Match Results

C-Team Performances Rating Ave Board Played Won Drawn Lost Default Wins % Bob Stephens 1733 1.0 1 0 0 1 0 0.0 Jim Buis 1727 1.0 5 1 1 3 0 30.0 John McAllister 1643 1.7 6 2 3 1 0 58.3 Simon Webber 1709 2.0 1 0 1 0 0 50.0 David Welsh 1507 2.2 6 1 2 3 0 33.3 Martin Ellingham 1200 2.5 2 1 0 1 0 50.0 Kenzie Orr 1250 3.3 6 0 0 6 0 0.0 Mark Nowers 1200 3.8 4 0 0 4 0 0.0 Jamie Jamieson 1250 3.8 4 1 1 2 0 37.5 Default 4.0 1 1 TOTALS 36 6 8 22 0 27.8

Performance stats for all Competitions

DIVISION THREE P W D L Points 1 Ipswich B 10 9 1 0 31 2 Bury St Edmunds D 9 7 0 2 23½ 3 Ipswich C 9 5 0 4 19 4 Felixstowe B 10 2 1 7 14½ 5 Bury St Edmunds C 9 1 2 6 14 6 Manningtree C 9 2 0 7 10

Full Table

Ipswich C 20/03/21 Manningtree C 1 Dolewka, Piotr 1608 0 - 1 Buis, Jim 1727 2 Lunn, Ken 1545 ½ - ½ Webber, Simon 1709 3 Bujnowski, Alex 1300 1 - 0 Orr, Kenzie 1250 4 Stow, James 1098 1 - 0 Nowers, Mark 1200       2½ - 1½

Our penultimate match of the season and it was good to see both Kenzie and Mark still eager to get their first points on the board for the team. Mind you, it's not been for lack of trying, nor opportunity, there have been a few points and half points that have slipped through their fingers. Unfortunately their duck was not going to be broken tonight.   Kenzie has a habit of finishing first, and tonight was no exception. He was facing a similarly aged improver who looked very dangerous, and like many at this age, who improve so fast, perhaps under-rated. After a balanced opening, Kenzie advanced on the queen's side, but his opponent trapped a piece and was always in control after that, winning Kenzie's only compensation (a passed pawn) and then promoting his own pawn.   Mark on the other hand finished last, which is notable in its own right as checkmate was on the cards for both sides in one of the bloodiest openings we've seen for years, with queens and minor pieces invading the other side with little regard for defence. Once these attacks petered out Mark had a good position, but allowed an advanced knight to get pinned to his central king losing the piece. With all rooks still on the board he battled on very well, and for a long time until eventually his opponent's rooks and knight combined to begin a mating attack. With the final move of the game White checked Mark's king with his knight and Mark resigned. Prematurely is an understatement for that knight was also defending the adjacent rook, which was now hanging and there for the taking, more than equalising material. It just goes to remind us all, never believe your opponent. It's fair to say the whole room noticed the end of this game.   The good news of the night came form our top board where Jim secured his first league win in nearly three years. Before the match Jim declared that he had stopped playing regular openings, preferring to mix it up. Well, perhaps he should write a book on that as before the opening even seemed finished he was a whole rook up for a pawn. His opponent claimed he saw compensation on the king's side but he was seeing things the rest of us didn't. Jim created a dangerous mating attack, won another piece in the defence of it, and then calmly traded down to win.   While all of the excitement above was going on, Simon was playing a positional (and not too interesting) Caro Kann, with both players trying to get knights on outposts on the open C file. They both managed it, which forced a lot of minor piece trades and a drawn endgame, making that the second Lunn he's drawn with in two games.   This result improves our match average from 1.0625 to 1.1111 (we find joy where we can). With one match remaining, and four points adrift at the foot of the table, we would need to beat Bury C 4-0 to rise above them. And if Felixstowe lose their remaining match against Bury D 4-0 as well, we will rise two places up the table. Don't get your hopes up. Even Caïssa in her foulest mood with Bury and Felixstowe couldn't make that happen.

Bury St Edmunds D 29*02/21 Manningtree C 1 Kent, Rowan 1676 ½ - ½ McAllister, John WF 1643 2 Harrison, Sam 1737 1 - 0 Welsh, David 1507 3 Pugh, Daniel 1700 1 - 0 Orr, Kenzie 1250 4 Harrison, Danny 1637 1 - 0 Default       3½ - ½

It is always unfortunate to default a board, but we knew it would be a risk when we decided to enter a C Team this year, let's hope it's the only one we incur.   We were heavily our-rated on all but board one, but David and Kenzie put in excellent performances in spite of that. Kenzie's game was and English that morphed into a Queen's Gambit, and he struck out to gain a lot of space on the king's side. It initially cost him a couple of pawns, and eventually a piece, but he battled on regardless showing a determination that should put him in good stead for the future.   While John was opening with a Nimzo-Larsen, David was facing one. It wasn't the first time David has faced this opening, but he'd forgotten the trap that lost him his e-pawn and so he lost it again. But that was all he lost, and David dug his heels in and the game went all the way to a rook and pawn ending with David just a single pawn down. Whether the game could have been saved is a moot point, but David certainly put up a tremendous effort to do so.   John's Nimzo-Larsen seemed to take his opponent off guard for he took a very long time playing his first move. Maybe he was digging deep into his memory banks, for although he took quite a while on his first dozen or so moves, they were all in the book and pretty much followed the main lines. After that though his position began to deteriorate and John was on course for victory, but he underestimated his opponent's resources and thought he had given it away to a perpetual check. After the draw was agreed John's opponent pointed out the bolt hole, which is very annoying as yet another half point was thrown away.   We remain at the bottom of the table, and will probably stay there unless we can overturn Bury C in our final match of the season.

Manningtree C 21/02/24 Felixstowe B 1 McAllister, John WF 1627 1 - 0 Weidman, Mark J 1590 2 Welsh, David 1498 ½ - ½ Hemsworth, Gary 1581 3 Ellingham, M 1200 1 - 0 Robertson, David 1403 4 Orr, Kenzie 1250 0 - 1 Harvey, John 1331       2½ - 1½

Manningtree C does not seem to be having much luck in their first season back since the pandemic, but they are not going down without a fight. In our first encounter with Felixstowe B back in October they brought out their strongest side for the first time this season and roundly thrashed us 3½-½. Tonight we very nearly returned the favour.   David was playing the same opponent as before and never looked to be in any serious trouble, and for the most part seemed to hold the initiative. It was never quite enough for either side however, and after a good deal of effort from both sides the result of their previous game was repeated. The result of the match however, looked far from being repeated. We were comfortably up on boards three and four, although board one was very unclear.   Martin was next to finish after being materially up for most of the game. The sight of the White queen on g7 surrounded by three pawns (h7, g6, f7) and the rooks on h8 and f8 bore a striking resemblance to some kind of composition, and while the rest of the board was quite open, Martin pressed his advantage and put us in front.   Kenzie was looking on course to increase that lead and come away with his first league win for the team. He had come out of the opening a piece up, but as the game progressed he lost the exchange and was thus fighting with two pieces for a rook. It was still a significant advantage but as so often happens in chess, the game somehow drifts away from you, and unfortunately in this case, it drifted too far.   With the score now level it was touch and go on board one. John had faced a sacrificial attack in a variation of the Queen's Gambit that could not be accepted and had to soak up a lot of pressure for a very long time. Once the pressure was relieved the resulting queen and two rook ending was turning rapidly in John's favour, but it was during a series of checks to pick up a pawn or two, that his opponent walked into a one move mate. In his defence, he was running on increments.

Manningtree C 24/01/24 Bury St Edmunds D 1 Buis, Jim 1740 0 - 1 Pugh, Daniel 1669 2 McAllister, John WF 1645 ½ - ½ Harrison, Danny 1635 3 Orr, Kenzie 1250 0 - 1 Garside, Lawrence 1549 4 Jamieson, Gary 1250 0 - 1 Harrison, Paul 1500       ½ - 3½

We started this match with a very low bar - just one point per match so far. Unfortunately we failed to reach it, but it was not for want of trying. Our average is now just 0.92 points per match. Not that that's the point, we have a good batch of new recruits all keen to improve their game, and this is all valuable experience.   Before the match Jamie was our equal top scorer for the team, but tonight's game was something of a war of attrition as his forces were gradually chipped away at, and as the ending approached the material deficit was too much to hold. Kenzie is yet to get off the mark for the C-Team but his gradual improvement is evident and he started well enough tonight, but he should probably have spent a bit more time on his moves as his opponent began to dominate the centre and push through it. Had he not lost a piece in the complications, the rook and minor piece ending would have been perfectly playable.   John deployed the Nimzo-Larsen again, which was developing nicely when his opponent offered two pieces for a rook and a pawn. It was the sort of position in which a bishop pair against a rook looked very promising, so John went for it. He always looked better, but try as he may, his opponent always seemed to find the right defence and after turning down a draw offer, he found himself offering one himself a dozen or so moves later.   Jim took his game to the limit having achieved a very promising position from his Pirc, but then suffered the fate only too familiar to us all. Everything spun on a single bad move and Jim was on the defensive for the rest of the game. He made his opponent work for it mind, and took it right down to a king and pawn ending. We remain at the foot of the table, which is no big deal, in fact it's something to be proud of. While we are a club with a team at the very top of the league, we also cater for a team at the very bottom. Although it would be nice if we could finish the season with an average above one.

Ipswich B 06/12/23 Manningtree C 1 Gordon, Tom 1771 1 - 0 Buis, Jim 1749 2 Riley, Simon 1710 ½ - ½ McAllister, John WF 1643 3 Jones, Les J 1716 1 - 0 Welsh, David 1503 4 Paez, Alonso 1601 1 - 0 Jamieson, Gary 1250       3½ - ½

We lost our first encounter against Ipswich B ½-3½ in our first match of the season. So this time we strengthened the line up a little, although our level of success remained the same. By coincidence, we were playing alongside our A-Team this evening, who were also playing their second match against their Ipswich opposite number, and with a marginally stronger line up they also achieved the same level of success as their first encounter.   Jim faced an Advanced Caro Kann in which he played Ne2, Ng3, and h4 to put pressure on black's light squared bishop. Unfortunately, after Bg5, attacking the black queen, he overlooked a tactic against his uncastled king and rook that meant his bishop could simply be taken and after the resulting exchanges, Jim was a piece down with queens off the board. He battled on well, creating some activity to make it as difficult as he could, but his opponent made no mistakes, closing down the threats and making sure his extra piece proved decisive.   David had a big space advantage and good piece positions out of the opening. Having achieved this position he played too passively and somehow his pawn structure collapsed, losing several pawns and the exchange in the process. He battled on bravely. but the damage was done and there was no way back.   Jamie, playing a much more experienced opponent, started well enough, but positionally he was gradually getting worse, leading to the eventual loss of two pawns. After all of the pieces were exchanged bar a knight each, the extra pawns were enough to convert for his opponent.   John played the Marshall Attack and his opponent responded with the line John himself uses whenever he faces a Marshall in which black either plays defensively or offers another pawn to up the anti. His opponent declined the second pawn, and managed to find the right moves, in the right order, to dissipate the attack. A common feature of the Marshall is that if it doesn't succeed black ends up in an ending a pawn down, and the initiative switches to white. It was a tricky rook and pawn ending, but with care and concentration there was just enough in it to be held.   We remain rooted to the bottom of the table with five points, which is an average of exactly one point per match. But if you look at it, this means we are a very balanced club, a team at the top of Division One, another at the bottom of Division Three and another bang in the middle of Division Two.

Bury St Edmunds C 23/11/23 Manningtree C 1 Starodubcevs, Sergejs 1564 1 - 0 Stephens, Robert W 1722 2 Smith, Hugo 1479 1 - 0 McAllister, John WF 1649 3 Starodubcevs-Snaiders, N. 1371 0 - 1 Jamieson, Gary 1250 4 Starodubcevs-Snaiders, V. 1100 1 - 0 Nowers, Mark 1200       3 - 1

We travelled to Bury with reasonable hopes of restoring our match record to 50% and keeping ourselves off the foot of the table. So what went wrong?   First Mark, perhaps a little distracted by his young opponent doodling on whatever was in front of him, went astray after a promising start. John´s opponent´s opening move order invited a hack attack, which would have worked had he started it a move earlier. And Bob found himself under heavy pressure and had to give up the exchange, which only succeeded in delaying the end. Only Jamie shone tonight, and after winning a piece in the opening, he steered his game to a won rook and pawn ending by giving the piece back later on.   That´s three heavy defeats out of four matches, which leaves us at the bottom of the table. But are we bovvered?

Felixstowe B 31/10/23 Manningtree C 1 Hemsworth, Gary 1600 ½ - ½ Welsh, David 1491 2 Weidman, Mark J 1589 1 - 0 Ellingham, M 1200 3 Lewis, Alan J 1525 1 - 0 Orr, Kenzie 1250 4 Robertson, David 1393 1 - 0 Nowers, Mark 1200       3½ - ½

There may only be one F in Felixstowe, but they have two venues, so the evening didn´t get off to a very good start when we all turned up at the Seafarers to find no sign of the opposition. Attempts to phone their captain failed as his battery had died, but we eventually got a call from another of their team to inform us that Felixstowe B play at The Dooley Inn, so it was all back to the cars and a three minute drive out of the docks. In fairness to Felixstowe they did send out an email at the start of the season telling us this, but they might like to consider updating their web site with this information rather than rely on our team captain´s memory. We arrived at Dooley´s to find that Felixstowe had assembled their full nominated squad, something they had not done in any of their three previous matches, which explains why they have only gained one point from twelve boards, so an expected easier ride proved to be the exact opposite.   It has been said before, but Dooley´s is not the ideal venue for a chess match, situated as it is in a small connecting room off the main dining area without a door and therefore subjected to the muted tones of music and TV. And even less ideal as the music is generally awful. But at least there weren´t many punters in, so we were spared the additional noise of a restaurant full of diners and children, although that will no doubt change in the run up to Christmas. Thankfully we have no matches against Felixstowe B during that period.   Our two new comers to league chess tonight, Kenzie and Mark, were both quite impressive at the start, deliberating carefully, taking their time and making sensible moves - well most of the time anyway. Kenzie played the exchange variation of the French, which proceeded into a very lively game after Kenzie had castled long into a half open b-file. His opponent seemed reluctant to attack down that avenue and all the action took place in the centre and on the king´s side. As the pieces came off there wasn´t a great deal between the two, but then a disastrous miscalculation changed all that and we were 1-0 down.   Mark faced a King´s Gambit, which he declined, which may have confused his opponent, who shortly after lost a knight. Mark was comfortably on top when he suffered a moment of blindness and placed a bishop en-prise to deliver a check. While it would not have been a total disaster, but merely restoring material balance with a better position, Mark was lucky that his opponent only realised the bishop was en-prise the moment after he moved his king out of check. A few moves later and Mark had an overwhelming advantage, but instead of delivering the fatal blow, Mark decided to entice the enemy king into the open by unequivocally returning the piece. It wasn´t a good decision, but he still had a winning position. But as we all know, winning positions are not always won.   Martin faced a QGD in which his opponent failed to castle and launched a king´s side attack with an early h4. It was a long time before anything more than a pair of pawns had been exchanged, and the board was looking decidedly crowded, although it was Martin that was on the back foot. He put up stubborn resistance, but his opponent´s dominance proved decisive in the end.   David played the somewhat unorthodox c4 to his opponent´s Sicilian, always a useful tactic for taking someone out of their prepared lines. A strategic battle for control of the centre followed, and while his opponent had managed to place a knight in the hole on d4, he then quickly swapped it off as David pressed on with a king´s side attack. His opponent defended well, and with time running low for both players a draw was agreed.   So Felixstowe B scored three and a half times more ´over the board´ points in this one match than they have in their last three. We didn´t expect that.

Manningtree C 18/10/23 Ipswich C 1 Buis, Jim 1766 0 - 1 Dolewka, Piotr 1544 2 McAllister, John WF 1652 1 - 0 Lunn, Ken 1535 3 Welsh, David 1491 1 - 0 Wilson, Adam 1438 4 Jamieson, Gary 1250 ½ - ½ Bujnowski, Alex 1300       2½ - 1½

It was touch and go this evening, with the very real prospect of finishing with the same score line as our previous match. Fortunately Caissa was kind to us tonight and saved us from that humiliation.   John finished first after having carelessly given away a pawn as his opponent trod rarely travelled paths of the Nimzo-Larsen. This led to a series of forced exchanges while John tried desperately to avoid them. He was on the back foot for the next twenty moves or so before a fortuitous opportunity to take control of an opened c-file reversed the game.   David soon followed, but his game too was not without incident. He had started well enough and was comfortably in control, but he unfortunately delayed castling for too long and got into serous trouble, and under the pressure blundered to hand control of the game to his opponent. David then dug his heels in and defended well as he slowly got himself back into the game and was eventually able to turn the tables and mount a strong attack that went on to win the game.   Playing his first league match for us tonight, Jamie put in an excellent performance, maintaining his balance throughout. In the ending Jamie was a pawn to the good, and after the last remaining pieces came off, the game had whittled down to a single rook pawn. However his opponent was able to maintain the opposition, and thus Jamie was unable to advance that pawn any further than the seventh rank.   Playing his second game since his return, Jim faced a sharp opening in which (as Jim put it) a sharp Jim would have remembered when to sacrifice his QNP to achieve an advantage in the Benko Gambit. He still managed to generate sufficient counterplay to make the game complicated but simply ran out of time and energy to maintain the complications into the endgame.   This lifts us off the bottom into a more respectable position in the table. Our next match is against Felixstowe, who have been convincingly beaten in all three of their matches so far, but if they were able to field their nominated team, they would be tough opposition for us.

Manningtree C 20/09/23 Ipswich B 1 Buis, Jim 1767 ½ - ½ Jones, Les J 1734 2 Welsh, David 1493 0 - 1 Riley, Simon 1712 3 Nowers, Mark 1450 0 - 1 Gordon, Tom 1600 4 Orr, Kenzie 1250 0 - 1 Paez, Alonso 1594       ½ - 3½

It was good to welcome two new members of the club to the delights of league chess - and to welcome Jim back after an eighteen month interruption. And while we were soundly beaten by the team that will no doubt run away with this division and return to division two where they belong, we can take solace from the fact that we didn´t suffer the same fate as did Felixstowe B two weeks earlier.   Our youngest new recruit, Kenzie, finished first, and after a somewhat unorthodox opening entered the middle game queen and pawn for rook and knight down. He nonetheless put up a spirited fight and found a number of good defences along the way indicating a lot of potential for the future. But try as he may, he was never quite able to get back on level terms and in the end the material imbalance proved decisive.   Jim opened his return to the board with a Pirc that developed according to plan at first, but having failed to simplify a little earlier it gave his opponent a clear advantage on the queen´s side, where his advanced pawns and control of the centre were looking dangerous. Jim kept things under control however and saved our blushes from a whitewash.   David was third to finish, responding to his opponent´s Sicilian with an early c4 and started to ´build a wall´ which caused his opponent to fall half an hour behind on the clock working out ways to get over it. It was some time before even a pawn was exchanged, and for a while it looked as though we might get our second half point from this board. It wasn´t to be, and in the complications of the middle game David emerged a knight down. He struggled for a while, but when his opponent forced the last rook off the board David was forced to resign. An unusual post script to this board could be added because the pieces had been set up the wrong was round, with black having the lower numbered ranks, resulting in some of the moves being written down with the wrong number against them.   It was now left to our second new recruit of the evening to see if we could improve the score line a little. Mark put up a good solid defence to his opponent´s English and with a fair wind and a clear sky it looked possible that we might even get our second half point from this board as well. Unfortunately Mark overlooked the loss of a pawn, and was under a lot of pressure from there on. Despite that, he put up a stubborn rearguard action that took his opponent quite a long time to break down, and when he finally did, a pawn deficit was the least of Mark´s problems.   We have no intention of wining this division, the last thing we need is two teams in division two, but at the same time a little more than half a point would have been nice. Our next opponents are Ipswich C, who, on paper, just happen to be the weakest team in this division, so here´s hoping.