Match Report: 26/11/24
Match Report:
Tuesday 26/11/24
Lymm 4 – 1 Eccles
C Division
Matchcard: (Scroll down to view comments) https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/52999
In the lovely leafy village of Lymm lies a relatively newly formed chess club that got together only a couple of years ago and this is the first time they have fielded teams in the Warrington League.
I inadvertantly underestimated the strength of their second team players hence fielding some juniors and players who have never played in a league match.
Eccles did not mind losing to Lymm and helping them climb the league ladder plus it gave me the opportunity to give Eccles newbies a chance to play in a league match.
Lymm Chess Club are coming along nicely but they do need to get a better understanding of the rules and how to use the LMS more efficiently. I’m always here to offer help and support and have been since they were first established and started fielding teams in league matches.
Well played to all at Lymm Chess and Eccles are looking forward to our rematch.
Man of the Match: Andrew Roberts closely followed by Chaitanya Valdamani
Andy first came to Eccles Chess about three months ago because he fancied a game and it’s not often someone walks in through the door who not only knows how to play chess, can use a clock and notate and has never played in a league match.
It was obvious from the onset that Andy was keen to play competitive chess so as quick as a flash I registered him with the ECF and signed him up to play for Eccles in League matches.
I offered Andy games with established players in a bid to give him an estimated rating, but this was proving very difficult as he had played a very close and impressive game aganst GM Keith Arkell in a Simul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M4Poo0FGpI but then he loses against much lower rated players on a club night. So, after Andy learnt what the ECF-LMS rating means and how it works we agreed on the minimum estimated rating of 1400 allowed in the Warrington League.
So yeah, Andy won his debuts and I hope to field him often so he has a known (K) rating rather than an estimated as soon as possible. Nice one Andy and it will be interesting to know where your personal chess journey leads you.
Andy was closely followed by young Caitanya Valdamani aged 10yrs. Chaitanys arrived in the UK from India in October this year and like Andy came to the chess hub already knowing how to play and notate etc…
This was also Chaitanya’s debut match but unfortunately he lost to a someone with a similar rating. Chaitanya is a really enthusiastic junior player who also needs to get a (K) Rating asap, there are a lot of Eccles players with a rating u1451 who desperately need to take part in more ECF rated games so I always encourage them to play in as many tournaments as possible, especially classic tournaments.
This is what Andy said about his game:
After some public transport issues, our team arrived late so I started the game 15 minutes down on the clock, great start to my first rated classical game!
I played the Queen’s Gambit Accepted as black, I’ve done a small amount of study of the opening but never actually played it in a game.
The first real mistake came when my opponent played 7. Bg5 pinning my knight, I immediately looked at 7…cxd4 (which would’ve been the correct winning move) but I couldn’t find the winning solution if my opponent played 8. Rd1 pinning the pawn to my queen, the engine shows I can simply play 8… Bd7, after all the takes and trades that follow I would be up an exchange and a pawn. I played the simple 7… h6 instead.
After a few trades the game continued and I played the very ambitious 11… Ne5, I missed 12. Qb5+, having to move the knight back and now white has the initiative with 13. Ne4, attacking my queen and delivering an annoying check. I knew I should’ve just castled instead.
I felt like I was on the back foot after this with my king being stuck on f8, meaning the rook is also stuck. The only redeeming factor for me was that white is going to have to spend a while developing their kingside to get their pieces out.
The next mistake came from my opponent on 17. Ne5, attempting to add a third attacker against the pawn on f7. After 17… Bxd6 18. Rxd6, I spent some time calculating 18…g6, which would’ve been very winning, but elected not to play it as I was unhappy with losing the rook at the end of the line after 19. Nxg6 19…fxg6 20. Qxg6 20… Qxd6, the white queen is able to give checks and I would have to give up the rook to continue, but I’d just have been up a knight for two pawns and none of whites other pieces are active! I also missed the very nice intermediate move of 20… Ne5 before taking the rook.
With around 20 minutes on the clock vs 50 minutes I elected to play 21… Qg5 in attempt to trade off queens and simplify the position into a slightly worse endgame. My opponent chose to play 22. Qd4! Missing that at the end of the line I am just up a minor piece and my queen is able to manoeuvre and block the check on e8.
After this I managed to develop my remaining pieces, get my king safe and eventually trade down into a pawn endgame with the extra bishop. I made progress and my opponent eventually resigned.
Thanks Andy, for the most in-depth and longest match analysis anyone in the club has ever written and I must admit I did get a bit lost trying to keep up with it but hey, that has nothing to do with your analysis but rather me not being able to keep up, but once I had read it a couple of times I got into it which was a education in itself.
I asked Andy to put his game through ChessDrop to make the above easier to understand his thought process whilst playing the game.
Thanks Andy it is obvious you are going to be an asset to the club and I’ll try and get you a (K) rating as soon as possible. To achieve this I will have to host more interclub rated Classic games to give ECF players with a partial rating a more realistic one.
Next Match Report:
Thursday 28/11/24
Monday: Ladies & Learners in Chess
Wednesday: Chess for Fun with friendly and ECF RapidPlay games.
Thank you for ready My Journey through Chess: by Barbara Farrar