Match Results

B-Team Performances Rating Ave Board Played Won Drawn Lost Default Wins % Simon Webber 1709 1.0 7 0 4 3 0 28.6 Bob Stephens 1733 2.1 7 2 2 3 0 42.9 Graeme Jones 1718 2.3 6 2 2 2 0 50.0 Adrian Sanderson 1485 3.0 1 0 1 0 0 50.0 John McAllister 1643 3.6 5 1 1 3 0 30.0 Roderick Saines 1682 3.7 3 1 1 0 1 75.0 David Welsh 1507 4.0 2 1 1 0 0 75.0 Default 4.0 1 1 TOTALS 32 7 12 12 1 41.9

Performance stats for all Competitions

DIVISION TWO P W D L Points 1 Sudbury 10 6 3 1 25 2 Woodbridge 9 6 1 2 23 3 Stowmarket 9 5 1 3 20 4 Bury St Edmunds B 8 3 1 4 16½ 5 Manningtree B 8 2 2 4 14 6 Saxmundham B 10 0 2 8 9½

Full Table

Saxmundham B 16/04/21 Manningtree B 1 Lawes-Wickwar, Matthew 1628 0 - 1 Stephens, Robert W 1733 2 Osler, Ian 1340 ½ - ½ Jones, Graeme 1723 3 Williams, Benedict 1340 ½ - ½ Sanderson, Adrian 1485 4 Brown, Hugo E 1315 1 - 0 Default       2 - 2

We always knew it could get tricky towards the end of the season running three league teams again as substitutions get exhausted and options reduced, but Simon did very well to gather a full team for tonight's delve into the heart of deepest, darkest Suffolk. Sadly those efforts didn't prevent the club's second default of the season as our board four was unavoidably delayed.   It was good to see Adrian back again, making his first appearance this season and showing that he hadn't forgotten how the pieces move. In fact he had gained a useful advantage, being the exchange up in a two rook v rook and knight ending. But it was complicated with six pawns each so he decided that the active knight was too much of a headache and as the better part of valour is discretion, he opted for the draw. Meanwhile Bob had efficiently seen off with his opponent, and Graeme had concocted his usual confusion of complications, and as neither could determine who stood better, they agreed a draw.   This leaves the table in an interesting position. Both us and Bury B have two matches left to complete the season, and we face each other in our final match. Bury's other match is against title chasing Woodbridge, while we face mid-table Stowmarket. If we can take more points off Stowmarket than Bury take off Woodbridge, the gap between us closes, and the prospects for our final showdown increases.

Stowmarket 05/03/21 Manningtree B 1 Lunn, Timothy 1987 ½ - ½ Webber, Simon 1709 2 Lewis, Stephen 1902 1 - 0 Jones, Graeme 1718 3 Irwin, James 1785 1 - 0 McAllister, John WF 1643 4 Green, David P 1593 0 - 1 Welsh, David 1507       2½ - 1½

Stowmarket retain that tradition of bringing tea and biscuits to the table, like we used to do until we replaced the maid with an urn. And they do make a pretty decent cup of tea.   David prefers coffee, and that got him off to a good start as he turned his opponent's Ruy Lopez around, achieving a commanding position that won him the exchange and a couple of pawns. His opponent's compensation was a connected pair of passed pawns, which David had successfully blockaded, and when his opponent misplaced his queen and lost the supporting pawn, he resigned.   John opened with a Nimzo-Larsen, although his opponent was playing a different opening entirely. With only a pair of bishops off the board John calculated that a pawn push in the centre would lead to a series of exchanges and relieve him of a backward e-pawn. Well it did both of those, but he should have looked one move further. An attack on a defending rook led to the loss of the exchange, followed by a complete collapse of his position.   Simon was doing much better. He persevered with his King's Indian and this time achieved a much better position than his previous few outings. An unusual position developed, with only a pair of rooks and pawns exchanged, the bulk of both side's pieces were on their respective first and second ranks, as if they were both sparring from a distance. Simon controlled acres of space on the queen's side, but to prevent his opponent's rook getting into the game by taking control of the open b-file, Simon harassed his opponent's queen with his own queen. His opponent was very reluctant to exchange queens, as at the time it was his only active piece, so he allowed a repetition of moves and accepted Simon's draw offer just before making the third. Simon could hardly have brought an end to his run of poor form at a better time.   All eyes were now on Graeme. And there were lots of them. At any point over the remaining half an hour of the session, between six and ten pairs were fixed on the remarkable conclusion of a very complicated game. It started as a Centre Game and after his opponent castled long, an all out assault on Graeme's king's position followed. There were a couple of opportunities to finish Graeme off early, but his opponent missed them and Graeme survived to battle on, although the complications made that very had work. At times it looked as though Graeme had saved it, but his opponent proved extremely tenacious, and with time running very low, finding the right move proved ever harder. When a crucial knight could no longer be supported Graeme's position crumbled, and there was nothing left to do but resign.   The team was quite happy to come away with one and a half points considering we were out-rated on every board, and by a big margin on some. They were valuable points that might help us keep our current position in the table to the end.

Bury St Edmunds B 22/02/24 Manningtree B 1 Feavyour, John A 1863 1 - 0 Webber, Simon 1720 2 Heffer, Judith 1683 1 - 0 Stephens, Robert W 1713 3 Heffer, Mark 1686 ½ - ½ Jones, Graeme 1700 4 Jones, Robert L 1654 ½ - ½ McAllister, John WF 1627       3 - 1

Manningtree B was somewhat under per this evening, and that score line certainly reflects it. As this was the only match taking place in Bury tonight, and as Bury had a lot more than eight for their other activities, we weren't playing in Bury's main hall, but a smaller side room, which is also the access room to the hall from the rest of the building. While this makes the passage of people in and out of the main hall more noticeable, it is certainly not an excuse for our lack of points.   Simon is experiencing that phenomena that hits all chess players from time to time, i.e. poor form. Or put another way, it seems so much easier to lose these days. Simon faced a King's Indian Defence, which he is quite comfortable with, but this time he simply missed the point that Black's Qe8 was not just a defensive move to avoid being attacked by a bishop coming to b6, in the process it double-attacked his knight on a4 with the help of Black's d7 bishop. This lost a piece for little compensation (a temporary pawn) and while he battled on creating some activity with the bishop pair, Black made no mistakes in converting.   Bob likewise faced an opening he was comfortable with, but a few inaccuracies on a very crowded board and he found himself in a spot of bother. The situation didn't improve when his opponent refused to make any similar inaccuracies, and bit by bit the game swung away from him. Bob was far from happy with his performance, but he wasn't the only one.   Graeme played the Sicilian f4 attack against the Sicilian dragon. Unusually for Graeme, his attack soon petered out and the position became very drawish quite early on. He never looked liked winning but without careful play he could so easily have lost. Although rather dull by Graeme's standards, a draw proved a satisfactory result.   John faced a Vienna, of which he knows little, although he is very familiar with the King's Gambit. His opponent castled long, announcing a clear intention to launch a king's side assault, but it didn't even start because John pre-empted it with a queen's side attack. It was looking very promising at times, but his opponent always seemed to find just the right move at each critical point. When the attack fizzled out we were left with a rook and pawn ending which boiled down to a rook and two pawns each. When his opponent tried too hard to win John could have captured both enemy pawns and kept both of his own, instead he exchanged both pairs, which just goes to show, if you are only looking for a draw, the chances are that's all you'll get.

Manningtree B 31/01/24 Woodbridge 1 Webber, Simon 1720 0 - 1 Wilks, Simon 1956 2 Jones, Graeme 1700 1 - 0 Gaffney, Samuel 1811 3 Stephens, Robert W 1713 ½ - ½ Wesson, Timothy J 1807 4 Saines, Rod M 1679 1 - 0 Default 0000       2½ - 1½

When Manningtree B faced league leaders Woodbridge in their first encounter of the season, they were at half strength but still managed to take one and a half points from the match. Tonight we were at full strength, but this match ebbed and flowed considerably such that at one point it looked quite possible that the only point we would get tonight was on board four. It was unfortunate that Rod had to sit this one out due to either his opponent forgetting to put the fixture on his calendar, or forgetting to check that calendar before tonight.   Simon finished first, and should have come away with the full point after gaining a terrific advantage from his Caro-Kann, which netted him the exchange and a pawn, and should have netted him the game as well. Here the share of luck went to Woodbridge after Simon missed a killer and subsequently allowed his opponent to build a very dangerous attack with his bishop pair and queen. To stave off mate Simon had to surrender his queen for a rook, but that only delayed the inevitable and a few moves later the mate could not be averted. It was one of "those that got away" stories, and it levelled the score. By this time things were not looking to rosy for Manningtree B, for while there was still a lot to play for on boards two and three, neither seemed to be turning in our favour.   Bob had responded to his opponent's London System with his solid fianchettod king's side, although he didn't get to castle and the game became highly tactical. His opponent appeared to be getting the better of things as both of Bob's rooks played rather defensive roles on their respective wings, but Bob kept himself in the game, maintaining material equality and bit by bit began to equalise the position as well. With each exchange of pieces Bob's position looked slightly safer, and with the last exchange that just left a rook and bishop of opposite colour, Bob offered a draw. His opponent thought for a moment and then accepted.   We had at least equalled our previous result, and it was beginning to look as though that was how it was going to stay. Graeme had faced a Centre Counter and as usual it produced one of Graeme's very complicated and tactical games. But as the ending approached, bit by bit Graeme seemed to be on the back foot - his pawns were scattered and he was under a lot of pressure as the enemy king began its march up the board. But here is where our share of the luck was dispensed, and under growing time pressure his opponent missed his path to victory, and shortly after that, also missed his chance of holding a draw. Graeme still had to play very carefully and accurately in the rook and pawn ending, which offered plenty of opportunities to mess up, but he managed it and we came away with an unexpected match win, raising our match performance to 50% with our board performance just a fraction behind.

Sudbury 16/01/24 Manningtree B 1 Sanders, Robert R 1919 1 - 0 Webber, Simon 1745 2 Donnelly, Andrew J 1820 1 - 0 Jones, Graeme 1729 3 Coleman, Peter 1600 1 - 0 Stephens, Robert W 1721 4 Kent, Robert 1536 1 - 0 McAllister, John WF 1645       4 - 0

Manningtree B haven't been beaten 4-0 in a league match since October 2017 *, and oddly enough that was against Sudbury as well. We knew we would be lucky indeed to replicate our last two encounters with Sudbury, but we had realistic hopes of at least staying level with them in the table. Alas it was not to be and things started to go wrong very early in the match as the boards all fell in reverse order.   John faced the London System and was soon facing another hack attack in which he managed to play all the wrong moves in the right order. Computer analysis showed that there were several points along the way that would have kept things together, but he was forced to resign on move 18 facing a mate in one - and that was after his opponent had missed a sacrificial mate in four on move 12.   Bob hadn't handled his game too well either, although he did last twice as long as John did. He misplayed his favourite opening, and to say that he wasn't happy with himself would be putting it mildly.   Graeme had one of his highly tactical and complicated games, and managed to steer it to a rook and minor piece ending a pawn up. Both players were running low on time when Graeme overestimated the strength of his passed pawn and surrendered two of his other pawns as a result. The full point may have been there if he hadn't given up those pawns, but there was definitely at least half a point in it.   Simon was putting in another captain's performance on top board and doggedly kept things together, and as the game was reduced to a queen and rooks ending it looked for a while to be heading for another draw. However, after the queen and a rook came off (along with a couple of pawns) his opponent started to break through in the centre. Simon might have had better chances attacking his opponent's pawns at the rear, but it was a difficult position to handle and Simon eventually suffered his first defeat of the season, while Sudbury achieved their first match win of the season. * Technically we were beaten 4-0 by Ipswich in January 2020, but strictly speaking that was our C-Team in disguise.

Manningtree B 29/11/23 Saxmundham B 1 Webber, Simon 1748 ½ - ½ Carter, Dominic A 1638 2 Stephens, Robert W 1722 1 - 0 Lawes-Wickwar, M 1619 3 Jones, Graeme 1721 1 - 0 Collicott, Peter J 1500 4 Saines, Rod M 1675 1 - 0 Brown, Hugo E 1326       3½ - ½

It was a very cold and frosty evening as we assembled at the Methodist Hall for tonight's match. And uncharacteristically, the heating wasn't on, at least not in the hall, because the foyer outside was warm enough. We fought a minor skirmish with the controls of the wall heater with only minor success, so virtually everyone played their game with their coat on.   We out-rated our guests by an average of almost 200 points per board, and the score line reflects that. The games however do not and Saxmund- ham can feel hard done by not to have got at least another point. We expected Simon to finish fist, and indeed he did, but not for the reason we thought. Uncharacteristically Simon had blundered a piece quite early in the game but struggled on in what was clearly a lost game. By bluff, threat and confusion he managed to generate enough counter play to salvage half a point.   Rod followed some time later, having won two pawns earlier in the game and decided that that was enough, even for a bishop of opposite colour ending. His opponent played the ending quite well as Rod had to try probe after probe to get through. His opponent's failure to advance his h-pawn led to his downfall and Rod was eventually able to break through to attack that backward pawn from the rear.   With a point more than it looked as though we would get, Bob was closing in for the kill on board two. He had always appeared comfortably in control of his game, and a nice combination around his opponent's beleaguered king eventually won him the defending knight. It wasn't long after that that the king's position crumbled and we were 2½-½ up.   Graeme had produced an interesting game and it was difficult at times to know who stood better. However, as the ending approached Graeme was developing some serious threats and his opponent eventually decided to surrender a knight for a couple of pawns to relieve the pressure. It was not without some merit as his opponent's resulting pawn phalanx could not be ignored and Graeme had to tread carefully to maintain his advantage. But as further pieces were exchanged the ending with two bishops v one was only going one way.   This raises us one place in the table, and keeps us comfortably mid-table, and not that far off the league leaders.

Woodbridge 26/09/23 Manningtree B 1 Wilks, Simon 1926 ½ - ½ Webber, Simon 1728 2 Gaffney, Samuel 1885 ½ - ½ Stephens, Robert W 1732 3 Wesson, Timothy J 1801 1 - 0 McAllister, John WF 1653 4 Such, Daniel 1577 ½ - ½ Welsh, David 1493       2½ - 1½

We went to face a Woodbridge team (that outrated us an average of 150 points per board) knowing this might be our toughest match of the season. Things started fairly calmly, so much so that Simon finished on Board 1 within 30 minutes and 19 moves. Both players played accurately in a Nimzo-Indian defence. After an exchange of pieces on f5, Simon was at risk of losing a pawn, however he found counterplay on the kingside that black needed to respond to first, the only good defence for which was a repetition of moves threatening Simon´s queen.   Next to finish was John, who from a solid position in his Nimzo-Larsen attack overlooked a tactic that led to the loss of either a knight or the b2 bishop. His chose to give up the knight for a pawn, and though for a while it looked like he might capture a second pawn as compensation, his very solid opponent managed to defend everything and there was no way back into the game.   David was involved in an interesting struggle as black on board 4 in which his opponent pushed all 4 kingside pawns while David expanded on the queenside. His main weakness was a backward d pawn and this looked certain to fall, but David found his own active play on the e file and his knight created enough threats to equalise. A draw was offered by his opponent in a rook and pawn endgame with white having a 2-1 pawn majority on the queenside and David a 3-2 majority on the kingside. David accepted, which seemed a wise decision.   Bob had a hard fought game on board 2 against his opponent´s typical queen´s pawn opening and threatened kingside attack. Prepared for this, Bob avoided castling into the attack, setting up a very imbalanced position where he gobbled up pawns with his queen in the centre and queenside while white tried to create active threats against his king in the centre. These threats proved tricky, requiring very accurate defence by Bob who managed to get all the minor pieces off the board, leaving each with a queen and rook. Though he had an extra pawn, white´s active queen and rook just managed to keep Bob´s pieces tied down and a draw was agreed with both players low on time.   Despite the overall match loss, which by the way, was concluded to the muffled sounds of bingo from the room next door, followed by a more noisy clearing of tables and chairs, 1½ points was a fairly encouraging result for the team overall, hinting that we might even be able to achieve an improved result in Division Two this year if we can keep up the standard.

Manningtree B 13/09/23 Sudbury 1 Webber, Simon 1728 ½ - ½ Sanders, Robert R 1936 2 Stephens, Robert W 1732 0 - 1 Donnelly, Andrew J 1822 3 Saines, Rod M 1679 ½ - ½ Kent, Robert 1524 4 McAllister, John WF 1653 1 - 0 Kerruish, Sam 1446       2 - 2

The club´s first league match of the season, and the result was a considerable improvement of last year´s equivalent encounter in which we lost 3½- ½.   John finished first, coming out of a Nimzo-Larsen with strong king´s side pressure after having sealed off the queen´s side. His opponent´s effort´s to counter on the king´s side could have been somewhat problematic had he not completed a pawn exchange with the wrong pawn and immediately lost a piece. The score was levelled after Bob finished a somewhat painful game that he would rather forget, so we´ll say no more about it here.   Rod´s opponent also employed a Nimzo-Larsen, but with an unorthodox move order that led to a rather un-Nimzo-Larsen looking middle game. Rod had to weather quite a storm and reached the ending theoretically level, two rooks each, with Rod having three pawns for a knight. It soon became four pawns for the knight, and could have become five but the counter play that would have given his opponent meant it wouldn´t have stayed five for very long. Rod took the safer option and corralled his opponent´s king leading to a perpetual, thus keeping the match score level.   Simon, who had put in a true Captain´s performance, was now the centre of attention. He had reached a minor piece ending a pawn down, but the fact that the bishops were of opposite colours gave us hope. Eventually Simon managed to achieve the first part of his strategy and exchange the knights. Fortunately his king was already ideally placed for this type of ending, so Simon just needed to arrange his pawns on the right coloured squares in order to neutralise his opponent´s extra pawn and offered a draw. His opponent was not about to make things that easy however, and attempted a number of manoeuvres to try and penetrate Simon´s defences. Simon didn´t put a foot wrong, and hampered by the fact that he was down to his last couple of minutes Simon´s opponent accepted the inevitable and agreed a draw.