegame where Rob put into operation a plan to pressurise and break through on the Q-side with strong central pawn support. With both players running short of time Rob’s opponent went astray on move 34 losing a pawn and effectively the game. Rob’s active Rook and central pawn roller succeeded in delivering checkmate. 2.0 – 2.0

Breakspear V Furness on Larger board link

And so the match result all hinged on the outcome of Ilya’s game on Board 2 – which was a real ding-dong battle arising from the quiet beginnings of a Caro-Kann. Playing in his typically aggressive style Ilya’s pieces were very active and his opponent’s King was not able to castle. But his opponent had counter-attacking chances of his own on the K-side which Ilya neutralised with a well-considered exchange sacrifice leaving him with a almighty dark-squared Bishop. Wisely his opponent returned the exchange to get rid of this Bishop and the game remained very much in the balance. Once again the clock played a major role in the outcome as Ilya, very short of time, blundered a Rook. 2.0 – 3.0

In our final fixture the A team faced Winwick. We were on top of the table going into this one and just required one point from the match to secure the title.

Against us were Winwick who have had a tough season and were sitting at the bottom of the league. The opposition captain bemoaned the fact that they had struggled to consistantly field their strongest players as the main reason for their troubles this year.

As the sides lined up this seemed to be the case again as Winwick were heavily outgraded on all boards.

In truth this final fixture was a fairly comfortable evening as Marek won extremly quickly on board two. This was followed shortly after by Jonathan’s almost as quick victory on board four. 2-0

At this point Damian had a comfortable position on board three, but recalling Jonathan and Tom Vout’s sacrifice in the previous fixture briefly wondered whether I ought to be offering a draw, in order to secure the vital half point we needed. However after a quick look at the other two boards it seemed that something truly calamitous would have to happen for us not to achieve the required scoreline and so decided to play on as I liked my position.

Soon enough White’s position collapsed in this game which secured the match result 3-0

Rob on board four gave his opponent weak doubled c-pawns early in the game and set about creating pressure against them. His game being of quite a positional nature took a little longer to convert, but a bit later in the evening he comfortably brought home his point 4-0

The toughest game of the night took place on top board, where Tom had given up his Queen for Rook and minor piece.

Tom stated afterwards he had been unhappy with his game but in the end his quality shone through as he turned the game around to give us a 5-0 winning scoreline.

A nice end to an excellent league season where we have regained the title after 3 barren years!

Absent from this fixture were Ilya Dubov and Tom Vout, but they also deserve a special mention as they have also achieved key victories for us this year.

Our final outing will come against Atherton in the Peninsular Cup final. This takes place on Wednesday 24th May.

Vital Victory – authored by Nick B team Captain

Such was the importance of winning this match against fellow strugglers, Winwick I sought to field the strongest permissible team to not only win it, but also to win it by a distance. Thanks to everyone being available I was able to do just that, and thanks to some excellent incisive chess by the whole team we won by the greatest distance possible. By contrast, Winwick could not field their two strongest players so we outgraded them by an average of 200 points per board – that’s a very wide margin at this level.

And so to the games:

The first game to end was Keith Maudsley’s encounter with the Winwick captain, Mike Fleming. If you play the Sicilian Defence as Black these days you need to have something in your repertoire to deal with Alapin’s 2.c3 which has gained immensely in popularity in recent years. Unsurprisingly Keith was well armed for this variation and achieved equality very quickly and then gained the initiative with a subtle Queen manouevre coupled with some energetic pawn thrusts. On the back foot, Mike overlooked a Knight fork which won a whole Rook and resigned a few moves later. 1-0

You know you’ve got a strong team when the likes of Andy Coe are playing on bottom board. The opening was a symmetrical English in which Black elected not to exchange a pair of Knights on d4 thus remaining slightly cramped. Andy built up pressure along the d-file and following exchanges saddled Black with doubled f-pawns and an isolated d-pawn which was extremely weak. This pawn weakness essentially cost Black the game because in trying not to lose it he blundered a rook. 2-0

Ilya Dubov’s game against Dave Stuttard on Board 2 was perhaps the quirkiest of the evening. Dave is a naturally attacking player who is prepared to take risks to get his opponents out of their comfort zone and this style of play was evident in his opening pawn gambit against Ilya’s Caro-Kann set up. This gambit really did not look sound, but it looked positively sensible compared to the exchange sacrifice which he played in the early part of the middlegame which gave him attacking opportunities along the h-file. However, the attack was very easily repulsed by Ilya and after the Queens came off the endgame was R + 5 pawns v Knight + 4. There were still a few tricks and traps to be navigated and on his own admission Ilya could have played this phase a little better, but enough is as good as a feast and he secured the point (and, more importantly from my perspective, the match). 3-0

On Board 3 Tom Vout could have done with a quick win against Ken Johnson because he had to be in London first thing for an important business meeting and was booked on a train at the rather unattractive hour of 05.57! However, players as experienced as Ken do not tend to concede easy victories to anyone and so it was on this occasion. Tom built up a very promising position using his favourite Grand Prix system against the Sicilian Defence and his thematic pawn advance f5 was particularly effective because not only did it ‘attack’ Black’s pawn on g6, but also his Bishop on e6 which had no flight squares. So Ken was forced to play gxf5 shattering his K-side defences. Tom set about probing Black’s K-side weaknesses with his Queen and Knight whilst his doubled Rooks on the e-file were a serious menace. Ironically Ken’s first (and only) aggressive incursion into Tom’s position, Qa2, simply cost him a Knight and shortly afterwards, the game. 4-0

By contrast to Andy Coe’s game, the English opening by Rob Furness against Richard Clissold on Board 1 was anything but symmetrical. Rob described it to me afterwards as his ‘anti-stodge’ system in which he felt he was hanging on by the skin of his teeth for much of the game. Knights relying on each other for protection are notoriously vulnerable and Rob had to be on his guard to prevent Richard being able to bag both Knights for a Rook. However, by clever manouevering Rob’s Knights finally became pillars of strength and infiltrated deep into Black’s position. Desperately short of time, Richard went astray as the Knights escorted Rob’s a-pawn towards its queening square and he resigned in a hopeless position. 5-0

This victory lifted us off the foot of the table and two points clear of Winwick with a far superior points difference. Whilst this does not guarantee safety it does mean that I shall be able to offer opportunities to play for the Mighty Bees to lower graded players in our remaining matches, none of which are easy.