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.
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:
Mike Fleming V Keith
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
Andy V Arpad
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 V Dave Stuttard
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
Tom V Ken Johnson
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.
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:
Table going into this match
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
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
Tom V Ray
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
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.
Martin V Tom
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.
