Double Match Report: 11/02/25
Thursday 11/02/24
1st Match Report:
Chorlton 1 – 5 Eccles
Match Card: https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/73096
MCF – A Division
Eccles’ top board was guest player GM Keith Arkell. – Keith very nearly lost his game against Chorlton player Tetsuaki Sanada (Aki) who I reckon to be considerably stronger than his current known rating.
Man of the Match: Tetsuaki Sanada (Aki)
Aki played amazingly well against Keith. They were the last to finish their game. Aki put Keith under a lot of tactical pressure and held the advantage but unfortunately lost on time. It really was a well fought battle over the board. Aki could have won the endgame against Keith if he had not been under time pressure – nothing worse!! Never mind though, as I’m sure that their swords will cross again in the future. Thank you Aki for giving Keith such a memorable game and I’m sure he is looking forward to a rematch, in actual fact I think we all are…
It’s not often the ChAMPS Man of the Man is a player from the opposing team but as Keith said, credit where it’s due and Aki is well deserving of the title. Keith said it was one of the toughest games he had played in a long time. Well played to Tetsuaki Sanada (Aki) from Keith and all at Eccles Chess & ChAMPS.
2nd Match Report 11/02/25
Eccles 5 – 0 Ormskirk
Match Card: https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/53013
Warrington League.
Oh I do like Ormskirk, they were the first club to ever beat Eccles in the Warrington League and things have never been the same since. Captain Sean Murphy does a great job of running the league and sorting the fixtures out but I feel they do need to iron out a couple of niggles. The one I am especially interested in is being asked to give all new P rated players a local rating of 1400. This, to me is unfair and should be changed to a more realistic estimated rating according to the players’ knowledge of chess, strength and playing ability.
Having said the above we all enjoyed our games and having a wee catch up after the games were over. Good effort by the Ormskirk team and we look forward to our next match.
Man of the Match: Andy Roberts.
Andy is a relatively new player to Eccles. He was placed on top board to test his skills. He was fielded against the Ormskirk captain Sean Murphy. They were the last to finish their game, but it was well worth the wait.
Andy has become a very valued member of Eccles chess and I hope he keeps proving himself to be a reliable worthy opponent alongside being a valued mentor to our lady and junior players, and a much respected chess analyst.
I need Andy to play his first ten games asap so he can get a known rating to work from. I’m sure it won’t be long before he obtains his “known rating”, which means that he can be deployed in the fairest way possible. The last thing I want is for Andy – or for anyone – is to be overrated, which can be just as bad as being underrated.
I’ve always enjoyed fielding teams against Ormskirk because it’s good to meet up with familiar faces who just like to hang out and play chess! It’s nice to be nice!!
This is what Andy said about his game: https://is.gd/chessanalysis
The game starts with an Advanced Caro-Kann.
- Qxd4 bringing the queen into the centre early is not ideal here, it’s better to play cxd4.
- Qd4 is a mistake as this allows c5 to be played with tempo. Qg3 would’ve been safest.
- c4 is a bit premature and allows white to trade off pieces and regain equality, better would’ve been Rc8 and adding another defender to the c pawn.
Material is even but black holds a good advantage as white’s queen is a bit stuck and blacks pawns are better.
- Nd4 gives up the b pawn which could’ve been saved by playing b3, white possibly missed that black cannot win the b pawn if 23. b3 is played because 23…cxb3 24. axb3 and 24…Rxb3 cannot be played because black’s knight on d3 is now hanging.
27…Qc5+ here is mistake and better would’ve been to simply play g6 and stop the mate in 1 threat, whilst still attacking white’s e pawn. White chose to block the check with Nd4 instead of playing Kh8, black holds the advantage.
Pieces are traded off and white resigns with 20 seconds remaining and down two pawns on the board: Thanks Andy for your analysis. All comments welcome!
Next Match: Thursday 20/02/25
Eccles v Manchester Universality
MCF – B Division
Monday: Ladies and Learners 7pm until 8.30pm. At 8.30 Chess Tuition and mentoring with guest speaker. From 9pm chess for intermediate and advanced players.
Wednesday: Chess for Fun for everyone with friendly or ECF Rated games. All levels of play welcome!
Free refreshments – Free local Parking – All donations welcome!
21 Church Street Eccles M30 0DF
Thank you for reading “My Journey through Chess” by Barbara Farrar.