Congratulations to the A team on a highly successful start to the season! Some had to work harder than others to achieve the 4-0 result, but wins were recorded on all boards. Phil brought home the first point quickly by breaking through in open play, Leon won a piece in the opening to gain the second point, Andy benefited from the wide open spaces that his opponent left in front of his king to ensure that Manningtree won the match, and Adam displayed grit and determination in his opponent´s time trouble before eventually transforming an inferior position into a win to conclude a thoroughly satisfying evening.

Not such a bright result to Match Report this time, but it could have been so different! Andy produced another polished performance with the white pieces, but all the other members of the team surrendered their 100% record. Adam overpressed in a level position and paid the price, while Leon´s optimistic exchange sacrifice was never quite value for money and a drawing resource that presented itself shortly before the end of the game was missed in the time scramble. Phil was once again the first to finish - this time with a draw, when possibly there was more to squeeze from the position. So, arguably, three half-points were squandered and the match was lost by a point.

Last night´s convincing win at Ipswich sees Manningtree A back at the top of the first division with 8½ points out of 12! Two early draws were followed by two well-earned wins to take us above league champions, Ipswich C, who were playing at the same time in the same venue, but could only manage a 2½ - 1½ win (the result that they have achieved in each of their three matches).
 In our match, Phil was the first to finish (again!) and he considered himself slightly fortunate that his opponent accepted his draw offer, while Leon was content to equalise with black and split the point in an even position. This left the other two Manningtree players to justify their decisions to shed pawns in search of the initiative, which they both did in impressive fashion. Andy is proving irresistible with the white pieces (three wins out of three starts) and outplayed Shaun Munson in a fine attacking game. Equally commendable was Bob, whose debut game this season for the first team gave clear evidence of his counter-attacking skills with the black pieces.

In stark contrast to the home fixture, when we outgraded the same opponents on all boards and won 4-0 in the opening match of the season, we realised we were up against it, but the reinforcements drawn in from the Manningtree B team did us proud. John had a comfortable draw with white against his higher graded opponent and Jim obtained the better game as black from the opening, but in the end had to content himself with a draw. Phil, on board two, recovered well from what appeared to be an awful position in the opening only to blunder on the brink of a draw. Leon took full advantage of his first game this season with the white pieces (after six successive blacks!) to record a 21-move win against the Bury top board who, in attempting to avoid a perpetual attack against his queen, moved the piece to the edge of the board where it was promptly ensnared in a web of pawns. Resignation followed immediately.

This week´s match against Saxmundham started with two quick results for the Manningtree players who had the white pieces: John won comfortably against an opponent whom he considerably outgraded and outplayed, while Leon accepted an early draw in a position where he stood slightly inferior. This left the spectators to follow tense affairs in the remaining games where the two Manningtree players had good prospects, which they needed to make the most of, since they were both materially down. Andy forced home his attack against the white king - with a flair that is becoming recognisable as typical of his style - to gain a full point, while Jim, similarly, displayed his characteristic doggedness to hold the draw in a difficult endgame.

This result against Ipswich C was neither a triumph nor a disaster. Although our opponents have now completed the double over us this season (inflicting on us our only two losses), Manningtree A accomplished what they set out to do, namely to sit at the top of the table with four matches remaining. It could be said, then, that an under-strength team executed its match plan relatively successfully. John and Graeme, who was making his debut for the club, were outgraded by their opponents by 40 points. According to form, therefore, any result other than a loss for either of the lower boards could be considered a bonus. As it was, John allowed a pawn fork, losing a piece in a comfortable position, from which there was no way back and Graeme, in a game that was notable for the fact that all thirty-two pieces were still on the board after almost two hours play, was eventually ground down in an ending after his rooks had become uncoordinated. Leon, who appears to have made a New Year´s resolution not to play games of any length, accepted a draw on move nineteen in an equal position that was on the point of simplifying into an ending with a symmetrical pawn structure. It was, once again, left to Andy to entertain us in a game in which it was not clear whether his sustained pressure on both file and diagonal would overcome stubborn defence, especially when both players were down to less than five minutes on their clocks, with no increment. In a blitz finish, however, Andy´s passed rook´s pawn proved decisive.

Manningtree A slipped down to second place in Division 1 after a two-all draw against Ipswich A yesterday, following Ipswich C´s 3-1 win against Ipswich B the previous evening. It was a disappointing result, if one considers the strength of the team that Manningtree put out, and it now leaves us with ground to make up in the final three fixtures of the season. Bury St Edmunds C team have a game in hand, against Saxmundham A next week, and a good result will put them in contention for the league championship. The good news from Manningtree´s point of view is that Ipswich C and Bury C still have to play a match against each other, while Manningtree A´s final three matches are against the teams that currently occupy the bottom three positions in the table. There is no Match Report this time on individual games, as Leon was kept busy at his board trying - unsuccessfully as it turned out - to find a remedy for a bad position that arose from an opening line which his opponent knew better than he did, and he missed the crucial developments in the other games. All the games in the match were won comprehensively by the player with the white pieces, which meant success for Andy and Bob, who keep up their good record for the team, but not for Adam or Leon, neither of whom played to the best of their abilities.

Manningtree A achieved an excellent result in the away match against Saxmundham A. Jim got us off to the best possible start with a fourteen-move win with black on board four, capturing his opponent´s queen in the opening at the cost of two minor pieces. The other three games were more hard-fought affairs and, at one stage, all of them seemed to be heading for draws. Andy´s opponent, however, missed a move that would have equalised and our top board needed no further encouragement to maintain his impressive winning sequence. John held out for the draw in a difficult rook ending, while Leon agreed to split the point in a level game with the time control looming, even though there was plenty of play still left in the position.
 In normal circumstances, the 3-1 result would have strengthened our challenge for the league title, but Ipswich C, playing the same evening, increased their lead at the top of the table with a 4-0 win against Bury St Edmunds B. This was a notable result, but arguably for the wrong reason. Without their top-graded player (at 190), Ipswich C brought in a replacement on board one, graded at 189, who has been playing regularly this year on boards one and two for Ipswich A. Such a substitution is within the rules of the competition, but whether it is within the spirit of fair play is another question. There is no doubt that it gives a club like Ipswich, fielding three teams in Division 1, an advantage over a smaller outfit like Manningtree, which lacks the capacity to compete with such hybrid combinations.

Let´s start with the league table, since it might be the last time that we see Manningtree A heading the list, as our main rival, Ipswich C, plays later this week against Bury St Edmunds C. Although the result of that match is not a foregone conclusion, it should be remembered that Ipswich C has not yet lost this season. With one fixture remaining, a drawn match (or better) would probably put the Ipswich team out of our reach. For us, it was a good performance against an Ipswich B team struggling against relegation, and it keeps us still in the race for the title. Nevertheless, on grading, it was not an unexpected result. Ipswich was without its usual top board, but Manningtree was also unable to field its strongest team.
 Carl´s game finished first: a promising opening led to an early loss after a miscalculation saw him lose material. John continued his solid run for the A team, once again demonstrating resilience under pressure to gain an important draw. Leon had an easy task equalising after innocuous opening play by his opponent and soon found himself with a superior endgame. As he was thinking to himself, after going a pawn ahead, that the most difficult thing to do in chess was to win a won game, his opponent obliged by leaving his rook en prise and immediately resigned. This left what is fast becoming a familiar scenario: Andy pressing for a win in the last game to finish as both clocks run down. The spectators are left wondering whether his opponent will crack or not. They needn´t! Invariably, Andy brings home the full point. This happened once again, as his advancing queen´s side pawns proved unstoppable. Now, with a remarkable eight-and-a-half points out of nine in league games, Andy is well on the way to the Player of the Year award.

The match against Bury St Edmunds B concluded the league season for Manningtree A. Bury, true to form in its away games, arrived without some of its top players to contest the evening against the home team´s strongest line-up. This is not to say that the result was a foregone conclusion (it never is!), but Manningtree always looked comfortable on all four boards. The eventual 3½-½ win was, if not a total surprise, still a satisfying outcome.
 On board one, Adam demonstrated why the Volga gambit is such a dangerous weapon, while Andy, on board two enjoyed a comfortable win against a player who offered less resistance than he had encountered in earlier games in the league this season. Nevertheless, it was an important victory, since it ensured him the SCCA Division 1 Player of the Season award for 2016 with an outstanding score of 9½ from the 10 games played. Less convincing was the play on the bottom boards. Leon easily defused his opponent´s delayed wing gambit against the Sicilian defence (1 e4 c5 2 a3 Nc6 3 b4), but then allowed the advantage to slip and, with nothing hinging on the result, offered a draw in an evenly balanced position, when shortage of time became a factor. Phil reached a position a pawn down in the middle game, but with all the pressure. It never looked as if he would end up with less than a draw and, as it turned out, he was rewarded with a full point when his lower-graded opponent finally cracked in time trouble.
 So Manningtree A finishes as runners-up in Division 1 with the final of the Suffolk Cup still to play. The difference in score between Manningtree and Ipswich C, who clinched the league title the evening before with a 3-1 win against Saxmundham A, was in the end a mere one point. Ipswich C has every reason, therefore, to thank Stephen Gregory, a member of the Ipswich A team which plays in the same division, who stepped in - on board one - as a substitute at a crucial stage of the competition, gaining a point for the team and a lower board order for the other players. Well done, Ipswich!

We had a last minute illness and nobody available to step in, although why Sudbury wanted the default on board 3 (giving themselves two blacks) is a puzzle, but we didn´t object. The final score was no reflection of the games. John faced the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez, and was doing OK until the ending, where he let any drawing chances slip away. Jim said, ´Really annoyed with myself for missing a simple defensive resource´ and Carl looked to have a winning attack, but blundered and the tables were turned. The result could easily have been 2-2 if luck had gone our way.

Well we finally managed to win a match and take ourselves of the bottom of the table (for a while at least). John managed to maintain white´s slight initiative into the ending and then missed a winning move (well actually, he saw the winning move but dismissed it because he didn´t see the follow up). So he played a losing move instead! Bob looked to be having a tough time, but managed to steer his way through to a good win. Jim had a won ending but agreed a draw as he couldn´t see it with only a couple of minutes left. Carl wasn´t going to repeat the performance of his previous game and made sure he executed his winning attack without a hitch.

It wasn´t a bad result considering. John´s game was a pretty uneventful QGD until he blundered a pawn on move 20. It wasn´t fatal until he carelessly allowed his opponent to force the exchange of the last pair of rooks, following which the extra pawn was decisive. Bob did a great job against our own Phil, gaining a knight to the good, although he would probably be the first to admit he took a rather circuitous route to force home the win. Mind you he did have half an hour more on his clock, so he could afford the time, unlike John P, who managed to steal a couple of his opponent´s pawns, but took the draw being rather short of time. Carl played the risky f5 in the Owen Defence only to find out afterwards it was one of his opponent´s favourite openings, and after a bit of a tussle, they settled for a draw. This puts us 5th in the table, but both teams below us have a game in hand.

Oh dear, the plan was to field our strongest team, get three points, and move two places up the table. Bob did great job, imitating Andy´s result of the previous night, and set us up well. Jim admitted to allowing too many exchanges, leaving a position bereft of winning chances. John faced a Marshall against the Ruy Lopez, and played a line that invites his opponent to offer a second pawn, but forgot that in the line played, he should have taken it. Carl was last to finish, and had the dubious honour of having everyone standing around his board watching him struggle against a couple of advancing pawns in a 2N+R ending. With time running short, one of those knights delivered a fatal fork, and it wasn´t one of Carl´s. Oh well, we´ve still got half a season to go, plenty of time to turn things around.

Well, we managed to raise ourselves off the bottom of the table, and this time, the team below us do not have a game in hand. Ipswich D top the table, and while we lost 3-1 to them in our previous encounter, we managed to hold them off this time. John´s game started quietly enough, but instead of quietly castling on move 12 his opponent played g4, g5, h4, and suddenly his King was facing all sorts of threats. In the end he probably should have played on the R+2P ending, but having survived to that point he was just relieved not to lose. Jim played a steady game that was pretty even throught, while Carl launched an impressive attack, which gave him a well deserved win. And as for Bill, our last minute substitute, well he played brilliantly. He kept his opponent at bay, and was unlucky not to get something from that game.

Well the idea was to get at least two points from this match and keep one position off the bottom of the table (after all, we managed a 2-2 draw against Clacton back in November). Now, with four matches to go we´re going to need nothing short of a miracle to avoid relegation. Apart from John´s game (of which the least said the better), the score line didn´t reflect the performances. This was a match of Queen-side castling - all but the top board had one, although Adrian didn´t castle at all. Jim offered a draw about move 20 with just a bishop and pawn off the board. It took his opponent a while to accept as it was a very complicated position. Adrian looked to be doing OK, but was running short of time, and then disaster - his flag fell! We´re just not used to these old fashioned mechanical devices anymore. Carl was the last to finish, and all eyes were on his board (all sixteen pairs of them). He had developed what looked to be a very promising attack, but after sacrificing a piece, with his attack floundering, he was forced to play for a swindle, which his opponent managed to avoid, although he certainly made heavy weather of it.

Felixstowe are the only team we have beaten this season, but even if we´d have beaten them 4-0 tonight, and gone half a point ahead of them, they would still have a game in hand. As it was, we racked up our fourth draw. Bob did an excellent job on top board, although he was two pawns down and on the defensive in the middlegame. But he found the resource to spring back, take his opponent off-guard, and come away with another well deserved win. Carl played his customary Trompowski to 1 d4 Nf6, and the game seemed pretty much level throughout. John P´s game likewise didn´t seem to favour either side too much, and in the ending with a pair of rooks each, a draw was a fair result. John Mc continued his run of poor form this season, playing black in a QGD, he never quite seemed to achieve equality. But it was a simple miss-calculation that lost a bishop that sealed it. With relegation looming larger, are we going to be in that position of yo-yoing between Divisions 2 and 3.

Well we got 1½ points more than we did last time round, but this result puts Sudbury on top (although most likely for only a day) and us still stuck firmly at the bottom. Adrian finished first tonight, keeping faithful to his Sicilian, and although he equalised quickly, there wasn´t quite enough to force home a win. Carl was next with his trusty Trompowski and was allowed to develop an impressive attack. It looked pretty hairy as Carl´s time drained away, and at a crucial point his opponent found the move to neutralise the attack. John faced the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez, plus a King-side attack that was never going to succeed. With no rooks on the board and his opponent´s Queen out of position he thought his Queen-side pawn advance was going to win, but his opponent stubbornly refused to blunder. In the final position with locked pawns there was nothing more than to offer a draw. Bob put in another excellent performance, and in the end was tantalisingly close to half a point. With material level and time running out, his stubborn resistance against what was after all, a very small positional disadvantage began to crack. If both players had had 90 seconds taken off their clocks half a dozen moves before the cracks appeared, in all likelihood, a draw would have been agreed.

No doubt about it now - Division Three here we come. It was a slow match tonight, none of us reached thirty moves in less than an hour. John was very lucky. For once it was his opponent that blundered. It began as a Scotch and he faced a full scale King-side assault. He survived to reach a Q+R ending with a slight, but definite positional minus. He saw the potential blunder for his oppoenent, and nearly played a more speculative move thinking his opponent would never fall for it, but decided to give him the chance by opting for a defensive move instead. He could hardly believe his luck, a premature rook incursion lost the rook as the pawn defending it was pinned against it´s queen. It was a swindle, but it still counts.
 Jim was next to finish. He faced a Sicilian against an opponent who looked like it was way past his bedtime. Jim played c3 instead of the immediate d4 and launched an impressive sacrificial King-side attack that became very complicated. Both were getting low on time when Jim decided he had reached a point where it was ´too difficult to win´ and offered a draw. His opponent presumably thought it was too difficult not to lose and accepted. Full marks to the young lad, he played very well.
 This just left Carl and Adrian, with both boards going right to the wire - all four had just a handful of minutes each. Carl had also played the Sicilian and he lost the exchange for two pawns (so technically level) and at this stage was a good five minutes ahead on the clock. With the position finely balanced Carl offered a draw (twice) but his opponent had other ideas. It was still technically level as the pieces started flying faster than the clock could keep up, but by this time it was Carl who was behind on time. The clock had to be paused to re-position the scattered pieces, but with only one second to resume the game with, Carl accepted the inevitable and resigned.
 Adrian meanwhile had finished slightly ahead of Carl, having started with his trusty English. Having launched a Queenside advance his opponent responded on the King-side while Adrian´s King remained in the middle, which left his King´s Rook a mere spectator. A few moves after the time control Adrian lost a crucial pawn, giving his opponent a powerful central three-pawn phalanx. In an extremely difficult position all of Adrian´s options were bad, and in trying to determine which was the least bad his flag fell (or should I say ´raised´, with these digital clocks).
 It´s sobering to think than Manningtree B was pretty much Manningtree ´A´ a few years ago, and in those days Manningtree would yo-yo between Divisions One and Two. Now Manningtree B can´t even stay in Division two! But that must be a good thing, and it would be nice to think that our biggest problem next season would be whether to introduce a Manningtree C into the mix.

This was our last B-Team match of the season, and neither team had anything but pride to play for as neither could reach the team above them in the League. Bury were missing their nominated board 1, and made their substitution in what we might consider the ´normal´ way, which gave us a fighting chance of avoiding a 4-0 beating.
 This wasn´t Bob´s night tonight, as he struggled to get into his game, while his opponent just kept making it harder and harder for him. When he blundered a Bishop in the middle game it was a struggle against the inevitable. John faced an Evan´s Gambit for the first time in decades, and by move five he couldn´t remember the recommended move, nor where the traps were. So he promptly fell into one and lost the exchange. His opponent´s premature pawn advance allowed him to win one of them, and the open game, and a bishop pair allowed him to harass his opponent´s rooks until his opponent slipped up and he got the exchange back. In a bishop ending, with a pawn to the good John should have won, but it was his turn to slip up this time.
 Unusually for Carl, he had over 20 minutes on the clock before the second move was played - no, it wasn´t slow play, his opponent was just late. Carl tried to use this time to his advantage by taking his opponent out of the book very early in the game. But his opponent kept finding the right moves, which was very annoying (isn´t it against the laws of chess to annoy your opponent in any way over the board?!). Adrian faced an unusual opening, 1.d4 ... 2.Bf4 and was wary of what traps he might face. He did a great job against his higher graded opponent, and found his way through the game, with perhaps a slight edge in the ending, but offered a draw, thinking it might not be a good idea to push his luck.
 Oh well, it´s Division Three next season, but the chances are, we´ll be back.

We expected to get beat, so this result was no surprise. Adrian seemed to be doing alright as black, castled queenside with a half open h-file, but soon succumbed. Carl didn´t seem to be doing too badly either, but like Adrian, his game was over quite quickly. Jim, on the other hand, had a great game, and pressed his attack down to the end for a well deserved win. As for John, he was like the Germans in 1944, expecting the invasion in the wrong place and lost the exchange on move 20. Even so, if he´d only had an extra move he could have saved that RvB ending. But then again, if my auntie had balls she´d be my uncle (as my granny used to say).

It´s fair to say that Manningtree scraped through in the second round of the Suffolk Cup. Bob, playing his trademark modern defence, set us up with a good win on board four and Phil secured a comfortable draw with white on third board, but matters were less clear on the top two boards. Leon did most of the early pressing on board two, but faltered in the wake of a resourceful counter attack, allowing white first to equalise and then, by unwisely bringing his king into the fray, giving his opponent the opportunity to find an instant win in an open position. Instead, his opponent chose an alternative and offered a draw, which was gratefully accepted. Andy, on top board, had to weather the storm after the opening did not turn out well for him and he was equally fortunate to gain a draw in the end.

The theme, or perhaps the target, of the evening was the knight´s pawn of the opponent. Disregarding the saying that he who takes the knight´s pawn will sleep in the street, Andy and Leon both chose to make this very capture with their respective queens and lived to tell the tale. John, in contrast, when he decided not to take the pawn on g7, gave his opponent a chance to seal up the king´s side, but after black missed this opportunity, he stormed through with his attack, while Jim engaged in some nice tactics to win material because his opponent couldn´t leave his b-pawn unattended without being mated.
 A 4-0 result looked on the cards well before the end of the second hour of play with the home team having favourable positions in all the games. In the final (date to be arranged), Manningtree A will meet the winner of the match between Sudbury and Ipswich B, which takes place next Monday.

Essentially, the key to any cup success is not to lose individual games. The Manningtree A team, secure in the knowledge that the Ipswich B team was outgraded on every board, set out to implement this strategy for the Final by avoiding risky sacrifices and other impetuous play. The expectation was that, with the team´s all-round superior grading, a cautious approach would yield at least one positive result, and that was exactly how it turned out. The fact that Ipswich B sprang a surprise by introducing a substitute on top board mattered not at all.
 But is chess ever risk-free? The first game to finish was on board four, which saw Phil (with the black pieces) under pressure after a misplayed opening until he found a timely counterblow that forced white to sacrifice a piece for a perpetual check. Draw agreed. The other three boards, however, saw the Manningtree players keeping a firm grip on their respective games, avoiding anything too speculative, until Adam´s position began to open up to his considerable advantage. As soon as it became apparent that he was about to win a piece and the game, Andy and Leon, who had concentrated more on keeping their games under control, immediately (almost simultaneously!) offered their opponents draws. In each case, the draw was quickly accepted, since the Ipswich player had no real winning prospects. This left Adam to administer the coup de grace in short time to ensure that Manningtree A finish with a trophy to mark a highly successful season, in which they were also runners-up in the League.
 On the path to victory in the Cup, Manningtree A called upon seven players for the three rounds they had to play: Adam Taylor, Andy Lewis, Leon Burnett, Phil Hutchings, Jim Buis, Bob Stephens and John McAllister. Not one of these players lost a single game. Congratulations to them all!

Oh dear, oh dear, the least said about this performance the better. Apart from Adrian´s that is, who was on top of his game from the off, and ended three pawns to the good in a NvB ending. As for the rest of the team, well Bob came out of the opening with good prospects, but blundered the exchange, and despite valiant efforts was unable to recover. John came out of the opening facing a tricky middle game but just when things were levelling off, he blundered into a back rank mate in two. Carl´s game was noticeable for it´s pace. It was well over 90 minutes before the second pair of pawns was exchanged. But the complexities led to Carl struggling against a two pawn deficit when he too blundered and lost a piece. So, an ignominious ejection from the Plate and with relegation staring them in the face, not the best of seasons for Manningtree B.