Wednesday 25 September 2013

A hard earned draw


For our second match our B team played the team I used to captain and with new blood at Telepost a draw was the result.
On board 1 Charles Micallef agreed a draw with Alan Cliff early on in the evening.I then fell to Alisdair Benjamin playing on his league debut.I was white and played the english which he demolished in 27 moves.Tom Williamson agreed a draw against the much improved Dean Pinnington and Chris Pimm-Jones ground out a win to secure a drawn match against Brian Holford.

Tuesday 24 September 2013

One that got away

The A team narrowly missed getting some points against Telepost A going down to a 3-2 defeat, having looked like taking the spoils earlier in the evening.

The hosts were without many of their first team players which was partly evened up by Condover & Church Stretton missing top board Trevor Brotherton. This meant that captain Steve Rooney took on Nigel Ferrington, although it was a short contest as a half-baked plan to swap an exchange for a semi-trapped queen ended in a rout of the queenside and a lost position. Fortunately, the other Rooney played a lot better as Francis' king's gambit tore into Vinny Crean's position, first winning an exchange and then a whole rook putting the score on 1-1.

The other three boards were fairly balanced although we looked ahead on at least two of them, but it was not to be. Graham Shepherd's promision position suddenly turned into disaster as a mating net by Peter Crean slowly strangled him. This was followed by Eric Elwell losing out to Keith Tabner. Eric was an exchange up early on but lost a piece to even the scores and then, once the queens were swapped, found Keith's minor pieces more than a match for his rook.

So the match was now lost but Michael Bukojemski, undeterred by a fraught journey to the match, used his extra pawn advantage against Matthew Clark and proved that opposite bishop endings are far from a certain draw. The opposite bishops ending followed a sharp tactical battle along the central files with both kings exposed to back-rank tricks. With only around ten minutes each left on the clock, Michael engineered a swap of all the major pieces resulting in an ending where a superior king position and pawns on both sides gave him a decisive advantage which he coolly converted into a win.

Telepost A 3-2 Condover & Church Stretton A

1. N Ferrington 1, S Rooney 0
2. M Clark 0, M Bukojemski 1
3. P Crean 1, G Shepherd 0
4. K Tabner 1, E Elwell 0
5. V Crean 0, F Rooney 1

Sunday 15 September 2013

A winning start for our new team

We entertained Telford C in our opening fixture and Charles Micallef was the first to finish on board 1 with a win playing black,closely followed by Francis Rooney on board 2 winning with the white pieces.Tom Williamson making a welcome return to chess played out a very threatening game on board 3,but finally came to grief,I was the last to finish playing out a long game having been a piece up from the middle of the game,my opponent finally resigning.
Sorry I am not able to add any more detail to our wins on 1 and 2 as I was fixed on my game.
John Casewell

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Tough start for A team

Condover & Church Stretton A team are pitted against three of the leading sides in Division 1 in the first matches of the season. The opening encounter against Shrewsbury ended in a 4-1 defeat, although during the evening, it didn't look as if it would end up that one-sided.

The first match to finish was the (very) brief draw between Trevor Brotherton and Jamie Hopkins on board one, followed quite a while later by a draw on board two between Steve Rooney and Francis Best.

Michael's Bukojemski's position on board three looked pretty dangerous from early on with a brutal kingside attack from Ed Goodwin. Michael always seemed to be one move away from being able to launch a counter offensive on the queen's side and eventually he simply lost too much material to continue. Meanwhile Graham Shepherd had put up stiff resistance against David Everington and with rook and three pawns against rook and two, it looked difficult to see a win. But a slip-up in the latter stages saw another pawn disappear and David moved in steadily for the kill.

The final game to finish was Eric Elwell against Peter Kitchen on board five. Peter was a piece up, but to be honest it was a pretty useless piece, marooned behind a phalanx of pawns. He took it to the wire on the new digital clocks and very nearly let Eric swindle something but eventually it was Eric's time which ran out. (I suppose we can't talk about flags falling ith digital clocks?)

Next match is Telepost A on 23 September.

Condover & Church Stretton A 1-4 Shrewsbury 
1. Trevor Brotherton 0.5-0.5 Jamie Hopkins
2. Steve Rooney 0.5-0.5 Francis Best
3. Michael Bukojemski 0-1 Ed Goodwin
4. Graham Shepherd 0-1 David Everington
5. Eric Elwell 0-1 Peter Kitchen

Monday 9 September 2013

Welcome to Condover

As the founder of Condover Chess Club for social chess about three years ago I would like to welcome Church Stretton players and hope you all enjoy the chess in your new surroundings.
John Casewell
9 September 2013 

Friday 6 September 2013

Simul kicks off season

Many thanks to Telepost's Nigel Ferrington who did a simul display at Condover & Church Stretton this week. He faced eight opponents and won all but one game.

Congratulations to Kate Walker for holding Nigel to a draw, and thanks to John and Dean for putting the event together.