Wednesday 11th April

Woodseats B (A)

Ex-Captain's Corner

An away match on a Monday played at The Gardeners on a Wednesday...Woodseats defaulted on a couple of boards so the match result was never in much doubt. In the games that were played Bill Ward sacced a pawn, Kev grabbed it, consolidated, picked up a couple more, and won nicely. Peter never really got going in his game. Didn't see much of Phil's but he looked to have built up a strong attack and the win was no surprise from a threatening position. Les was the exchange up fairly early on and worked this advantage for a discovered attack picking up another piece. A good win to finish off the season.

Paul B

Thursday 28th March

Barnsley B (A)

Captain's Corner

to follow

Wednesday 21st March

Barnsley B (H)

Ex-Captain's Corner

Kev had an interesting material imbalance but connected passed pawns won the day. Peter was under pressure most of the game but hung on. Azmiddin turned down a draw offer in time pressure, played a piece losing blunder, then calmly and cannily offered a draw in return, his unsuspecting opponent accepted. I really enjoyed my game using 2. Bg5 against the Dutch and avoiding the Stonewall at all costs. You can see it here. Didn't see much of Bill's game unfortunately, and Les was the early finisher after taking advantage of the touch move rule. "At the end of the day a draw was a fair result."

Paul B

Wednesday 14th March

Wombwell (H)

Captain's Corner

The Stonewall Attack is one a group of systems guaranteed to give your average C Team player a real headache. A few natural developing moves and somehow you're at the mercy of an opponent who is secure in the knowledge that no matter what you come up with they've seen it all before. Graham decided against an evening of prolonged suffering and lost in 15 moves. I asked him if he could provide some insight into the rest of the games but he said he'd been sulking at the bar. Simon reached the dizzying heights of Board 2 and reacted well, but the finely tuned defensive techniques you encounter at this exalted level meant his attack couldn't really get going. Another pain in the neck opening is the Benko Gambit. White grabs a pawn, Black grabs the initiative and outmanoeuvres you with comfortably familiar plans. You can see Phil weave his web here. Any sort of plan is dangerous in the lower reaches of C Team chess, either because it's hopelessly misguided, in which case you lose horribly, or because it's somewhere close to the mark, in which case your opponent's woodpushing wanderings are brutally overrun. The brief adoption of a plan in my game meant that even when I inadvertently gave up a pawn towards the end I still had enough to be a couple of steps ahead as the pawns made a dash for the queening square. In Robert's game his queen once again seemed to have regally absented herself from the proceedings at an early stage, and after last week's win Gordon was once again "gaining valuable experience". 2½-3½. Not a bad score against top of the table opposition.

Paul B

Wednesday 7th March

Worksop B (A)

Ex-Captain's Corner

to follow

Wednesday 28th February

Rotherham (H)

Ex-Captain's Corner

In his game Bill somehow managed to exchange all the minor pieces without exchanging any pawns. This left Rooks and Queens with not much room to stretch their legs - so everyone went home early. Simon's game looked pretty even - he had his Queen menacing Black's King but with no support the attack never really got going. Black planted a Knight in the centre and managed to exchange it off for a Bishop and mess up Simon's pawn structure for the ending. It looked like it might be a struggle but a few moves later somehow Simon was up a lot of material. He rounded up a passed pawn and finished off. Azmiddin won the exchange and then the game. Phil played adventurously to land a Knight deep in enemy territory. This played havoc with Black's development and Phil converted. Peter was under pressure all evening but only really went wrong at the time control when he left himself five minutes for ten moves. To truly establish himself as a C Team player Peter will have to get stop wasting time finding decent moves and learn to bang out any old rubbish as long as he does it quickly. Kev's opponent ventured a Scandinavian but despite this the game still had to be won. Kev displayed a surprising knowledge of the intricacies of this appalling opening. Black seemed frustrated and overlooked that pawns had quietly cut off the retreat squares for his Knight. From that point on Kev was in total control and won another game against a 149 graded opponent. Under Kev's leadership the C Team has been engineered into a ruthless killing machine. Beware!

Paul B

Thursday 22nd February

Wombwell (A)

Ex-Captain's Corner

I wasn't there - and I don't know anything about it.

Paul B

Wednesday 14th February

Aughton B (H)

Captain's Corner

Eric added to his recent duck collection on Board 6. 0-1. Bill's King was deprived of pawn cover. He attempted a counterattack but with heavy pieces invading there was only going to be one result. 0-2. My opponent seemed to want to exchange at every opportunity, even when I was a pawn up. This meant I had a pretty comfortable win. 1-2. Phil won his game with a nice bit of 'if I go there and he goes there, then I can go there, and if he goes there or there then I can go there, and when he does that I can do that and I should win a piece' which is exactly what happened. 2-2. Peter was totally outplayed in the opening but then his opponent relaxed, retreated, missed a knight fork and lost a rook. 3-2. On Board 1 you really would expect some classical principles of our noble game to be upheld but, unfortunately, with offside rooks, knights left en prise, uncastled kings, and doubled and isolated pawns, it looked like the pieces on Kev's board had been rioting. With the time control approaching Kev missed a pin and dropped a piece, he threw in a couple more just to make sure. 3-3.

Six decisive games and a share of the points as we tiptoe away from relegation.

Paul B

Wednesday 7th February

SASCA B (H)

Captain's Corner

SASCA turned up with a very young and inexperienced team. Bill offered his opponent a draw in a winning position after he'd put up a good fight. But in the ruthless pursuit of rating points the rest of us were much less generous. On Board 1 Kev won a pawn against John Fryer but took the draw when it was offered as we had won the match by then. Another two points towards cherished mid-table anonymity.

Paul B

Thursday 1st February

Phoenix B (A)

Captain's Corner

We were really up against it last night. Phoenix B were top of the table with a 7 1 0 record while we were second bottom with a 1 2 3 record. We were outgraded on all boards but somehow we won. Robert needs to learn to hang on to his queen if he's going to start picking up points. Eric was a couple of pawns down and suffered for a while before resigning. Simon had a great win against a tricky ex-Nomad. Azmiddin totally outplayed his opponent in the opening, took advantage of a couple of loosening moves, danced his knights deep into enemy territory and won a piece in 13 moves. Great chess. In my game White went in for an adventurous pawn sac to make an interesting game but then, in the style of the world champion, overlooked a Knight + Queen mate in 1. The evening's honours really go to Kev though. He completely outplayed his 149 graded opponent. Going over the game we reckoned that Black probably spent the early part of the evening trying to figure out why Kev played the mysterious manoeuvre 3. Bf1-c4 followed by...4. Bc4-e2. Obviously distracted (and possibly even bewildered) Black played the weakening h6 and his kingside was soon in tatters. He still managed to set a sneaky trap but Kev didn't take the bait and when Black went for a very unsound rook sac mate was inevitable a few moves later. Not for the first time one of Kev's opponents was left wondering how on Earth he'd lost. A great win.

Paul B

Wednesday 6th December

Worksop B (H)

Captain's Corner

A couple of quick losses and a couple of fairly uneventful draws and we were 3-1 down with two to play. Bill was a pawn down but with a very strong position. He forced through a pawn, queened, and mated. This left Kev with his Rook, Bishop+2P+outside passer+15 or 16 minutes against his opponent's Rook, Knight+3P+ 2 or 3 minutes. We needed a win to draw the match so Kev pressed on. The passed pawn was rounded up on the sixth rank but with the Bishop free to roam the dark squares Kev kept on posing problems and his opponent eventually overstepped the time limit. Another good game by Kev and another good point for the  C Team as we head for mid-table anonymity.

Paul B

Wednesday 29th November

Rotherham (A)

Captain's Corner

I only caught the end of Special Guest Star Ken's game. He sacced a pawn to lure Black's Queen on to a2 and away from the action but couldn't quite get enough for a win. Kevin played a blinder against a 130 graded opponent and took a draw for the team when he could have played on for a win. (Game to follow we hope.) After 568 moves of minimalist manoeuvring in a stone dead mutual Stonewall I reached what I'm sure was a technical win, with a very good Knight against a very bad Bishop, but it would probably have taken another 827 moves to press home the advantage. As we were 2-0 up at the time, and looking good on the other boards, I took a draw for the sake of my sanity. Simon sacced a minor piece to clear away the pawns from in front of White's King but by the time he had arranged to put his Bishop on the right diagonal Queens had come off and White had organised his defence. With both players short of time a draw seemed fair. The match was won for us on the bottom two Boards. Eric picked up a piece early on and Robert accumulated material with a series of tricky moves till his opponent saw one trick too many and resigned.

A great win against strong opposition.

Monday 6th November

SASCA B (A)

Captain's Corner

Gordon worked his way into a pretty interesting and even ending but then walked into a knight fork. Robert seemed to be on top throughout. Simon won a nice game with a neat finish. Eric made short work of the evening by losing in 14 moves. I nearly resigned when I was perhaps winning and settled for a draw as a compromise, and Kev had to choose between losing his queen or being mated. A lot closer than we thought it would be at the start of the night.

Paul B

Wednesday 1st November

Phoenix B (H)

Captain's Corner

Robert wandered into a knight fork early in the evening. Simon castled into trouble and never really recovered. Playing as though they were SuperGMs demonstrating chess is a forced draw Eric and Phil never really disturbed the equilibrium. Azmiddin was Bishop for pawn down in an ending which he somehow turned into R+P v R+P which he then somehow turned into a win. Kev was a piece down and significantly outgraded so he won. Peter admitted that it took him some time to realise his opponent had play 1 d4 and things never really improved after that. Hopefully Paul C will get hold of the Batley Meek Trophy soon - we'd like to have a look at it before we have to give it back at the end of this season.

Paul B

Wednesday 25th October

Aughton B (A)

Wednesday 18th October

Woodseats B (H)