Author: Culcheth Chess Club - Admin

After our humbling recent visit to Atherton where we were soundly defeated 4.5-0.5 we faced St Helens who were now tied with us at the top of the division. A reminder of how things stood going into the match below:

We made two changes born of necessity for this vital fixture, Marek Mazek and Rob Furness making way for Ilya Dubov and Tom Vout.

St Helens arrived with a strong lineup captained by Mark Ellis and Championed by the leagues strongest player Martin Brown on board one. This is how we both lined up:

The first result of the night came relatively quickly on board four, Ilya was facing Phoenix Lamb recent conquerer of Damian in our Peninsular Cup fixture. Ilya would have been more on his guard then Damian was in that game, with Phoenix having demonstrated his tremendous tactical ability. After an early central skirmish Ilya’s experience told as he steered the game to a decisive conclusion 1-0

The next result came on board two in the ‘battle of the Captains’. Mark deviated from his normal Scheveningan Sicilian going into a mainline Najdorf with e5. Mark’s early aggression came at the cost of a lack of kingside development and White soon had control of the position. Mark tried to breakout with an f5 lunge but in the end Black’s position was just too restricted and Mark resigned with 2 of his pawns about to drop off the board without any counterplay. 2-0

McCarthy V Ellis (Bigger Board)

The remaining boards took note of this scoreline…

On board 5 Tom Vout was facing Ray Smith, their game had reached a materially level, Rook and pawn ending with lots of pawns still left on the board. Tom spoke with the captain and after confirming that a drawn match would be good news for us given the board count +/- he offered a draw. Ray accepted in a position where afterwards Tom stated that he felt he might have had a good chance of winning. We very much appreciate Tom selflessly sacrificing a handful of his rating points to help secure the result in this manner! 2.5-0.5

Board 3 Jonathan was once again facing Steve Potter. Their opening followed a well trodden path between the pair where Jonathan first equalized as Black and then began to apply pressure. Steve was putting up stronger resistance then the last time the pair met however. An interesting moment in this game came when Jonathan played the temporary pawn sacrifice b5! This allowed him to sucessfully activate his rook to b2 and infiltrate White’s position. Finally a pawn fell and a second pawn was about to drop when Jonathan (again with the match score in mind) offered a draw rather then try to win the position while getting slightly low on time. “That’s Cruel!” said Steve faced with the prospect of a lost on the board position but knowing accepting the draw would cost his side the match. In the end the reality of the position on the board necessitated an acceptance which gave the team a decisive scoreline with 1 board to play. 3-1

Potter V Smith (Bigger Board)

On top board featured two of the leagues highest rated players Martin Brown V Thomas Quilter. This game was refreshing in the fact that most of us have played each other countless times over the years, however as Tom is new to the area it was the first time these two had faced off. A fierce battle ensued and by the time all the other boards had ended each player had 6 pawns and a rook however crucially Martin had two Bishops against Tom’s Bishop and Knight with the Knight lacking any advanced outpost. Martin is excellent in technical positions like this and he went on to probe and probe until finally a Black pawn fell. Tom didn’t give up and tried everything to complicate with both players low on time, but Martin’s play was flawless giving him the win 3-2.

So the match concluded in our favour once again restoring a two point cushion at the top with just two league fixtures left to play! Thanks again to everyone who took part, special thanks to Jonathan and Tom for offering draw’s in positions they would normally play on in to secure the match.

Opportunity Lost Authored by Nick – B team captain

This match was of particular importance because not only was the B Team in need of a point or two to ease our relegation worries, but also it provided an opportunity to improve the A Team’s prospects of winning the Division 1 title by denying their closest rivals a victory. The fact that we very nearly succeeded in winning, never mind drawing, the match only to be frustrated by the archaic default time control imposed by the WDCL made for an exasperating experience and an opportunity lost. So, what actually happened?

Well we got off to the best possible start when St. Helens could not field a full team and had to default on Board 5. Somewhat irritating for Alex Robinson who had taken time off from his normal Wednesday evening work activities to play in this encounter, but his mere presence was enough to secure the point.

Martin Brown has been described to me by another very strong player at the club as a ‘class act’ and there is no doubting his immense chess skills which have earned him a master-strength rating of close to 2200. Therefore, Rob Furness as Black had quite a challenge to overcome on Board 1. Despite Rob’s aggressive intent Martin steadily built a positional, then gained a material, advantage when Rob opted for a complex line rather than make a simple recapture. Unfortunately Rob’s position collapsed shortly thereafter, forcing him to resign after 31 moves . All square. (1-1)

On Board 3 Keith Maudsley faced Phoenix Lamb who recently won with a terrific combination against Damian and is clearly developing into a strong player with a great future. Against Keith’s Sicilian Defence he played the Alapin 2.c3, a variation which is gaining in popularity at this level and is not without venom. In the face of White’s initiative Keith held firm, deliberately avoiding the sort of complications that he felt would suit his opponent better. But eventually Keith had to chance his arm with a K-side pawn advance coupled with a Bishop and Queen manoeuvre which threatened checkmate. The initiative had changed hands and the winning chances were well and truly owned by Keith. But what he did not have was sufficient time to bring home the win so a draw was agreed. Still all square. (1.5-1.5)

On Board 4 Andy Coe was always well in control of his encounter against the St. Helens captain, Ray Smith. He thought long and hard before capturing his opponent’s loose pawn on c4 which gave him the slightest of material advantages but Black was not without his own resources. It is still open to debate whether it was Tarrasch or Tartakower who first coined the phrase “all rook endgames are drawn”, but a brief look at the closing moves of this game would lend weight to the axiom. Rubinstein might have been able to win for White but even he would have required more time than was available to Andy by this stage. So a draw it was. Still all square. (2-2)

And so finally to Board 2 where Tom Vout was confronting ‘the man in the fabric mask’ aka Steve Potter. Tom had typically taken and maintained the initiative building a very solid position in the process tying a Black Knight to defensive duties on the b8 square. Steve’s attempt to drum up attacking chances on the K-side were relatively easily neutralised and Tom’s patient build up bore fruit as he invaded Black’s position via the c file. But Steve is a very resourceful player and good at muddying the waters – especially when his opponent is short of time; and Tom was very very short of time. After the exchange of Queens and with only about 30 seconds remaining on Tom’s clock Steve offered, some would say ‘sportingly’, a draw which Tom declined, some would say ‘surprisingly’, believing he had sufficient time to win the obviously won game on the board. But the regrettable truth was that Tom did not have sufficient time and his flag fell so he lost even though, as it transpired afterwards, he had a forced mate in 6 moves. (3-2 to St. Helens)

It would be churlish not to congratulate St. Helens on their victory – especially after defaulting a board. But somehow it feels as though the true winner was the clock coupled with an anachronistic WDCL rule.

The A team faced defending league champions Atherton for the second time this season knowing that a win would but us two points clear at the top with a game in hand. We had a strong lineup for this one with all of our main players being avaliable.

Atheron also had a strong line up which was shown by the fact that their bottom board Paul Doherty had just recently finished in 1st place in the Blackpool Major.

As usual most of the games we’re very close during the early stages, Furness V Doherty on board 5 and Smith V Mulleady on 3 had a similar symmetrical English pawn structure with pawns on e4 and c4 for white and e5, c5 for Black.

Board 5 was the first to finish as Robert agreed to an early draw against Doherty 0.5-0.5

On board 3 Jonathan’s position began to deteriorate, I didn’t get to see the finer details but I wondered if one factor may have been that White’s Knight on f3 impeded the f-pawn wheras Mulleady’s was free to be pushed. Usually the knight’s are better on e2 / e7 in that Botvinnik type structure. Resignation came for White in the early middlegame as the opposition captain gave Atherton the lead. 1.5-0.5

On board 4 Damian equalized early on in the Black side of an Alapin Sicilian, Lythgoe headed for early exchanges and offered several draws. Unfortunately for Damian he overpressed in a position where he thought he had a winning move but miscounted and it turned out it was Black who was queening first! Ironically the game was probably still technically a draw when Damian resigned in disgust with himself. 2.5-0.5

Lythgoe V McCarthy (bigger screen)

This left the top two boards to try and salvage something from the fixture. On board two Marek was facing Lee Kay as Black. Marek adopted a Stonewall setup against Kay’s Catalan opening. After a balanced Kay managed to turn his weak backward pawn on c3 into a strength on c5, Marek gave up his Bishop to try to create counterplay against White’s King but there was to be no compensation for the loss of the Bishop. 3.5-0.5

Kay V Mazek (bigger Screen)

On top board Tom Quilter was up against Ethan Norris. Tom adopted an aggressive setup against his opponent’s Najdorf. Ethan defended accurately when a very small oversight from Tom resulted in a dramatic shift in the game as Black’s d6 pawn began to run down the board.

In a worse position after this Tom did everything possible to create complications but Ethan held firm to bring home the point for Atherton. 4.5-0.5

Quilter V Norris (Big Board)