The club started its defence of the Division 3 title on 5th October with the visit of Marple. Good to greet some familar faces and old adversaries. Our top boards from last year were now playing higher up the pyramid and the lower boards had been promoted up the order with yours truly staying put in the middle. A premature end on Board 1 saw our star player from last year,Marc, unable to counter a mating threat 0-1. Board 2 saw Pete succumb to a lively king-side pawn storm 0-2. Board 4 saw the canny Mr. Doust for Marple gain a pawn and a solid position from his knowledge of opening theory and it took some accurate play from Dave M to earn a draw. David S showed his tenacious qualities with a battling display to earn a second draw for the team on board 5. 10pm and with the match already lost it was up to the captains to slug it out. I was a pawn up but with a stifling position. Fortunately for me, Neil was in a particular generous mood and began losing material enabling me to give the scoreline a more flattering look 2-3. Next up .......Marple!!
Macclesfield Chess Club has had a very good season this year.
1)League
Macclesfield A won the Second Division of the Stockport League
Macclesfield B won the Third Division of the Stockport League
Macclesfield won the President`s Cup trophy in the Stockport League
2)Club
Colin Davison won the Club Championship
Mick Renshaw won the Pomeroy Cup
Tony Brough won the Quickplay tournament
South Potteries Rapidplay
Macclesfield Chess Club got an invitation to play in the South Potteries Rapidplay from the organiser, Steve Emmerton of Fenton Chess Club. Steve said that the numbers were restricted to 20 (small venue) -although 21 seem to have played! Most of the Stoke league clubs were represented.
The time rate for the 6 rounds was 20 minutes plus 10 secs a move and Geoff laurence I started off with 4 straight wins.
His 5th round opponent was Jacob Boswell who was on 3.5 and their game ended in a draw.
This meant Geoff was on 4.5 and Jacob was on 4 going into the final round.
A win in the final round would have sealed victory but Geoff managed to scrape a draw from a game where he was winning for the most part against Martin Frischer - this allowed Jacob to draw level.
There was no cash prize involved - just a trophy - and it had already been announced that 2 ten minute games would constitute a play-off.
Geoff would rather they'd used sum of progressive scores as he managed to lose both play-off games on time - it was too fast for him and too tired after a long day!!
Still the day was very well organised and controlled.
Tony would like to have seen the draws done using software - instantly following the input of results making the gaps between the rounds easy to stick to!
Maybe the ECF could provide some sort of spreadsheet to make things easier for organisers.