Massively out-graded on every board, The Mighty Bees suffered a heavy (4-1) defeat at Atherton. Several key players were not available to play for us which gave Anthony Lloyd the opportunity to make his league chess debut – and a very impressive one it was too! He so nearly won a Knight and Pawns endgame, but in the end he had to settle for a draw. On top board Tom steadfastly scored our other half-point whilst Vince fell victim to a fierce mating attack, Andy ran out of time in a difficult position and I ran out of luck and ability in a tricky minor pieces and pawns ending.
Never mind. We shall return – hopefully with a glorious victory in our next league match versus ……………….The ‘A’ Team.
A Key moment from Jonathan’s game, White to move and gain material..
We began the season with what has been in most recent years our toughest fixture against local rivals and reigning league Champions Atherton. I was grateful to Andy Coe and Vincent Shanahan for stepping in to play for us in this one as I had quite a long list of regular A team players who were unavaliable.
When we saw the strength of the team Atherton had sent out against us it became clear that we would be up against it. Despite this Jonathan got us off to a terrific early start with a quick win on board 2. (Details of that feature game at the bottom of the page) The church across the street kindly celebrated this victory with 20 minutes or so of bell ringing which was greatly appreciated by all present…
The next results took some time to arrive but when they did came in a flurry, Vincent was heavily outgraded by tournament veteran Mark Whitehead but despite this he looked to be putting up a good fist of it. In the end though Mark’s space advantage began to count as he levelled the scores.
Marek achieved a solid draw against Martin Haymer on top board, although Marek reports that after the game his engine told him he should have played on!
Andy Coe looked to have got the advantage against Lee Kay but sadly one bad move proved fatal and the game swung away from him giving Atherton the lead…
In my own game I was up against old foe Peter Mulleady. Peter played a Smith- Morra Gambit and I managed to cling onto the extra pawn from the opening however only at the cost of allowing bishops of opposite colour to remain. I managed to keep a pair of rooks on and at one point seemed to be in with a chance of pushing with an advanced pawn but Peter found all the right moves and the games ended in a draw.
Well played to all I hope some of the absentees can be present for the next one!
The Mighty Bees v Winwick – Authored by Nick Burriss
The last match played by The Mighty Bees before league chess was terminated by the first coronavirus lockdown was against Winwick, so it was somewhat fitting that our first match since 28 March 2020 should not only be against the same opponents, but also result in a victory in the club’s first match at our new venue. In truth Winwick were missing some key players, but even so we were ‘outgraded’ on every board, so the margin of our victory, 3.5 – 1.5, was impressive.
Individual results were:
A couple of days earlier our Richard Furness League 3rd Team were also in action details of that match below:
