Culcheth Chess Club Blog

The B team returned to action on another dark wet miserable Monday night (There is a theme here !).

This time we travelled to Winwick who like us had recorded one win in the league so far, so the battle for mid-table supremacy was at stake.

The coin went up to draw colours which Culcheth won and opted to play white on odd boards.

Clocks started promptly at 7.30pm, with six players still missing (three from each side).

Slowly the missing players began to arrive and all the games (bar one) got underway….

So to the match……..

Board 5

Andy Coe is quickly building up a reputation as the player to fear,

so much so that his opponent decided not to turn up and Culcheth registered the first point of the match by “default”.

On a more serious note “defaults” are becoming too common in the Warrington league, it is a shame especially when players (like Andy) travel in atrocious conditions to away venues only to find they have no game.

Andy has turned out in all four B team matches this year and has a 100% record. Two wins, and two defaults. Hopefully this is not a common theme for the rest of the season.

Cox,L (Default) 0-1 Coe,A

Culcheth B 1 Winwick 0

Board 4

My game was next to finish.

My opponent was determined to attack my king and threw everything into the attack.

The only issue with this approach was he had also castled the same side, so throwing pieces down this flank also weakens his own king’s defenses.

White continues to throw everything into the attack… but falls foul of a tactical trap

21.f5? exf5 22.gxf5 gxf5 23.Bxf5 Qd5+! 24.Qf3?? Rxf5 and white resigned

Johnson,K 0-1 Cole,S

Culcheth B 2 Winwick 0

Board 1

Damian was making his debut for the B team this season and looked in sharp form……

Having built up an impressive advantage following some slack play by his opponent, Damian dispatched his opponent with ruthless efficiency….

Blacks decision to castle long had backfired on him and the white pieces were now all focused on the queenside ready to pounce…..

21…….Nb8 22.Rc3 Nc6 23.Bxa6 Kb8 24.Rb3 Na5 25.Bb6 and black resigned

The final position is worthy of a diagram on its own !!!!

McCarthy,D 1-0 Clissold,R

Culcheth B 3 Winwick 0

Board 6

Reliable Mike brought the team to 3.5 points and our second win of the season with a hard fought draw on board 6.

To be fair the game looked like heading for a Culcheth win…..

Mike’s advantage here is -3.5 according to Fritz and the computer recommends a number of winning ideas including 30….e3 !

Mike decided to simplify and soon found his advantage disappearing

30…..Nxe1 31.Rxe1 e3 32.Qe4 Rd2 33.Qe8+ and Fritz has this dead level

Fleming,M ½–½ Rotchell,M

Culcheth B 3½ Winwick ½

So with the match won all attention turned to the last two matches

Board 2

Tom always looks assured and calm at the chess board (even when he is losing !!!).

Today was no exception, as he calmly accepted his opponents early pawn sacrifice, calmly neutralised any threats and slowly but surely took complete control of the position before setting a lovely mating net and all in just 30 moves.

Play concluded

26.Re7 Bf3 27.Qe1 Rf8 28.Qe6+ Qxe6 29.Rxe6 Rf5 30.bxc5 Rh5 and the mating trap is complete !!

Stuttard,D 0-1 Vout,T

Culcheth B 4½ Winwick ½

Board 3

Keith was the last game to finish.

When I joined it Keith had over 20 minutes on his clock and his opponent less than 5 minutes.

What followed was a very entertaining endgame

Keith looked to have lost control of the position and Fritz has his opponent ahead.

What a difference a pawn makes !! Fritz recommends Rxf3 (-0.94) but black took the h pawn and paid the penalty..

Keith now demonstrates how to win a rook and pawn endgame a pawn down !!.

39…….. Rxh5 40.Kb3 Rf5 41.Rc3 Rb5 42.Ka4 Rb7 43.b5 h5 44.Rc4 Kd6 45.Ka5 h4 46.Ka6 Rb8 47.b6 h3 48.Ka7 Rh8 49.b7 h2 50.Rc1 Kd5 51.b8Q Rxb8 52.Kxb8 Kd4 53.Re1

Maudsley,K 1-0 Myles,S

So final match score

Culcheth B 5½ Winwick ½

The B team move up to 3^rd in the league – who knows what is possible this season !!!

Well done everyone.

Full Game Scores for completeness

(1) McCarthy,D – Clissold,R [B80]

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.Qd2 Be7 8.f3 Nc6 9.0–0–0 Bd7 10.g4 h6 11.Kb1 Qc7 12.h4 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 e5 14.Be3 Be6 15.Rg1 Nd7 16.g5 hxg5 17.hxg5 g6 18.Be2 0–0–0 19.Nd5 Bxd5 20.Qxd5 Rh7 21.Rd3 Nb8 22.Rc3 Nc6 23.Bxa6 Kb8 24.Rb3 Na5 25.Bb6 1–0

(2) Stuttard,D – Vout,T [C68]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.h3 f6 6.d4 exd4 7.e5 c5 8.0–0 Be7 9.Nbd2 fxe5 10.Re1 Nf6 11.Ne4 0–0 12.Nxe5 Nxe4 13.Rxe4 Qd5 14.Re2 Bd6 15.c4 Qe6 16.b3 Qf6 17.Nd3 Bf5 18.Bb2 Qg6 19.Ne5 Bxe5 20.Rxe5 Bxh3 21.g3 Bg4 22.Qd2 Rae8 23.Rae1 b6 24.b4 Rxe5 25.Rxe5 Rf5 26.Re7 Bf3 27.Qe1 Rf8 28.Qe6+ Qxe6 29.Rxe6 Rf5 30.bxc5 Rh5 0–1

(3) Maudsley,K – Myles,S [B19]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bd2 Ngf6 12.0–0–0 Bd6 13.Ne4 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Nf6 15.Qe2 Qc7 16.g3 0–0–0 17.c4 c5 18.Bc3 cxd4 19.Nxd4 a6 20.Kb1 Rd7 21.Nb3 Rhd8 22.c5 Bxc5 23.Rxd7 Kxd7 24.Bxf6 gxf6 25.Rc1 b6 26.Qxa6 Ke7 27.Nxc5 bxc5 28.Qc4 Rd5 29.g4 Qa5 30.Qc3 Qa4 31.f3 Qb5 32.Qc4 Qa5 33.a3 Qd2 34.Qc3 Qf4 35.Ka2 f5 36.gxf5 Rxf5 37.b4 cxb4 38.Qxb4+ Qxb4 39.axb4 Rxh5 40.Kb3 Rf5 41.Rc3 Rb5 42.Ka4 Rb7 43.b5 h5 44.Rc4 Kd6 45.Ka5 h4 46.Ka6 Rb8 47.b6 h3 48.Ka7 Rh8 49.b7 h2 50.Rc1 Kd5 51.b8Q Rxb8 52.Kxb8 Kd4 53.Re1 1–0

(4) Johnson,K – Cole,S [B25]

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 d6 6.f4 a6 7.a4 Rb8 8.Nf3 Nf6 9.0–0 Bg4 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Bxf3 h5 12.Be3 Qd7 13.Kg2 Nd4 14.Bxd4 cxd4 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.exd5 0–0 17.g4 hxg4 18.hxg4 e5 19.dxe6 fxe6 20.Be4 Qf7 21.f5 exf5 22.gxf5 gxf5 23.Bxf5 Qd5+ 24.Qf3 Rxf5 0–1

(5) Cox,L – Coe,A

[Default] 0–1

(6) Fleming,M – Rotchell,M [C30]

1.e4 d5 2.f3 dxe4 3.fxe4 Nc6 4.Nf3 e5 5.d3 Nf6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Bg3 Bg4 9.Be2 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Bc5 11.Nd2 Qe7 12.c3 0–0–0 13.Nc4 Rd7 14.b4 Bb6 15.Nxb6+ axb6 16.Qc2 Rhd8 17.Be2 h5 18.h3 Kb8 19.0–0 Nxe4 20.dxe4 Rd2 21.Qb3 Rxe2 22.Rxf7 Qg5 23.Rf2 Rxe4 24.Rf3 h4 25.Bf2 Re2 26.Re1 Rxe1+ 27.Bxe1 e4 28.Rf1 Ne5 29.Kh1 Nd3 30.Qc2 Nxe1 31.Rxe1 e3 32.Qe4 Rd2 33.Qe8+ ½–½

Following our disappointing loss to St Helens (2.5-3.5) and our opening day thrashing against the A team (1-5) we faced Northwich on a cold dark wet Monday night.

Driving in lashing rain with poor visibility is no fun, but the B team all arrived safely so well done to everyone for their dedication to the cause – lets hope it was all worthwhile !!.

On to the match……..  

Both teams had started their A division campaigns with 2 losses so this was an opportunity for one of us to put points on the board.

A bad start as we lost the toss and Northwich had white on odd boards.

And the games began……….

First Blood to Culcheth…….

Board 6

Mike’s opponent decided he wanted to get home early (who can blame him) and generously allowed his knight to become isolated, unprotected and lost after only 8 moves…

The game had just gone 5….f6?! 6.Bh4 and now black followed up with 6…g5?? Oh dear !! 7.Nxg5 Bf5 ??? (Oh Dear twice) 8.Qxh5+

Rotchell,M – Spencer,M 1–0

Culcheth 1-0 Northwich

Board 3

My game was next to finish.

Travelling 120 miles from Teesside, working all day and then travelling to Northwich in lashing rain is probably not the best way to prepare for a chess game, so my play was less than inspiring and I found myself in a lost position very quickly !!

I had just played 17…h5 in a desperate attempt to get some play (Fritz has this position as +2.50)

Play continued 18 Rc7 Bg4…..white seemed  a bit perplexed by this move which was the whole point of h5 and started looking a bit uneasy.

The game continued 19.Ba7 Bxf3 20.gf3 Rd8 21.Rxd8 Bxd8 22.Rxb7 (Fritz has this +1.93).

Amazingly here my opponent offered me a draw…..mmm let me think….sometimes you just get lucky !!!

Beynon,J – Cole,S ½–½

Culcheth 1½–½ Northwich

Board 4

Andy has 100% record for the B team this season so is our man on form !!

He didn’t disappoint against Northwich courtesy of some very good play and an horrendous blunder by his opponent

Andy had already steadily built up a clear winning position (Fritz +4.5) so it looked like we might have the game of the day………….his opponent decided to blunder horribly with 21….c4??? 22. Rxd5

Andy soon mopped up the position to give Culcheth a great start…..

Coe,A – Metcalfe,C  1–0

Culcheth 2½–½ Northwich

Board 1

The top board was a tightly contested affair with a draw agreed in the above position.

Tom felt his position was better and Fritz confirms this view (-0.75).

Woodfinden,P – Vout,T ½–½

Culcheth 3–1 Northwich (Nearly there just a half point from the remaining 2 games)

Board 2

Keith played very well throughout and always looked to have the better of his opponents Scandinavian Defence….

By this position Fritz already had Keith well ahead (+2.5) play continued…..

17.c6 Nb8 18.cxb7 Qa4 and Whites advantage increases (+4.0)

Keith never looked in danger and the game finished after 52 moves….

Maudsley,K – Major,R 1–0

Culcheth 4–1 Northwich (and so we had secured our first A division win !!!)

Board 5

Last but not least to finish was Nick.

The crowds gathered around his board with eager anticipation. When I joined Nick had 10 minutes left on his clock and his opponent 40 seconds !!!.

Nick demonstrated his won position efficiently – albeit I’m sure he milked the crowd a bit !!

Count how many times the white knight lands on b3 – at the position below the knight had already visited this square 4 times……

The game concluded as follows……

34.Na5 Ra4 35.Nb3 (one) Kf7 36.g3 Kf6 37.Kg2 Rc4 38.h4 g5 39.hxg5+ hxg5 40.Na5 Rc7 41.Nb3 (two) Rd7 42.Nc5 Rd5 43.Nb3 (three) Ke5 44.Re2 Nc3 45.Re1 Rb5 46.Nd2 Kd5 47.Nb3 (four) Rxb3 48.cxb3 d3 49.Rc1 d2 50.Rxc3

Hamill-Stewart,P – Burriss,N 0–1

Culcheth 5–1 Northwich

So concluded our first league win of the season

Well done everyone !!

Steve Cole

Culcheth B Team Captain

Full game scores given below for completeness…

(1) Woodfinden,P – Vout,T [C27]

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d3 d6 5.Na4 Nbd7 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 a6 8.Nxc5 Nxc5 9.a3 Be6 10.Bxe6 Nxe6 11.Bxf6 Qxf6 12.Qf3 Qe7 13.Ne2 0–0 14.0–0 Rad8 15.Rad1 c6 16.Qf5 g6 17.Qh3 Qg5 18.Qe3 d5 19.Qb6 Rd7 20.exd5 ½–½

(2) Maudsley,K – Major,R [B01]

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Be2 e6 6.0–0 Be7 7.c4 Nb6 8.Be3 Nc6 9.h3 Bf5 10.Nc3 0–0 11.Qd2 Nb4 12.Rac1 Qe8 13.a3 Na6 14.b4 Rd8 15.c5 Nd5 16.Nxd5 exd5 17.c6 Nb8 18.cxb7 Qa4 19.Rxc7 Bd6 20.Rc3 Rd7 21.Bf4 Be6 22.Ng5 Bxf4 23.Qxf4 Rxb7 24.Rfc1 Qe8 25.Re3 h6 26.Nxe6 fxe6 27.Qe5 Rbf7 28.Bh5 Nc6 29.Bxf7+ Rxf7 30.Qxe6 Qxe6 31.Rxe6 Nxd4 32.Re8+ Kh7 33.Rd1 Nb5 34.Rxd5 Nc7 35.Rdd8 Nxe8 36.Rxe8 Rc7 37.Re6 Rc1+ 38.Kh2 Rc3 39.Ra6 Rc7 40.Kg3 Kg8 41.h4 Kf7 42.h5 Rd7 43.f4 Ke7 44.Kg4 Kf7 45.g3 Ke7 46.Kf5 Kf7 47.Ke5 Ke7 48.g4 Rb7 49.g5 hxg5 50.fxg5 Kf7 51.h6 g6 52.Rf6+ 1–0

(3) Beynon,J – Cole,S [B22]

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 d6 5.Nf3 cxd4 6.cxd4 Nc6 7.Be2 Bf5 8.0–0 Rc8 9.Nc3 dxe5 10.Nxd5 Qxd5 11.dxe5 Qxd1 12.Rxd1 e6 13.Be3 Be7 14.Nd4 Nxd4 15.Bxd4 a6 16.Bf3 Rb8 17.Rac1 h5 18.Rc7 Bg4 19.Ba7 Bxf3 20.gxf3 Rd8 21.Rxd8+ Bxd8 22.Rxb7 ½–½

(4) Coe,A – Metcalfe,C [A35]

1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 d6 4.e3 b6 5.d4 Nf6 6.Be2 e6 7.0–0 Bb7 8.a3 a5 9.Qc2 Ne7 10.Rd1 d5 11.dxc5 bxc5 12.Nb5 Nf5 13.b3 Nd6 14.cxd5 Bxd5 15.Ne5 Rc8 16.Bb2 Qb6 17.a4 Nf5 18.Nc4 Bxc4 19.Qxc4 Nd6 20.Qf4 Nd5 21.Qe5 c4 22.Rxd5 Kd7 23.Nxd6 Bxd6 24.Rxd6+ Qxd6 25.Rd1 Qxd1+ 26.Bxd1 cxb3 27.Qxg7 Rhf8 28.Qd4+ Ke8 29.Bxb3 1–0

(5) Hamill-Stewart,P – Burriss,N [B28]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Nb3 Bb4 7.Bd3 d5 8.0–0 Bxc3 9.bxc3 dxe4 10.Be2 Qxd1 11.Rxd1 0–0 12.Be3 Nbd7 13.a4 b6 14.c4 Bb7 15.h3 h6 16.a5 bxa5 17.Nxa5 Bc8 18.c5 Re8 19.c6 Nf8 20.Nb7 a5 21.Nxa5 Ba6 22.Bxa6 Rxa6 23.Rd6 Ne6 24.Nb3 Rxa1+ 25.Nxa1 Rc8 26.Nb3 Ne8 27.Rd2 Rxc6 28.Nc1 Nd6 29.Re2 Nd4 30.Bxd4 exd4 31.Nb3 Rc4 32.Kf1 f5 33.Rd2 Nb5 34.Na5 Ra4 35.Nb3 Kf7 36.g3 Kf6 37.Kg2 Rc4 38.h4 g5 39.hxg5+ hxg5 40.Na5 Rc7 41.Nb3 Rd7 42.Nc5 Rd5 43.Nb3 Ke5 44.Re2 Nc3 45.Re1 Rb5 46.Nd2 Kd5 47.Nb3 Rxb3 48.cxb3 d3 49.Rc1 d2 50.Rxc3 0–1

(6) Rotchell,M – Spencer,M [D02]

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 Nh5 4.Bg5 c6 5.e3 f6 6.Bh4 g5 7.Nxg5 Bf5 8.Qxh5+ Bg6 9.Qg4 Nd7 10.Ne6 Qc8 11.Qf3 Bh6 12.Bg3 Nf8 13.Nc7+ Kf7 14.Nxa8 Qxa8 15.Bd3 Ne6 16.Bxg6+ hxg6 17.h4 Bg7 18.Nc3 Qd8 19.0–0–0 a6 20.Kb1 a5 21.e4 dxe4 22.Nxe4 Qb6 23.Qb3 Qxb3 24.axb3 f5 25.Ng5+ Nxg5 26.hxg5 e6 27.Rxh8 Bxh8 28.Be5 Bxe5 29.dxe5 Ke7 30.Rh1 1–0

The A team managed a comfortable win in the end against Northwich. At the bottom of the page, Rob Furness kindly provides us with an insight into his standout game against Tom Walton.

• 

• 

Match Report – 23 rd Sept 2019 – Northwich A.
Apologies for the late submission of this report – my opponent’s efforts deserved sooner praise, but I
found myself deluged in work.
5½ – ½ is one of those scorelines that gives the impression of a fairly straightforward evening, but
although though Northwich A were short of their top 2 board players (Richard and Paul’s absence
meant that Northwich’s average grade was 100 (against our 175)) we were given more than a
decent match.
I acknowledge that this report is woefully short on match commentary: the reason is that I spent
little time on manoeuvres checking out the other boards and spent most of the evening at my board
undertaking significant works of repair to my increasingly threadbare position.
Damian was the first to finish and did so before I even got a chance to have a good look at it, 1-0.
However, although I got the sense that things were starting to turn in our favour on most boards
(mine being the notable exception), there was no change to the match score until the sun had long
disappeared below the horizon and we had got to the business end of the evening.
John Benyon’s 2.e5 against the Sicilian on top board appeared to be holding material equality
against Marek, but Marek found a tactic with queen and rook which (IIRC) exploited a possible back
rank mate and gain the upper hand – 2-0.
Rob was next to finish, and his game with annotation of the tactics is already on the blog, 3-0.
I had expected Tom to finish off his board 6 opponent somewhat sooner, not because of the grade
disparity, but because Tom had steadily accumulated a significant material advantage at seemingly
minimal risk, but he later observed that although he was a rook up he still had to work hard for the
win. 4-0.
Iain had started off in usual buccaneering style and entered into tactics early on, but they seemed to
fizzle out, and he ended a pawn up in a better ending, 5-0.
My ‘trauma’ was the last game to finish, and is one which I would prefer to forget. This is not
because Charles missed a clearly winning knight sac (or to be more exact, spotted it and then
rejected it) so strong that I had seriously considered resigning on the spot.
No, Caissa had worse to come…
Charles played well but it is fair to say that the game was not ‘el classico’. Charles managed to lose
the exchange but still had a lot of play with connected passed pawns, but after much effort (and
clock time !) I had shepherded the game into a winning K+P ending, and needed only to choose
between pushing my remaining pawn (to where it could not be caught before queening), or moving
my king, I inexplicably and somewhat absent-mindedly touched my king….and we all know the rules
don’t we ? Ouch ! 5½ – ½ .
No excuses…It brought back terrible memories from last season when I did the same at St Helens
and there is a moral about sitting on your hands here somewhere. In truth, I could, and probably
should, have been dead and buried at least a couple of times. I didn’t get any traction in the
opening, shoved my h pawn down the board, failed to castle, and for these sacrifices of position, I
got nothing of note for it except grief.

Next match: St.Helens (home) on 9 th Oct.

Jonathan Smith – A Team Captain

Northwich	V	Culcheth A
John Benyon	0-1	Marek Mazek
Charles Metcalfe	0.5-0.5	Jonathan Smith
Peter Hamill-Stewert	0-1	Iain Johnson
Tom Walton	0-1	Robert Furness
Aaron Milne	0-1	Damian McCarthy
John Lightfoot	0-1	Tom Vout
Final Score	0.5-5.5	(Culcheth white on boards 2,4 & 6)