Match Report 08/10/24
Tuesday 08/10/24
Eccles 4 v Wigan 1
C Division
https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/52996
Warrington League
Nice little win for team Eccles who played well against the newly re-formed Wigan Chess Club
Wigan have many players with partial ratings. Their brother and sister tag team were the only players to have scored a draw, sister Thishanuga Piratheepan played top board and brother Gobishan on bottom board. It’s great to see these new and up and coming juniors learning the game and giving us oldies a good run for our money. Juniors are the future of chess and good luck to them all, that’s what I say anyway.
When I choose a team from the Eccles players list I first study the players strength of the opposing team and try to match them up with someone of a similar ability and rating strength (give or take 100 points) because nobody likes a wasted journey. I don’t always get it right but most of the time I think I do:)
I also like to think that captains of the lower divisions like to field a fair team to promote a fair game rather than just fielding a team to win it because they’re in it, if you know what I mean…
So instead of fielding my strongest players all the time I like to pick and choose, not unless it’s an A Division or Cup Match when Club Captains field their strongest team possible, well, it would be daft not to…
Man of the Match: Colin Winstanley
Collin first started playing chess at the age of twelve but gave up in 2006 because he ended up not caring if he won or lost which took the fun out of it for him.
After fifteen years out of the game he decided to pick up chess again during lockdown where he took part in playing online matches (some rated) I hosted these All play All online matches five nights a week for over two years via my ECF organisation ChAMPS (Chess Association for Manchester Players and Supporters)
Colin’s username was Colyn82 if any of you can remember playing against him?
So, after we came out of lockdown and the chess doors were back open again Eccles had grown from three men in a shed to a family of thirty chess players. Some of these had only ever played online and were now meeting up for the first time shaking hands and playing OTB again, and my dear friend Colin was one of them (true story)
Colin said, “he’s glad to be back (sometimes)
This is what Colin said about his game:
Colin was Black and played the Caro-Kann (Colin’s version) which was suggested to him by Bolton Player Nick Barnaby when they shared a few games.
Colin was very happy to play the Caro-Kann v GM Keith Arkell when he visited Eccles and he learnt much by doing so. Many thanks Keith for showing Colin how better to play the, ” wait for it” Caro-Kann
During the endgame Colin’s opponent Ethan Holland (1672P) offered a draw but Colin refused.
Stockfish predicted that the game would have ended in a draw if Ethan had not blundered.
In the opening Nathan was on top due to more developed pieces and was pushing Kingside, Colin managed to crush his King side whilst Ethan had an attack in mind, Colin stopped the attack with a good pawn structure. Nathan did not manage to win a pawn and from there he kept pushing further and further to gain pieces and get a good endgame.
Colin offered pieces to Ethan and he accepted all of them.
In the end game – Colin was five pawns up with Ethan only having four. Colin’s pawns were connected and two of Nathan’s pawns were isolated. Colin pushed his king up the board, took a pawn then had two passed pawns, it was end of story when Colin got a pawn to the 6th rank and Ethan resigned. Well played Colin and nicely explained.
Next Match:
Friday 11th October
Eccles v Atherton
Warrington Limit League Cup Match
Monday: Ladies & Learners in Chess
Wednesday: Chess for Fun
Thank you for reading my Chess Journal
Barbara