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2008-2009 Season
Sunday 10 May 2009. Leyland C with a degree of consistency
by loosing their last three matches, fortunately. Otherwise with
half this team also playing in the division above, if we had won
the division, we would have lost the team.
The first round of the club championship is now out.
Wednesday 21 November. We are now well into the season and nothing to
report other than good news for Leyland C. With 2 early wins at
the start of the season we have just played a postponed match
and a scheduled match. The scheduled match was away to Skelmersdale. John had a remarkable game against John Reid. A 13
move checkmate!!! John's very unconventional opening mush have
caused John Reid some problems and confusion. Must be one of
John's fastest games, other than losses. Mick finished early on
the bottom board as well with a loss. My game was very even,
Matthew next to me was a pawn up, but didn't seem to be making
progress. James on top board seemed to be doing OK, then later
on look loosing. James won his game and I offered a draw, but my
opponent played on. Matthew then won this end game so we had the
draw. I was slightly up on material, but my opponent had to try
for a win, but as the pieces were traded off, he offered a draw
which I accepted. this result knocked Skelmersdale off the top
of the table and put us above them. We consolidated this league
performance with a win against Knights on Wednesday 21 January.
Tuesday 22 October. Finally managed to play Matthew in the
club championship. As this was a C team match night, versus the
B team, we played Dave Humphries on board 1
So, the match. Mark was
captaining the B team again. Last season Mark came under
pressure when his match was the decider. So with Danny
beating Charlie, John beating Philip and a draw on board
1, the match was all square.
Bob was playing James and Mick was playing Mark.
Well, Bob had offered James a draw. It did look drawish.
Mark's game looked complex, stuff all over the place,
anything could happen.
I got Matthew (twin of James) occupied in a memory test
down our end of the room trying to remember James's
game. So we thought (experts as we are) me, Danny &
Matthew, that Bob & James would draw and the pressure
would be on Mark, like it has been in the past. We
followed James's game, still looking drawish, we though
there was a bit of repetition, but they kept playing.
James kept looking at the other game, I think he knew
the situation and thought he might have to win.
After a while, Mark & Mick drew, not sure if it was
repetition. Danny pointed out to Mark how he could have
won (or at least won a queen). Mark took this in good
spirits. James's game still looked drawish. Although
James was trying, but there was nothing coming, Bob was
doing OK. When times reached 15 mins. left for James, 6
mins. for Bob, James got his a pawn on the sixth rank
and sought a trade off of knights.
So good stuff for the first match. Matthew,
indecently, won his game.
Wednesday 17 September. Yesterday was the club AGM, I wasn't
there as I was at Liverpool at the
Individual European Chess Chamionships. Nothing
dramatic happened I believe, change of landlord again, lets hope
we will be OK. Same league teams for us as in previous years,
although I think there may be some new players in the first
division.
Next week is the summer time handicap, followed by the
prize giving. What time handicap should I give James?
Friday 12 September. The club championship appears to be
running smoothly in my absence over the summer. I believe the
top game in the final round went down to the very last few
seconds with John MacKenzie loosing on time with James having
just 4 seconds on his clock. I must admit, this time I wanted
John to win. This must have been, and perhaps may be, his best
chance of winning the club championship. With James and Matthew
improving all the time, what chance of any of the rest of us
ever winning the club championship again? By the fact of James
also coming top with the best league performance, means he has
also won the Selwyn Crossley trophy by default. The best league
performance plays off against the club champion. And if that
isn't enough trophies, James has also won the Junior Shield!!!
So well done to James. Presentation of trophies is going to get
a bit repetitive this year.
Next up on the club calendar is the annual
general meeting on Tuesday followed by the summer quickplay the
following week.
Thursday 24th July. To my surprise, everyone turned up to
finish all the uncompleted round 3 matches. Mark had already
surprised us with a win against Matthew in the delayed round 2
game. The match to watch tonight was James against Dave. Having knocked
over our highest graded player Steve, how would he get on against Dave?
Well Dave played the opening quickly, must have been one
of his favourites and soon became a pawn up. I watched John MacKenzie & Bill play their game
for a while, it all looked very equal. Back
on the top board a few pieces had been swapped off, but Dave
was thinking hard, his King was pinned but he played a move that
looked to make an exchange, then after James's move, Dave
resigned. No way out, forced mate.
The next surprise, Danny was a rook up but Gary had his queen in
the centre of the board close to Danny's king and with pawn
support I thought he might get a draw. Next thing, Danny slipped
up and Gary had a surprise win.
James and Matthew are off to play for England B in the U12
section of the Glomey Cup. Lets see how they get on.
Tuesday 24 June. I watched one of the top matches in round 2
of the club championship this evening. Philip put up a good
fight against Dave, but it got quite complex in the middle game
and although Philip looked like he had a strong attack, he ended
up loosing a piece in the exchange, and then subsequently lost
the match.
Although not all round 2 matched have been played, we decided to
make the draw for round 3. With people away on holiday, or
having a break for a month as Mark does, we are going to get a
few stragglers, but as always happens, people catch up when they
return.
Monday 23 June. The ECF have emailed ECF members the grading
games from last season. This is so you can give them feedback if
any leagues/congresses/tournaments have not been included.
I am pleased to report that both the Central Lancs. league and
our Club Championship games are in my graded games.
Indecently, I won and lost as many games in standard play,
which was the same as my rapid play, although I did have one
draw.
Tuesday 17 June. Round 2 of the club championship started this
evening. Not many grading points between Bill and Danny, John
and Mick or Bob and Dave, but in each game the higher graded
player won. Steve on the other hand had drawn James, but after
the win against his twin Matthew in the last round, James
managed to defeat Steve.
So current joint club championship holders Steve and Danny loose
in round 2, the players in the remaining three games have larger
grading differences, so if Philip, Gary or Mark win, then they
will have have very good results, perhaps they are practicing
now?
Tuesday 10 June. How did Bill get on at the South Lakes
Congress? He came away with a £30 grading prize, well done Bill.
His plan? Well, that was to eat a banana in the afternoon to
keep up his concentration, seems to have worked.
James and Matthew played in a junior London v rest of England
match in London over the weekend. James won 1 and lost one,
Matthew scored 1½. According to
James, their team got trounced.
We finished the first round of the club championship this
evening. Matthew fought back against Steve and almost caused an
upset, as Steve said "It got a bit tricky in the end, a wrong
move and I could have been mated". Those of us spectating John v
Danny though John also had chances to pull off a shock result
against Danny, including Danny, as he told us afterwards.
Tuesday 3 June. Bill Clews is off to the South Lakes
congress this weekend. He has done some research and he has a
plan which he thinks might improve his afternoon games. Can't
say any more at this stage, don't want to give anything away to
his opponents. Lets see how he does. Good luck Bill.
A surprise result in the club championship was a win for Philip.
According to Philip, "His first win in 20 games.". A bit of an
exaggeration there, but we know what he means.
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