Macc A entertained East Cheshire on Monday 4th of March. The visitors had three strong players on the top boards and were able to take all 3 points there despite resistance from Gary, Carl, and especially J-P, who played the strangest game of the season so far. At one point he had 2 minor pieces and a rook for a queen, but also 3 pieces completely stuck.
At 10pm the secretary usually has a doze. For once however he entered an ending with six pawns each and also bishops of the same colour and forced his opponent into a zugzwang which cost the game. Ant had been a pawn down for a long spell when he pulled off a great combination to take down the hard-to-beat Jim M. Phil, on board 4, had to beat James and yet was in what looked to some of those spectating to be a very dodgy situation. With seemingly full control of his defensive resources and despite being very short of time he was able to get a pawn onto the 5th rank which his opponent had to acknowledge was unstoppable. Superb!
The previous week saw Macc B visiting Stockport B. Illness forced a very late change to the Macc team with the secretary standing in at the last moment. Stockport fought hard and took an early lead but Jake and Geoff gave the visitors an advantage. Dan on board 5 had the advantage for most of his game but resourceful defense from his opponent earned a draw. The stage was set for skipper Tom to find some excellent moves which stunned his opponent into late inaccuracies and earned a 3.5-1.5 win taking Macc to a mid-table position.