The club made up for a disappointing league season by winning the South Cheshire Shield last night in our first season of entering it. A comprehensive 3.5 - 0.5 win against second placed Newcastle secured the trophy by a margin of 3 points. However, the match was far closer than the score suggests, with a couple of games that Newcastle should really have won. With both teams right up on the grading limit of 460 we knew we were in for a tough match, with Fenton having a good grade advantage on the top two boards and Newcastle having the advantage on the bottom two. Chris kicked us off with a very good draw on board 4 against a opponent graded 36 points higher than himself and probably actually had a win if he'd played on. However, instructions from his Captain to try to get a draw were followed, and it was agreed with Chris a piece up for 3 pawns. Ernie then put us into the lead with an unexpected win on board 3 against an opponent graded 23 points higher. This looked a very unlikely win at one stage as he was down by a piece for 2 pawns. This gave us a 1.5 - 0.5 lead and then Glyn followed up with a crushing win on board 1 to seal the match. Kasian's game on board 2 was very wild, with both players short on time and mistakes galore. Fortunately, Kasian's opponent made one mistake too many and left him with an easy endgame. Click here to view the full match score card.
Ernie deserves a special mention as this was his 39th competitive match of the season - by far the highest in the club - and recording 17 wins and 10 draws for an average of 56%. His 17 wins also gives him the highest number of individual wins.
We have a chance of a second trophy next Monday when we take on Meir in the annual South Potteries Chess Challenge Cup match. The score in the series stands at 6 - 6. We are the hosts for this year's match.
