Manningtree A made an excellent start to the new league season with victory against the current champions, Ipswich C, who were unbeaten last year. Solid performances on the top three boards were embellished by a sparkling win on board four. Andy probed patiently for an opening into the black fortress on top board, but his opponent held firm and a draw was eventually conceded. Leon, as he had done in an encounter with the same player last season, soon neutralised the position with the black pieces and agreed a quick draw. Phil played solidly, but neither side could claim a significant advantage in his game. When the endgame was reached, a draw was the natural outcome.
  The most scintillating game took place on bottom board, when Jim comprehensively outplayed an opponent graded significantly higher than him. In an open game, there was no defence against his raking bishops and his opponent resigned when faced with an immediate mate. All in all, it was a well-deserved result against a team that outgraded us on boards two to four by an average of twenty points and it augurs well for a successful season ahead.

Halfway through the evening´s play, the result was very much in doubt. The positions on the four boards seemed to belie the fact that the away team was outgraded by an average of more than 20 points per player. Ipswich D was more than holding its own! Come the business end of the games however, and on each board, one of the players wavered. No draws tonight. The three players who had divided the spoils in the first league match of the season against Ipswich C all won. Our only casualty was on board four.
 On board one, Andy softened up his opponent´s queen side with a bold advance of his a-pawn to the sixth rank in the Sicilian Defence and gradually gained the upper hand. Leon´s game remained on an even keel in a symmetrical English Opening until he declined a draw, whereupon his opponent blundered away the exchange on the very next move. The game proceeded rapidly to its conclusion. Phil appeared to be the less comfortable of the two players on board three as pawns were advanced on opposite sides of the board, but a timely tactic turned the tables and brought home the point. Bob was not so fortunate. It looked at first as if his double fianchetto opening would give him pressure on the long diagonals, but he lost control in the early middle game and paid the price. The final result of 3-1 was sufficient to ensure Manningtree A tops Division One at the end of the second round of games. It is the only team so far to have taken more than two-and-a-half point from a match.

Manningtree A were gifted a point at the start of the match when Bury C´s top board failed to appear. There must be cause for irony in the fact that their board one, Edmund Player, an expert in the French Defence, didn´t play for Bury St Edmunds, because he was delayed by a visit to France, but we had better let that one pass. Elsewhere, the evening saw three wins for white, which meant that Manningtree ran out 3-1 winners and returned to the top of Division 1 with three victories now from three matches.
 Andy was methodical in converting a clear positional dominance in the centre into a won rook-and-pawn ending, ably demonstrating how to defuse an inadequately prepared flank attack, while Phil exploited his opponent´s inaccurate handling of an open game by first winning a pawn and then breaking through decisively in the centre with queen and bishop. Leon responded to his opponent´s hybrid queen´s pawn opening well and had a slight plus for most of the game. Unfortunately, after solid opening play he consumed too much time in finding his moves and, down to the last minute on his clock, he committed a catastrophic blunder that lost on the spot, returning the gift, as it were, that Bury had presented Manningtree with at the beginning of proceedings.
 Our next match is an away fixture against Ipswich A, the only other team still unbeaten in Division 1 and lying in second place, one-and-a-half points behind Manningtree A. It promises to be an interesting contest.

If the Manningtree A players travelled to Ipswich expecting a comfortable victory against a team that they outgraded by an average of 24 points, then they were in for a surprise. It turned out not to be an easy evening for the visitors. The league standings - the two teams were joint top of Division 1, albeit Ipswich A had played an extra game - proved to be a more reliable indicator of the contest to come.
 The match commenced with what may be best described as an early draw on board one. The games on boards two and four, in which the Manningtree players had the black pieces, saw their Ipswich opponents play queen´s pawn openings with a fianchetto of the king´s bishop, but that is where the similarity ended. Andy came under sustained pressure after the white bishop captured his knight on c6, wrecking black´s queen-side pawn structure, which then came under attack from the white rooks along the open c-file. As the pieces began coming off the board, it became increasingly apparent that the position could not be held.
 Meanwhile, on board four, Phil won the exchange out of the opening and confidently proceeded to consolidate his advantage. His opponent, after trying a couple of tricks which got nowhere, acknowledged the inevitable. Leon´s game on board three was a topsy-turvy affair. After a spell of protracted manoeuvring in the opening, the game burst into life tactically. First of all, Leon judged - mistakenly as subsequent analysis demonstrated - that it was unwise to win a piece for the three pawns in front of his king, then his opponent came up with a venomous combination that could have proved decisive, but instead, in the over-the-board complications, only resulted in an unbalanced position where both sides had attacking chances. At this juncture, with the match result depending on the outcome, the two players agreed to a draw with a lot of play left on the board but little time on the clock.
 Thus, Manningtree A preserved its unbeaten record, but only just, and both teams still head Division 1. Our next league match is at home against Bury St Edmunds B, when we shall have the opportunity to benefit from the game in hand over the other joint leader.

Christmas came a few days early for the Manningtree A chess team in the form of a four-nil present nicely wrapped up in the away match against Ipswich B. There was also something of a Christmas bonus in that the team regained the top spot in the league with this clean sweep. The victory over opponents who were outgraded by an average of close on forty points per board was accomplished with relative ease. This was mainly down to superior positional play in all games. There were few tactical crackers to mark the festive season.
 Adam and Leon, playing closed setups with the white pieces, exploited structural weaknesses in their opponents´ defences to bring home the points, while Andy and Phil, as black, reacted vigorously to the innocuous lines that they faced in the Sicilian and the Trompowsky respectively and soon seized the initiative, which they were never to relinquish.
 The surprise of the evening occurred elsewhere at the same venue. Ipswich C, the reigning league champions, sitting at the top of the division before this evening´s matches, met with an unexpected 2½-1½ defeat in the derby match against Ipswich D, whom they outgraded on all boards. The outcome of these two fixtures means that Manningtree A will see in the New Year as league leaders, unbeaten and with a game in hand over all main challengers. As Manningtree A goes from strength to strength, special mention should be made of Phil´s record of 4½ points in the 5 league games he has played so far this season. An excellent performance!

Manningtree A started the New Year as it ended the Old Year - with a comprehensive victory! This result was fully in keeping with the grade differential between the teams. On paper, it was only on board three that the players were not separated by a substantial margin. All the same, paper needs to be translated into performance. In this respect, Adam and Andy showed that they were in a class of their own, demonstrating superior technique to convert small material advantages into wins.
 Adam unleashed his secret weapon (2 … a6!) as a prelude to an expansion that eventually led to the domination of two raking bishops trained on the enemy king, not to mention the plight of his opponent´s knight trapped on the edge of the board. Andy´s opponent came at him from the opening, but it was our board two who was soon to wrest the initiative and gain the exchange for a pawn. It was not all plain sailing after that, however, and Andy needed to resort to some patient manoeuvring before bringing home the full point.
 If Andy´s win was made a little easier by his opponent´s endgame play, then Phil´s win on board four, after a speculative sacrifice of a piece for the sake of a dangerous king hunt and a few pawns, owed much more to the collaboration of his adversary. One minute the game was unclear, the next it was all over. Meanwhile, on board three, Leon pressed from the opening, but his opponent held out stubbornly on the white side, refusing to allow his defences to be breached. As the clock performed the digital equivalent of ticking on inexorably, pieces came off the board and Leon decided it was time to call it a day, thereby frustrating the achievement of a second successive four-nill win for the team.
 Nevertheless, this excellent result in the last fixture of the first half of the league season sees Manningtree A emulate the Manningtree B team in remaining unbeaten and leading its division by four clear points. The chess club in Manningtree has never been as successful as it is at the start of 2017. Long may it continue!

It may sound a bit churlish to suggest that a three-one victory was a disappointing result, but in view of the grading disparity between the two teams it has to be regarded as no more than a moderate performance by the Manningtree A team, especially since it seemed for a while that the match might even have been drawn two-all.
 Once again, though, our top two boards ensured that the match was won. Adam´s double fianchetto opening gave him the better game and when his opponent over-extended on the king´s side, white reaped the benefit of a favourable position with a well-judged entry across the enemy lines. Andy had to work harder against the interloper from the Ipswich A team. It was not until the endgame that his knight demonstrated its superiority over white´s bad bishop and even then the win was not clear cut until both players were down to their final minutes.
 On board three, Leon achieved what looked like a promising attack from another double fianchetto opening, but pulled out of the strongest continuation, having missed the possibility of a winning piece sacrifice several moves down the line, and the position petered out into a draw. Meanwhile, Phil was suffering from his opponent´s inspired piece sacrifice and was heading for his first defeat of the league season until an inaccuracy allowed him counterplay that should have won the game. Short of time, however, the best line was missed and both players had to content themselves with a draw, reflecting on what might have happened, if only ….
 The three-one score line was a repetition of the result when the two teams met in October in the first half of the season. It keeps Manningtree A ahead of all the other teams in Division 1 and still on course for the championship title.

The A team lost its unbeaten record for this season in the match against the current holders of the Division 1 trophy, reversing the result of their earlier encounter in Ipswich, in which Manningtree as the away team gained a narrow victory by the same score. It could have ended otherwise - Andy went astray in at least an equal position and Leon lost on time in a position where his opponent had no more than a slight initiative - but that´s chess and we can´t complain.
 Phil was first to finish. In a Caro Kann Exchange Variation, he obtained a promising position for a kingside attack, only to dissipate the initiative with an ill judged minor piece exchange and faulty pawn advance. Black countered well, engineering a queen exchange, after which neither side had prospects in the double rook and one minor piece ending. Draw agreed.
 Andy laboured to prove an advantage in a drawish minor piece endgame, but his opponent defended resolutely. Just when he appeared to have gained a structural advantage, Andy allowed a neat tactic that enabled black to swap knights and force a pawn endgame with an unstoppable passed pawn. Meanwhile, Leon expended a considerable amount of time in finding a defence to his opponent´s niggling, and persistent, pressure. He made the first time control with three seconds to spare, but the unforgiving clock eventually exacted its due in a game that was played under ´no increment´ rules. His opponent, who had played the whole game briskly, could find no better winning plan than to run down black´s clock, a strategy which eventually succeeded on move sixty six.
 The final game saw a thrilling finish. Adam was two clear pawns up with only queen and one bishop left for both sides. The extra material, however, consisted of doubled pawns on the king-side and seemed to offer white decent drawing chances. With only a couple of minutes left, Adam dodged the repeated queen checks, and resolutely advanced his king-side majority. His queen, bishop, pawns and even his king combined to deliver checkmate with just seconds left on the clock.
 Manningtree A now finds itself six points ahead of Ipswich C, which has a game in hand, while Ipswich A, with only one defeat this season, is not to be discounted. Our next league match will be away to Bury St Edmunds C on 2nd March, but before that encounter the A team lines up against Ipswich B in the semi-final of the Suffolk Cup.

Manningtree A scored a narrow win against the Bury St Edmunds C team to extend its lead at the top of Division 1, but the scale of the victory was not by the anticipated margin given the grading discrepancy on all boards. Three matches now remain in the current campaign and Manningtree has a healthy, but not decisive, lead of five points over its main rival, defending champions Ipswich C, who have a game in hand.
 Adam lost his unbeaten league record this season. With the black pieces, he came under sustained attack in a game that saw his king exposed and unable to cope when left with no pawn protection and inadequate defence from the remainder of his forces. To offset this unexpected outcome, the two Manningtree players who had white won convincingly.
 Andy´s game opened with the sharp and highly theoretical King´s Indian main line. After the pawn-structure stabilized, his opponent tried a bold and highly aggressive manoeuvre aiming to deliver mate on the h-file. Andy, however, was already familiar with the theoretical antidote. This left black´s pieces unable to break through on the king´s side or to resist white´s characteristic queen-side initiative and black was soon overwhelmed.
 Leon secured a lasting positional advantage after the opening phase, leaving his opponent with a cramped game and little scope to manoeuvre. But manoeuvre he did, to his cost. Faced with an imminent break through on the king´s side, black reorganized his defences, but inadvertently left his queen´s pawn unguarded. The loss of this pawn saw his whole position collapse and Leon had an easy task to gain the full point.
 This left Phil, the last to finish, having to hold a difficult rook-and-pawn ending in order to ensure that Manningtree won the match. The game had not started well for him. Misplaying the opening, he found himself consigned to passive defence and the eventual loss of his a-pawn, resulting in what was objectively a lost ending. After more than a few nerve-tingling moments in a rapid play finish, which did not necessarily produce flawless endgame technique on either side, Phil pulled off a great escape and the Manningtree players went home relieved, if not ecstatic.

As the league season reaches its climax, every half point seems to carry much greater weight. Boosted by news of a relatively disappointing result the previous evening for its main challenger for the Division 1 title, Ipswich C, who drew two-all with a team it outgraded, Manningtree A went into the match against Ipswich A not only with the expectation of restoring its lead at the top of the table but also with the hope of extending it. This is indeed what happened, although the home players had to weather ome uncertain moments, and Manningtree has now opened up a two-and-a-half point gap with two matches still to play.
 Phil was the first to finish. In an aggressive Scandinavian opening, which saw the two sides castle on opposite wings, the Ipswich player´s attack against the white king started to gather momentum until he got sidetracked, after the exchange of some minor pieces, into an attempt to establish a knight on c3. Faced with the need to retreat the piece, black chose the wrong square and allowed Phil a double attack on both knights, after which, a piece down without compensation, his position soon collapsed. There was an element of luck in Phil´s victory, as earlier on black had spurned the clear win of a central pawn after a mistake by white.
 The next result to come in was a dramatic draw on board two. Andy´s opening was a carbon copy of his game just two weeks ago, against Bury. This time, his opponent was better prepared for a wild King´s Indian main line, boldly sacrificing the exchange and two pawns for a fierce king-side attack. Just when his attack threatened to crash through, his opponent cautiously repeated the position; and Andy eagerly claimed a draw by threefold repetition.
 On board three, Leon misplayed an opening combination intended to confer a positional advantage and found himself instead a piece for two pawns down after ten moves. Hardly auspicious, but the two pawns were strong central ones and looked intimidating. Gradually the material imbalance altered as white gave up two minor pieces for rook and pawn, leaving Leon, still the exchange for a pawn down, with two active bishops on an open board. By this stage, although there were tactical challenges for both players, the position was equal and white decided to ensure the draw by giving up the exchange for a pawn to reach a level ending.
 This left Adam with some work still to do to guarantee a win for the home team. With all the other games over (the Manningtree B team had also been involved in a home fixture - see separate Match Report), he entertained the onlookers, who had gathered round his board in anticipation of the outcome as time trouble loomed, by parrying his opponent´s dangerous looking attack with cool defence, picking off pawns whenever the opportunity presented itself and then exchanging down to an easily won rook-and-pawn ending.
 So: two wins, two draws - three useful points to take to the penultimate match in two weeks as Manningtree edges ever closer to its end of the season target. ´Edges´ is certainly the word for it, as some of the play in this match was distinctly edgy!

It is fair to say that the performance of the Manningtree A team has not been as incisive since the start of February as it was earlier in the season. The results for individual players in the last three or four games register at 50%, with the exception of Phil on board four, who spared our blushes against Bury St Edmunds B with a late victory. His win ensured that the team goes into the final match of the league season just ahead of its main rival, with Ipswich C four-and-a-half points adrift but one match in hand.
 The games finished in board order. In possession of the bishop pair, Adam enjoyed a persistent edge, but had to be content with sharing the point when the win of a pawn allowed his opponent to force a draw through perpetual check. It was a similar story on board two, where Andy acquired an opening advantage with the two bishops and a grip on the dark-squares. In attempting to exploit this, he misplaced his pieces and, running out of time, offered a draw in a worse position, which his opponent accepted. Leon exploited an opening misjudgement on his opponent´s part and played a forcing line that should have led to the win of a piece for two pawns, but he chose instead to regain the pawn he had sacrificed only to see his initiative disappear at a stroke. After this, both sides had chances in a sharp position, but shortly before the first time control Leon went astray at a critical moment and found himself in an untenable endgame.
 If the return from the top three boards, considering that Manningtree had held an advantage from the opening phase in each of them, was low, then Phil made up for it with the black pieces in an uneventful Bird´s Opening. In a game that soon reached a rook-and-pawn ending, Phil had more space and a more active position until he compromised his chances with a hasty pawn push. To the rest of the team who had gathered to watch, it looked as if a draw was the best that could be hoped for with a loss a more likely outcome. At this stage, Lady Luck (otherwise known as time trouble) stepped in, inducing his opponent to allow the hastily pushed pawn a direct path to the queening square and thus to provide Manningtree A with the relief of a drawn match.

Manningtree A clinched first place in the race for the Suffolk League Championship with a resounding four-nil win against bottom team Ipswich B. If there were any concerns before the match that the fate of the Division 1 title would not be decided by the team´s final league match of the season, as its nearest rival still had one match to play, then the players received a welcome boost with the news that the opposing team would be defaulting on board three. This, according to our resident statistician (thanks Andy!), meant that the probability of securing the title by the end of the evening rose immediately from 83% to 95%.
 Unusually, the match took place in the vestibule of the Methodist church hall, rather than in our cosy clubroom upstairs, with Manningtree B playing in the hall itself right next to the paintings on show at the annual local art exhibition, which had necessitated the slight change of venue. This meant that Leon, who found himself in the role of non-playing match captain, was at leisure to enjoy two very different kinds of visual spectacle. Indeed, he was left to ponder, in the course of the evening, which medium - the canvas or the chessboard - was the more successful in producing works of art, for his team mates provided a master class, with a near flawless performance.
 Adam, on top board, played a lesser-known line in the Ruy Lopez, equalised effortlessly, expanded on the king´s side with pawn advances, took control of the game, and delivered a stylish coup de grace to force resignation or mate. On board two, Andy was pleased with his opponent´s choice of a symmetrical English, allowing him the Maroczy Bind, and delighted when black followed this up by exchanging his all-important dark-squared bishop to make a greedy e-pawn grab. His opponent failed to hang on to the extra material for too many moves, and, worse still, the loss of dark-square control quickly proved catastrophic for him, allowing Andy to win an entire rook by move 24. Game over and league title in the bag.
 Phil, with the white pieces on board four, started well, securing outposts for his knights on c5 and e5, well-supported by the isolani on d4, to dominate the dark squares and diagonals, but he let his opponent back into the game on move 20, when he missed a forced winning line. The position remained equal for a few moves until black, short of time and under positional pressure, committed a series of inaccuracies that white exploited in exemplary fashion.
 Thus Manningtree A scored a second four-nil result against the luckless Ipswich B team, who will now be relegated to Division 2 next season. Meanwhile, in the adjoining hall, victory for Manningtree B, confirming their dominance in the lower division, ensured that the evening would be long remembered for a remarkable double in the history of the club´s achievements. Moreover, Phil, unbeaten in the league with eight wins and four draws this season, joins the other three members of the team in having gained a first-division Player of the Year award. We have the full set now, with possibly more trophies to come, since in May Manningtree A plays in the final of the Suffolk Cup and Manningtree B in the final of the Suffolk Plate.

A good solid start to the new season, albeit against one of the weaker sides in this division. John was first to finish after a cautious opening in which his opponent slipped up and lost the exchange. He had to proceed with care, however, for in the closed position he was harassed by a couple of dangerously positioned knights, and very nearly blundered the exchange back.
  Adrian made it 2-0 with a very solid performance that concluded in a pawn ending with Adrian a pawn up. Although Adrian had two connected passed pawns, his opponent´s resignation was premature, for he also had a passed pawn, which would have romped home should Adrian advance his king. This would have required very precise play on Adrian´s part to win, assuming it could be won at all.
 David added another point to our tally in a game in which he just kept on gaining material. First the exchange, then a rook up, then a piece and a rook up. In the end, his opponent would have had to surrender his only remaining piece (his queen) to avoid mate. And finally Carl emerged from a complicated game looking as though he was going to lose a piece on the queen´s-side. Rather than attempt a defence he launched his queen at his opponent´s king, which could have got his piece back, but with both players short of time, a draw was agreed after the repetition of a couple of moves. This puts us top of the table (along with Manningtree C), which is where we hope to stay.

Fifteen points was the average advantage we had tonight, but it´s fair to say we struggled. John M finished first (and by a long way), and to say it was a disappointing performance is putting it kindly, it was pretty lame. Not wishing to tread the well worn paths of the French he decided to try the exchange variation which resulted in a very dull game that looked drawn from about move ten.
 The other three boards all went the distance, with John P finishing next. John had started well and was easily the better off out of the opening. However, in spite of his opponent´s two isolated queenside pawns things didn´t continue quite so well, and after all queenside pawns were liquidated, John was a pawn light in a rook and pawn ending. It was theoretically drawn, although John´s opponent wanted to press anyway, but stout defence kept the draw safe.
 Bob was next to finish after a long and tense strategic battle. Bob´s centre always looked threatening, but the blockade on his connected passed e-pawn held out and attempts to break through on the wings didn´t quite materialise either. With the match level at three draws apiece, all eyes were on Carl. His Sicillian didn´t pan out so well, and his backward d-pawn was both a target and a restriction, and stuck behind the e-pawn was his dark squared bishop, which was a passive spectator for most of the game. When his last remaining queen side pawn fell things looked dire, especially as Carl was down to his last four minutes while his opponent had plenty of time. And then, within two moves that passive bishop saved the day! First, an attack on his opponent´s rook which allowed Carl to regain the dangerous pawn. But in an attempt to save the pawn his opponent interposed a bishop, so he lost that instead. It was a tricky situation, a won position that could easily take twenty or thirty moves to win, and only two minutes or so to do it in. So Carl offered a draw, which his opponent accepted, but only after checking the results of the other three boards. While this keeps Manningtree B on top of the table, the prospect looms that it could be unseated by Manningtree C next week if they beat Saxmundham B.

A repeat of the C-Team´s result of last month, which keeps our B-Team on top of the table (just). All four games went according to grade with John finishing first. It´s fair to say though, that being on the black side of a Four Knights he was struggling for equality throughout the opening, and his king was unquestionably nervous as a phalanx of K-side pawns approached. But instead of trying to gain from his advantage his opponent played several passive moves, which allowed John to relieve the pressure with a breakthrough in the centre. The result was a level position that looked about as drawn as you can get. But there was a cheapo in the air, starting with a temporary exchange sacrifice. This resulted in his opponent having king, queen and rook on the same diagonal, skewered by a bishop. There were several ways to survive but only one losing move. Fortunately for John his opponent didn´t realise that, otherwise a draw would almost certainly have resulted.
 Adrian finished next. He had faced a QGD in which his opponent played an immediate 3. cxd5, giving Adrian´s white squared bishop the freedom he often struggles for in this opening. Adrian always seemed to have the upper hand but his opponent was dogged in defence. With level pawns and a queen and two rooks each it was a tight struggle until his opponent overlooked the fact that the pawn defending his d-pawn was pinned. After taking the pawn with a rook, the queens came off as well, giving Adrian an overwhelming rook and pawn ending.
 Carl then made the score 3-0 with his trusty Trompowsky. The win of an early pawn gave Carl a nice protected, passed d-pawn to invest in the endgame, but as it happened he didn´t need it. His pieces were all bearing down on his opponent´s K-side position, helped by a somewhat disconnected defence. And while you felt the outcome was never in doubt, it wasn´t clear where the final blow would strike. It came in the form of a very nice rook sacrifice, which his opponent presumably couldn´t see through, as he played right through to the mate.
 Now there was just Graeme to bring up the rear. He had faced a Petrov, which resulted in a typically complex game with both sides pressing hard, and where a single slip could cost the game. The middle game developed into a queen and minor piece ending, with a slight plus to his opponent, who had a bishop and knight against Graeme´s two knights. At the point where Graeme would either lose a pawn or allow the exchange of queens, he offered a draw. After a few moments thought, his opponent accepted without even asking to see what Graeme´s move would have been. A good team result which see us stay at the top, just half a point ahead of Saxmundham B.

Like us Saxmundham have two teams in this division, and like us they would like to get one of them promoted, if only for the greater flexibility the substitution rules offer. So it´s sobering to think that had this result gone the other way, it would be Saxmundham B sitting on top of this division instead of us. There was no chance of that happening at the start however, for by 7.40 only two Sax players had arrived, and by 7.45 we had to start the match regardless. Fortunately the errant two arrived shortly after, so only lost five minutes or so on their clocks.
 Befitting such a clash of promotion rivals, the games were close and hard fought. Apart from Adrian´s that is. Once again he put his trust in the English, although there was a suspicion that his opponent was playing a different opening. In any event, Adrian was soon ahead, and by half time was coasting to victory with a piece and three pawns to the good. This was to be our only win tonight, and had we known it at the time we could have called it a day then and there and saved us all a lot of sweat (and talking of sweat, it was very hot in our club room tonight).
 With three of our nominees away David was drafted in from the C-Team and he played a steady game with the black pieces, patiently equalising white´s opening advantage. But the locked pawns gave little scope for active play so a draw was eventually agreed. In contrast, Carl´s Trompowsky Attack was quite a lively affair, but neither player found a killer blow, or put another way, neither blundered. All eyes were now on John, who thought that with such an audience he ought to find a suitable brilliancy. But with only a queen and five pawns each, one was hard to find as both players were reduced to more passive options, the alternative being a reckless gamble, which would have been curtains for whichever player tried it. A satisfying result for the team, especially as it was Sax-B´s first defeat of the season.

If we had thoughts that we would ´bury´ this team tonight, we had to think again when we realised that their combined age was less than any one of us, and you can´t bury kids now, can you? Mind you, playing them can be a tricky business - does he actually know the line he´s playing, or were they just a few random moves?
 In Adrian´s case it could have been a bit of both, but in any event his opponent appeared to be emulating Alan´s of the previous evening, playing very fast and swapping off all the pieces. His strategy appeared to be working at first for Adrian wanted to keep a few of his pieces to play with. And then a crucial swap proved to be the young man´s undoing and Adrian wasted no time collecting the full point after only 45 minutes at the table.
 Carl´s young opponent followed next, being on the receiving end of one of Carl´s Trompowsky´s. As the game progressed his threats around the young lad´s fianchettoed king´s position looked impressive - they were also quite deadly and so we were two up.
 Bob and John´s opponents were a different kettle of fish - a little, but not much older, and played nowhere near as fast. And both maintained material equality more or less throughout. As the endgame approached Bob was offered a draw, and a little later, so was John. Bob declined because he could see winning chances. John declined because Bob did. Having his draw declined, Bob´s opponent appeared to decline as well, and Bob´s endgame technique proved decisive. John had been on the black side of a queens pawn opening and struggled to find a plan. As a consequence he was on the back foot most of the time countering threats from a light squared bishop eyeing up h7 and a knight on e5. All John´s pieces were defending something (instead of attacking something else) and after Bob made it 3-0 John though 3½ points isn´t so bad from one match, and so he swallowed his pride and admitted he couldn´t beat a pre-teen kid 24 points below him and returned the draw offer. His opponent´s ready acceptance almost made him regret that, but in reality his opponent could easily defend himself, and if anything stood slightly better.
 So we sit on top of division three, three points clear of our nearest rival. Next we face Manningtree C, and rumour has it that they are preparing hard on the latest opening theory to create a major league upset.

Our first B v C team encounter this season was a ´home´ match for the B-Team, who chalked up a convincing win, although the games were by no means all one-sided affairs.
 Board four finished early, in fact their game was over before so much as a pawn had come off board three. Adrian, as white, kept faith with the English, and Alan´s response was not so much English as Brexit. There was an early exchange of queens, but Alan lost a pawn in the process and Adrian did not give him the opportunity to recover.
 Meanwhile on board two, Jim and John P were fighting over a King´s Indian, and John´s strategy was to swap off as many pieces as possible before they could do him any damage. It worked pretty well, for Jim found it difficult to conjure up one of his specials with half his pieces missing.
On the top board Carl´s 1.d4 was met with a Modern Defence, which in turn was met with the Austrian Attack, which was unfortunate for Carl because Bob had been studying this variation earlier in the day and knew exactly what to do. With a pair of doubled, as well as isolated pawns on the c-file, as well as a third isolated pawn on the a-file, and not to mention the fact that he was two pawns down, it was clear Carl was in trouble. The sort of trouble you rarely get out of, and Carl didn´t.
 Last to finish was board three where another English had occurred, and possibly another Brexit. Josh kept good control of the centre and began an annoying advance on the queen´s side, which gave John M little option but lock up the pawns lest Josh get a dangerous protected, passed pawn on the b-file. With the queenside pawns locked, Josh failed to re-group his forces to the king´s side, which left his king defended by a sole knight after John broke through. And a knight is no match for the combined power of a rook and queen.
 With all eight teams in this division now having played six matches, this result leaves our C-Team still top of the bottom half, and our A-Team 3½ clear at the top.

It was an interesting time for our teams this week. The B-Team were playing arguably the weakest side in the division, while the C-Team were playing the strongest. And all our strongest players were available for the B-team match (apart from Jim), while work commitments and illness meant that the strongest (eligible) players for the C-team were mostly unavailable. This of course, is in strict accordance with that well known law, although it could have been worse, because the A-Team were also in action this week, but fortunately they didn´t need to call up any of the reserves.
 We started this match with a one point lead as one of the Felixstowe team had to pull out at the last minute and no replacement could be found. It wasn´t long before Alan made it 2-0. Facing a Scotch he quickly established a superior position, which was greatly helped when his opponent left his queen en-prise.
 It was a while before the next result came in. Bob started with his usual Modern (Reti), with an early 3.b4, but didn´t give his opponent enough problems to worry about, and the game appeared pretty much level throughout, with chances and threats on both sides. Towards the end it looked as though Bob was going to finally win a crucial pawn, but he overlooked the fact that his opponent could spurn recapturing a bishop and take a perpetual instead.
 All eyes now turned to Graeme, but not for long, as he finished soon after. He had faced a King´s Gambit, accepted it, returned it, and with steady play prevented any shenanigans these openings can produce. Like Bob´s game, it too appeared pretty level for most of the time, and his opponent offered a draw on more than one occasion. But Graeme was having none of it, and pressed a small advantage until it became a big one. This result stretches our lead at the top of division three to four points.

All things considered, Saxmundham C are doing pretty well this season, they have won all three of their home matches (with at least three points in each) and are sitting fourth in the table. In fact, their only two match defeats were to their own B-Team, and to us in our first match of the season. And with only one player different in each team, we squared up against each other again today on a very cold January evening.
 Adrian finished first after less than an hour at the board. His opponent had gifted him a pawn in the opening and followed it up with a piece a few move later. With his king unable to castle, and subject to persistent threats, his opponent resigned when defeat was unavoidable. David then secured our second point, but not before being hit with a strong opening attack which cost him a pawn. In compensation he had the bishop pair, and as if by magic, he was suddenly a queen up for the cost of the exchange. The end was then never in doubt as material was exchanged and pawn after pawn fell.
 Meanwhile Jim had responded to his opponent´s Sicillian with 3.c3 and entered a somewhat drawn out game, having both bishops for his opponent´s two knights and all sixteen pawns still on the board. Much time was spent trying to find a way to break the deadlock, but as that time ran out Jim had to settle for just half a point. John brought up the rear applying constant pressure to his opponent´s centre, which paid off when his opponent overlooked the loss of a crucial pawn, which gave John a protected passed d-pawn. Forcing off the remaining major pieces the pawn ending was pretty straightforward, although it required a certain amount of care as his opponent´s 4v3 pawn majority on the king´s side could not be ignored.
 Before this match we were four points clear at the top of Division Three, but a 4-0 win by Saxmundham B at Bury reduced that lead to 3½ points. Clearly we need to keep an eye on them.

It was a cold, dark and wet evening as Ipswich Town squared up to Derby County, while down the road we stood waiting in the damp air for fifteen minutes while someone went in search of a key holder. And once the match got underway Ipswich Town took a mauling, although the fortunes of Manningtree proved infinitely better.
 In less than an hour Graeme had put us one-nil up, and he was as merciless as Derby County. He was hardly out of the opening before numerous threats won him the exchange. And his young opponent was to shortly find how (all too often) one bad move can be followed by one even worse. He had stopped recording his moves, and with his position in disarray, he resigned with the words, ´Thank God I didn´t record that!´. Presumably the young lad was unaware he had no choice in the matter, but Graeme was sensitive enough not to point that out.
 It took another hour or so before John made it two-nil. He was gifted a pawn on move five, and gradually built up a strong centre, and with two of his opponent´s pieces out of position on the queen´s side, he moved in on the king´s side, where his opponent´s defences crumbled surprisingly quickly.
 Carl followed shortly after, and we were three-nil up, which, by coincidence, was the same score as that at Portman Road. Carl had prepared his Sicillian with the expectation of facing John´s opponent, Mike Spalding, as his previous encounter with Mike did not go too well. With the a6 variation and an early d5 Carl built a commanding positional advantage, and effectively made his opponent play a rook down by preventing him from castling. Constant queen´s side pressure eventually paid off, so Carl´s preparation wasn´t wasted.
 We now turned our attention to Bob, whose first four moves were a double fianchetto. It was difficult to assess the complications that followed. Both players developed passed protected pawns, but Bob seemed reduced to passivity as one of his opponent´s pawns had reached the 7th. Bob did however have a powerfully placed central knight, which seemed to hold everything together (as well as pose the odd threat) and no doubt his opponent considered an exchange sacrifice to force the issue, but Bob had a significant advantage. He was way ahead on the clock, so rather than risk it, and finding no other way to break through, his opponent offered a draw, and Manningtree B recorded their fifth consecutive 3½-½ victory.

Hosting two matches on the same evening is becoming quite routine for Manningtree theses days, and even with Bob Stephens far away in the frozen tundra, we still had two players to spare. We were aware that Saxmundham B had beaten Felixstowe B the previous evening, so anything less than 3½ points tonight would see a reduction in our lead at the top.
 Carl got us off to a good start, outplaying his opponent from the off. Developing a strong attack, he was first the exchange up, then he picked up a piece to be a rook up, and then to prevent further loss of material, his opponent fatally diverted his queen to defend a rook instead of keeping it where it was, defending a mate in one.
 It just wasn´t Adrian´s night tonight. He was doing OK until he got one of his pieces trapped, which ended his run of six consecutive wins for the B-Team, and gives him the dubious honour of being the only B-Team player so far this season to lose a board. No matter, he still has the highest percentage of any B-Team player that´s played more than two games.
 Jim put the team back in front with another ´Jim Special´. He had sacrificed a piece to win the exchange, which would also result in him getting his piece back. It looked horrendously complicated, and even Jim was surprised at the havoc this eventually wrecked on his opponent´s position. And while all this was going on, a mammoth struggle was taking place on board one.
 It was a tough slog for both players, and as the ending approached it looked very touch and go as Graeme fought to hold things together, a pawn down, and a busted pawn formation to boot. He did a great job, especially in the ending, countering his opponent´s challenge to queen his h-pawn, with a similar challenge of his own. It´s not clear if Graeme´s challenge was sufficient, but his opponent thought it might be, so with time running low he decided against a pawn race, retreated his king, and settled for half a point.
 Two and a half points is still a good result, and so what if Saxmundham B have reduced our lead by a point, we are still 4½ points clear, and we will be facing them in our next match on February 28th.

Manningtree B are running away with Division Three this year, averaging over three points per match, although this is our first clean sheet. Bob got us off to a good start, although luck was a major factor in this, for Bob had not come out of the opening too well. Double fianchettoed bishops and not a pawn beyond the third rank gave his opponent a lot of space and initiative. When the rook and pawn ending came Bob was two pawns down, and very definitely on the back foot. But then his superior endgame technique shone through as first he got one pawn back, and then the second, levelling the game. His opponent then unwisely allowed the final pair of rooks to come off and Bob´s three pawns were so well placed they almost won the game on their own. As Bob said, his opponent snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, but who hasn´t done that before?
 Jim added our second point, although in his case (barring a crass blunder) his win was never in doubt. While material equality was maintained for most of the opening, Jim was slowly but surely building a powerful king´s side attack that inevitably cost his opponent two pawns, one of them the g-pawn in front of his king. Persistent pressure of the f7 pawn didn´t take long to pay off, and when it fell, the game went with it. Carl and Mark were bringing up the rear, and both could have gone a queen up in their respective endings, but almost as if to demonstrate the futility of playing on, they both decided that they didn´t need the extra queen, a rook up was sufficient.
 Carl was on the offensive from the off, and developed a strong attack against his opponent´s uncastled king (Carl´s king was also uncastled, but unlike his opponent´s, it was not in any danger). Several pawns to the good Carl was moving in for the kill, and with just queen, rook and bishop each left, Carl saw the opportunity for the knockout blow. His blow could have been harder, for instead of winning the rook, Carl could have won the queen, but in reality, with a bishop and rook against a lone bishop, plus three or four extra pawns, it didn´t really matter.
 This was Mark´s first league match for many years, and although he´s been out of serious chess for a long time, he has clearly not forgotten much, which was clearly demonstrated by his handling of his opponent´s Scotch. He didn´t allow his opponent the initiative, and played a steady game throughout, gently easing himself back into the saddle. The game had progressed to a queen and pawn ending, without any obvious weaknesses on either side, when Mark offered a draw. Had it been accepted, it would have given the team its eighth 3½ point victory, but his opponent clearly thought his chances were better than Mark´s, and play continued. Both players cleared their opponent´s pawns from in front of their own, and proceeded to march their unopposed pawns up the board. But Mark had a definite advantage, his opponent´s king could not reach his most advanced pawn, and when Mark´s opponent erroneously allowed the exchange of queens, it was as good as over. His opponent however was determined to shepherd one of his pawns to the eighth, which gave Mark time to promote a second pawn, but rather than queen it, he decided a rook was enough. And indeed it was, for the moment his opponent finally queened his pawn, it was immediately captured following a queen check, which then ended the game.
 Manningtree B now only need 5½ points from their remaining three matches to guarantee first place, although that target will obviously diminish with every half-point Saxmundham B drop in their remaining three matches.

Prior to tonight´s clash, Manningtree B needed only 4½ points from their remaining three matches to guarantee top spot in Division Three. And as they had got 3½ points from each of their away matches this season, they were confident they would get a good proportion of those 4½ points tonight. But Manningtree C had other ideas, and were very unlucky not to have pulled off a shock victory as the wheels nearly fell off Manningtree B´s race to the finishing line.
  David and Jim were the first to finish, and although Jim had quickly neutralised White´s opening advantage, gaining a pawn in the process, with all the minor pieces off the board, and the remaining 6 v 7 pawns semi-locked, he was struggling to find a way through. David defended well with his queen and two rooks, and with the only options to make progress deemed too risky, Jim settled for a draw. It was then that the Bs hit their first major set back. Adrian and Josh were locked in a Q-pawn opening with both players having d and c pawns facing each other on their respective fourth ranks. Adrian´s b-pawn push somewhat backfired and he was soon somewhere between a rock and a hard place, and Josh took full advantage. As the Q-side pawns came off, Josh was left with a passed (although isolated) a-pawn, but the dominating positions of his rook, bishop and king meant Josh was able to drive that pawn further and further up the board. Adrian´s bishop just wasn´t up to the task, and when that pawn finally reached the seventh, Manningtree B were trailing in the match.
 But things were looking good on the remaining two boards where the B-Team had the white pieces. Carl had also opened with his Q-pawn, which would normally suit John well, but he gave Carl too much space and before long John had a queen and a pair of bishops bearing down on his king, while his own pieces were mostly located on the other side of the board. Carl sacrificed one of the bishops to bring a knight into the fray, and the multiple threats were just too many - to avoid mate John had to surrender too much material. He also surrendered too much time as his flag fell with four moves to go, but neither player noticed it, so play continued. John is the club´s highest paid, sorry, played player this season, and this was only his third defeat in twenty matches!
 With the score level attention turned to board one. Bob had opened with 1.b3, and while this often results in more time being consumed due to its novelty value, this game proved the opposite as they reached move thirty while the rest were still pondering their 15th move. (What Bob didn´t know was that Mark had already been subjected to a number of experimental 1.b3 games over the past couple of months, so he wasn´t taken unawares.) A long tussle ensued in which Bob dropped a couple of pawns, but sprang a lethal attack in which Mark had to give back the pawns, and in the process Bob missed a mate. And having missed it, Mark´s stubborn defence slowly turned the tide. With the major pieces off, it was Bob´s 2B v Mark´s N&B that appeared to favour Bob, but he lost one of his bishops for a couple of pawns, and now Mark looked the favourite for a win. With a C-Team victory looming, and clocks running low, Bob gave up his remaining bishop for Mark´s last pawn. So could Mark deliver mate with his bishop, knight and king in the few remaining minutes? Bob´s plan was simple, get ahead on the clock and head for the corner opposite to the colour of the bishop. It paid off, for after 107 moves Mark ran out of time as Bob´s king kept slipping through his fingers. So a let off for Manningtree B, and an excellent result for Manningtree C. Unless Manningtree B do well in the next match against Felixstowe B, it could be a nervous finish to the season, for their last match is against their only challenger for the title, Saxmundham B, and Saxmundham B´s other fixture is against Saxmundham C.

It was a case of top versus bottom matches in Manningtree tonight. Manningtree B needed just 1½ points from bottom of the table Felixstowe B, to seal the Division Three title, and they were playing alongside Manningtree A, who coincidentally could also seal the Division One title with 2½ points from bottom of the table Ipswich B. Hopes were running high for both teams, but things did not begin well. Manningtree Methodist Church was hosting an art exhibition over the Easter period and the preparations meant that not only could we not access our playing room, but nor could we access our equipment. So after a number of phone calls and an anxious wait, we were able to finally set up on the platform in the main hall, and in the area outside the kitchen. Neither were ideal for chess as the tables were very small and the lighting in the main hall cased shadows to run across the boards whenever a spectator passed by. But, with only a slight delay, both matches were able to get under way regardless.
 And it didn´t take long before we got our first point, which was enough to finish top on match points. Graeme employed the Latvian, a sort of King´s Gambit as black, which produced the usual complications, and causing his opponent to castle queen-side. With mounting pressure he forced his opponent to give up his queen (and a pawn or two) for a rook and bishop. But worse was to follow, for in attempting to save another pawn his opponent fell foul of a mate in three and Graeme was able to finish while the rest of the team were still contemplating their 13th or 14th move. It was a while before Jim put us two up. He faced a Sicillian, but captured on d4 with his queen rather than the usual knight and applied constant pressure down the centre. His opponent soaked it up well, so with no obvious knock-out blow, Jim resorted to his usual tactic - complicated everything. And it worked, for his opponent was not going to be defeated over the board, so lost on time with only one move to make and only one pawn down in a position that was by no means lost. With the Division Three title firmly in our hands it was now just a matter of what the final score would be. The A-Team had already secured their title with an emphatic 4-0 victory, and it looked very much like the B-Team was going to do the same as both Carl and Adrian looked to be winning. And they probably would have done so had they had more time.
 Adrian had turned up expecting to play a few friendly games this evening, but the captain twisted his arm, and despite having played the previous evening, Adrian sportingly agreed to take his captain´s place in tonight´s match. Not surprisingly Adrian employed the English, which led to a very closed game, but he did have the advantage of a half open b-file. However, he chose to let his opponent worry about that and concentrated on a king-side advance. It took a long time, but eventually his opponent´s defences started to crack, as first one pawn, and then a second one fell. Adrian looked to be coasting to victory, gaining even more pawns, but his opponent doggedly hung on and with the clock running down Adrian took the draw rather than see his flag fall. Meanwhile Carl´s Sicillian had not gone quite according to plan, first he had to side step the Morra Gambit, and then deal with his backward d-pawn. His opponent could have obtained a passed, protected d-pawn, but in the end it was Carl who got that advantage but on the e-file. That aside, both players were fighting on two fronts, or perhaps on a single broad front, running from a-h. When Carl made a breakthrough on the queen-side front, a well placed knight won him the exchange and now he was looking good. But as in Adrian´s case, Carl´s material advantage was counterbalanced by his time disadvantage, and he too accepted a draw rather than chance it with the clock.
 So, Manningtree B are Division Three champions with a game in hand, and it can´t be many times that a club has won two divisions on the same night. So next season, for the first time in our forty year history, Manningtree will have a team in all three division of the Suffolk League.

It´s just as well that Manningtree B had already reached the requisite points tally before this final showdown against fellow challengers Saxmundham B, for had we gone into this match needing those two points we would probably have given up hope. With most of the squad away for Easter, and the stronger reserves unavailable for a variety of reason, and being out-graded by a board average of 15 points, we were far from confident that we would keep our unbeaten match run, and were very grateful not to have a target to reach. But the team rallied regardless, and special mention must go to David and Jaco, who filled the vacant boards with just the weekend´s notice, and extra special mention to Adrian, who for the second week running, represented the club twice in a week.
 Jaco was the first to finish tonight in a rather unorthodox opening, leading to a very open, attacking game. It also led to Jaco´s king becoming exposed as his defending pawns were prised apart, and subsequently picked off, as were one or two of his pieces. David finished soon after, and his too was an open game, although his opponent as black, seemed content to merely establish and maintain equality. An early exchange of queens down the d-file meant his opponent was unable to castle, leaving his king´s rook temporarily out of the game. David was then faced with a dilemma, sacrifice a knight for two pawns to take advantage of black´s poor development, or accept a draw offer. It was difficult to work out if the sacrifice would work, so after some thought David quite understandably accepted the draw. A brief post mortem however appeared to show that the sacrifice would indeed have worked, leaving David to contemplate, ´if only I´d been a little braver´.
 It was some time before John finished and levelled the match, but starting with 1.b3 didn´t have the desired effect of causing his opponent to consume valuable time on his opening move - he replied 1 … d5 quite quickly. A fight for control of the centre followed, and a premature pawn thrust (the flaw of which was obviously seen only the instant after it was made) should have spelt trouble for John, but even after spending a lot of time thinking about it, his opponent continued with his queen´s side push, which simplified things and allowed John to spring an attack on his opponent´s king´s position. A knight for two pawns sacrifice (which, unlike David´s probably shouldn´t have worked) gave his opponent too much to worry about, and after the queens came off it was a simple matter (barring crass blunders) of winning the ending.
 With the match level all eyes turned to Adrian. His Sicillian had led to a very active and double edged game, and even though Adrian had lost the exchange in the process, his bishop pair proved a menacing threat. As the first time control approached both players were reaching their limit, and once reached it was a matter of could Adrian´s opponent make his material advantage count in the time remaining. Adrian made the most of his two bishops (against a knight and rook) with deft defensive manoeuvres, and just as importantly, he kept ahead on the clock. And as those clocks ran down, and with no clear plan to neutralise those pesky bishops, Adrian´s opponent offered a draw.
 So we came away with our unbeaten record intact, and only our third draw of the season. One of those draws was, oddly enough, against Manningtree C. And if you think about it, our team tonight lining up against fellow title chasers could well have been Manningtree C. There´s some irony in there somewhere - isn´t there? Maybe not, but here´s something to consider - Manningtree B fielded almost every eligible player in the club this season, even though most of them (apart from the nominated players of course) only once. That should bode well for the health of the club, and hopefully give us a better chance of making an impression on division two next season.

A winning start for C Team!
 Josh played an excellent game to win his game on board 2 and take the first victory of the night.
 Although Alan´s opponent was an ungraded young man, he was certainly a decent player and although it was a comfortable win for Alan the young man only made a couple of mistakes.
 Unfortunately David´s lack of competitive games showed and he lost a pawn early in the opening. But after that his opponent spent the game defending until a draw was agreed and so ensuring the team´s victory.
 John´s game was the last to finish, and the longest. It was a long hard fought game deservedly won by John.

Saxmundham B out-graded us on three of the four boards, but not by much, so we expected a close match. As it turned out, they won boards two and four in short order as both Josh and Alan were hit by some "dastartly devious" combos. Alan said, "that won´t happen again", although Josh was not so sure.
 Hopes of clawing back a draw were not looking good, for although John appeared to making good progress, David was in trouble. John was the first of them to finish. It appeared that he was going to lose on time, and his opponent was checking John´s flag after every move, but somehow John managed to hoover up his opponent´s pieces and corner his King before the flag fell. No one knows quite how he did it, but with the match now standing at 2-1 to them, the final result now rested on David. He was in an unusual position, almost as if the pieces had been placed randomly on the board. In the complications he lost a piece, and then his time, but by then the position was quite lost. It could have been worse, but sitting mid-table will do for now, especially as there is still a Manningtree team at the top of every league table (except division two of course).

Tonight´s match was a night of wins for the White pieces. The frist win went to Bury on board 4, where although Alan played the opening well, he lost in the ending. Bury then took the second win of the night on board 2, where a hard fought battle took place between Tom Roy and Josh. David won on board 1, winning a knight on move 12 then six moves later exchanged his bishop for a rook, which soon resulted in another white win. Now everything was on the last game of the night on board 3, where John battled hard against previous Manningtree player, Chris Shepherd-Rose, winning the ending to give Manningtree C an away draw and fourth place in the table.

Manningtree C´s visit to Saxmundham resulted in our second 3-1 defeat of the season - although we do remain top of the bottom half of the table! All the polls predicted a close finish tonight, with Manningtree slight favourites. But on the night when Donald confounded all the polls, Saxmundham C did the same.
 First to finish was Josh on board two, who was quickly beaten after an unfortunate mistake. The next two boards to finish also lost, and we were unexpectedly 3-0 down. Both David and Alan had played well in hard fought games, but Saxmundham´s pair edged it in the endings. Alan commented that although he had lost, it was his best game so far this season. So once again it fell to John on board three to prevent a whitewash. And this he did, stretching his run of good form with his fifth win in six appearances.

Before this evening´s match Felixstowe B were sitting at the foot of the table, but as their board 1 pointed out, if Felixstowe won 4-0 tonight, they would go above us. And if Bury E got just one point from their next match against Manningtree B, it would be Manningtree C sitting at the foot of the table instead. Thankfully, such flights of fancy remained just that, and Manningtree C remain top of the bottom half of division three.
 You would have thought that this was a lightning match from the way board four took off. After just ten minutes they had already entered a rook and pawn ending, while only one pair of pawns had been exchanged on only one of the other three boards. Alan´s opponent hardly waited for Alan to complete his move before replying, and in such haste he allowed Alan to break up his pawns and win two of them. The end result was never in doubt after that, and they finished having spent just 35 minutes at the table.
 David responded to his opponent´s 1.e4 with the Modern Defence, and approached the game with a cautious air. And while he appeared to be slightly better off as the game progressed, it remained level pegging throughout. On board two, both players had fianchettoed on the king´s side, and as the game progressed John was clearly getting on top of things. He first won a pawn, and was pushing his opponent back when a second pawn was there for the taking. Unfortunately John got his move order wrong, and an unexpected knight attack on his queen meant that instead of being two pawns up, he was a piece for a pawn down. A shame, for this was John´s first defeat this year - in fact his first defeat for quite a while, you have to go back to 5th March 2015 for that!
 With the match now level, the final result rested on Josh. And as if he didn´t have enough to worry about with a complicated position, fraught with threats and counter threats, he had to endure the glare of more than half a dozen pairs of eyes watching his every move. He´d deployed the French against his opponent, and while he seemed to have the edge, it wasn´t easy to see how he was going to make that pay. Pressure on the queen´s side eventually started to crack white´s defences, and Josh won the exchange. But there was still a lot to do as Josh swung the attack to the king´s side (and he was not helped by the fact that he was down to the last few minutes of the first time control with three moves to make). Josh put in a commendable finish, and in the end was in the enviable position of having about half a dozen ways to deliver mate. He might not have chosen the shortest route, but he got there in the end and with it gave the C-Team their second match victory, raising the team´s overall performance in all areas to exactly 50%.

Our first B v C team encounter this season was a ´home´ match for the B-Team, who chalked up a convincing win, although the games were by no means all one-sided affairs.
 Board four finished early, in fact their game was over before so much as a pawn had come off board three. Adrian, as white, kept faith with the English, and Alan´s response was not so much English as Brexit. There was an early exchange of queens, but Alan lost a pawn in the process and Adrian did not give him the opportunity to recover.
 Meanwhile on board two, Jim and John P were fighting over a King´s Indian, and John´s strategy was to swap off as many pieces as possible before they could do him any damage. It worked pretty well, for Jim found it difficult to conjure up one of his specials with half his pieces missing.
 On the top board Carl´s 1.d4 was met with a Modern Defence, which in turn was met with the Austrian Attack, which was unfortunate for Carl because Bob had been studying this variation earlier in the day and knew exactly what to do. With a pair of doubled, as well as isolated pawns on the c-file, as well as a third isolated pawn on the a-file, and not to mention the fact that he was two pawns down, it was clear Carl was in trouble. The sort of trouble you rarely get out of, and Carl didn´t.
 Last to finish was board three where another English had occurred, and possibly another Brexit. Josh kept good control of the centre and began an annoying advance on the queen´s side, which gave John M little option but lock up the pawns lest Josh get a dangerous protected, passed pawn on the b-file. With the queenside pawns locked, Josh failed to re-group his forces to the king´s side, which left his king defended by a sole knight after John broke through. And a knight is no match for the combined power of a rook and queen.
 With all eight teams in this division now having played six matches, this result leaves our C-Team still top of the bottom half, and our A-Team 3½ clear at the top.

This is our C-Team´s third match win of the season, keeping them firmly at the top of the bottom half of the table. And for once this season, the playing room didn´t resemble a sauna. In fact it was a little chilly, so the heaters had to go on for a while.
 It was a great team performance, except that John M managed to fluff another Italian Game, having spent many hours studying this opening after his last encounter with Les Jones. It´s a shame he didn´t pay more attention to the line considered ´inferior´ in the book, because that´s the line Les played and John M was very soon out of his prepared lines. The game ended with John M having a rook against his opponent´s two knights and a pawn, an unusual set up to say the least.
 And while John M struggled with his Italian, Josh was putting his faith in the French, and he was soon marching an impressive army of pawns down the queen´s side. He did an excellent job converting this spacial advantage to a winning one, and was the first to give us a point. David soon followed, having pretty much demolished his opponent´s King´s Indian. With nothing to lose his opponent launched an all out attack, but ended up a piece down and a severely weakened centre, and resigned rather than continue the struggle. John P was locked in a tough tussle after his opponent responded with the Albin Countergambit to John P´s Queen´s Gambit. John P managed to keep his pawn throughout, and converted that to the exchange as they went into the ending, by which time there was no doubt about the final outcome.
 So a 3-1 win, which is pretty good considering our B-team only managed a 2-2 draw against this lot. Still it´s a real pity that John M couldn´t manage just half appoint from his game, as that would have put us half a point ahead of Ipswich F, and moved us one position up the table.

It was against Ipswich E that the newly formed C-Team played their very first match, and recorded their highest win so far, scoring 3½ points. As tonight´s games progressed it was clear that we were not going to repeat that performance, in fact as the first time control approached it was beginning to look as though the score would be the same, but in reverse.
 First to finish was Alan, who had played a very good attacking game in an open position and looked good for at least a draw, if not a win. He was however lumbered with a king´s side weakness in that his g-pawn was sitting on f3, and after his opponent had managed to stall Alan´s attack, the counter meant Alan had to give up a knight to avoid mate. After that it was unfortunately all down hill.
 In stark contrast, Josh´s game was closed, very closed! The pawns were locked, with only a single pair exchanged. Somehow Josh had managed to lose a piece, and his pawn on b7 was the subject to pressure down the half open file. With his light squared bishop boxed in and his rooks reduced to passive defence, things were looking grim. His opponent then surprised us all by offering a draw, being unable to find a way break the deadlock. Josh happily accepted, although one is forced to wonder why his opponent didn´t just give the piece back for a pawn or two, and play on Josh´s passive position. Perhaps he had forgotten he was a piece up.
 David´s opponent had sacrificed a piece for a couple of pawns and a lot of pressure down the queen´s side. David responded with a counter on the king´s side, and in the process his opponent regained his piece. Unfortunately it didn´t cost him any pawns, and David found himself facing four passed pawns marching down the centre. His opponent was in no hurry to push those pawns, but in spite of stubborn resistance from David, they slowly but surely made their way up the board.
 With only half a point to our name it was now up to John to improve our standing. He had always looked good for at least a draw having faced a king´s side pawn attack, in which he also countered on the queen´s side. The position was beginning to look locked when John found a very nice (if temporary) exchange sacrifice that netted him a piece, and after forcing the queens off there was no doubt John was going to get the full point with the spare bishop in the pawn ending.
 So, not the result we were hoping for, but at least we still remain top of the bottom half of the table.

This was our fourth match win of the season, which lifted us to third place in the table, if only for one night. Adrian was the first to finish after a hard fought draw. David attacked from the start, reducing his stronger opponent to defend the whole game, but his opponent´s defense held out, and a draw was agreed after the 25th move. John, who is always so strong for C-Team, put in another accomplished performance against his higher rated opponent to keep the match level with the 3rd draw of the night.
 This now left everything pending on the last game where Josh was well in control, both with piece power and position. He went on to record his fourth win for the C-Team this season, and more importantly, gave us a team victory over Saxmundham B, partly avenging the 3-1 defeat they gave us back in October, and putting a serious dent in their hopes of catching our B-Team.

On paper, Bury St Edmunds E are a potential division winning side, but it´s difficult to assess them in advance due to the fact that they have fielded 17 different players so far this season (make that 20 after tonight). And as most of those substitutes were considerably weaker than the nominated players, we were expecting to improve on the 2-2 draw we had first time round.
 Josh finished first. Forgetting Bobby Fischer´s advice to, ´sit on your hands´ he picked up the wrong piece. And by ´wrong piece´ we mean any piece except his queen, which was under attack and sadly, was quickly removed on only move ten.
 It was some time later before Alan pulled us level. His opponent had started well enough, but drifted in the middle game, giving Alan a slight (but definite) edge as the rook and minor piece ending approached. This was converted into a winning ending when Alan sacrificed his piece for a pair of protected passed pawns in the middle of the board, which he confidently marched home.
 We were looking good for our second point on board two - John was the exchange up and applying constant pressure. Then something went wrong. John overlooked a discovered attack on his rook on a1, and the tables were turned as he entered the ending with a queen against his opponent´s queen and knight. John made it as difficult as he could for his opponent, and after the queens were exchanged his opponent´s lack of endgame technique became apparent. John was able to neutralise his opponents central pawns and with his remaining pawn advanced to the sixth, he forced a repetition by constantly harassing the knight, which was blocking his pawn´s advance.
 The draw was barely agreed upon when the same result was also agreed on board one. Quite a tussle had been going on here, and while David was a pawn up for much of the time, it wasn´t a particularly useful pawn. As the game progressed things began to turn and David was facing a very difficult ending two pawns down. Perhaps a little overconfident, his opponent allowed David to penetrate a rook on the seventh, and as a result, reduce the pawn deficit to zero.
 So the same result as our first encounter, but it could so easily have been a lot worse.

Saxmundham C were one point behind us as we started this match, thus they needed 2½ points from this match to draw level. As it turned out they repeated their performance of our first encounter this season and leap-frogged us in the table. Josh was the first to finish, which came as no great surprise after the first half hour or so of play, for although it was clear from the wild play that this board was going to finish early, it was far from clear who was going to win it. The first half dozen moves were orthodox enough, and gave little indication of what was to follow. You could be forgiven for thinking that Josh was on some sort of death wish as pawn after pawn was shed (four in all!) as he launched his attack against his opponent´s king´s position. He also exchanged a rook for two pieces, and probably should have lost, but his opponent went astray under the multiple threats, which gave a very entertaining game, and the team an early lead.
 There were no similar fireworks on boards two and four where John and Alan, both with the white pieces, developed along more traditional lines. Alan played a steady game, but lost a pawn, and although his opponent´s extra pawn was doubled, Alan entered the Q & R ending with two distinct disadvantages. His opponent had a connected passed d-pawn, and the half open b-file meant Alan´s backward b-pawn was a serious liability. When the rooks came off it was only a matter of time before his opponent´s queen would give him problems. It ended with a series of QxP exchanges, and Alan getting mated, although oddly enough, neither player realised it at the time! With the match now level, we were looking good for at least a draw on board two, although board one was anybody´s guess.
 John was playing as solid as ever, and we´ve seen him many times this season turn such solid positions into advantageous endings, and go on to convert that advantage into the full point. Tonight was beginning to look the same after John made a pawn thrust in the centre gaining a 4-3 pawn majority on the king´s side (the other pawns all being isolated). The Q v R ending however proved tricky and his opponent handled it well. Before anything could be made of that 4-3 majority his opponent laid a trap, (or should that be a swindle?) and what appeared to be the loss of one of the isolated pawns, was in fact a trap that netted John´s rook. An unfortunate end to an otherwise well fought and evenly matched game.
 This just left David, where a win was needed to keep the team third in the table. And that looked a distinct possibility. With the black pieces David had somehow managed to give up a piece for two pawns and a promising attack - his opponent´s pieces were mainly deployed on the queen´s side, and struggled to help. In fact the rook and knight did not enter the game to any real extent until right at the end. David could have got his piece back (for a couple of pawns) but sacrificed the exchange instead and gave his opponent all kinds of trouble defend- ing his exposed king. To avoid mate he surrendered his queen for a rook, but somehow still managed to hold out. With his opponent´s clock running down, and the white pieces starting to gain traction, David´s best option was probably to offer a draw, but he pressed on, and with best play may well have won, but now his clock was running down too, and it was in fact the clock that eventually decided it. The final score is not a real reflection of the games, it could easily have been the other way round, but as Jimmy Greaves once said* ´chess is a funny old game´ and Manningtree C must remain content with fourth place in the table.

* actually, he was referring to football, and he said it loads of time.

Manningtree C started the night off well, winning first on board three where Adrian played his customary English. David Robertson defended well against Adrian´s attack but wasn´t able to hold him off for long and Adrian deservedly won the game.
 Next to finish was board 1, where David and Gary were playing a very evenly fought game which resulted in a draw on the 33rd move. Soon to follow in another draw was the game between John Barty and Alan on board 4 where both players were well matched.
 So now all eyes were on board 2 where C the C-Team´s strongest player John, was in a well fought game against Richard Doyle. The end game was super to watch with both players queening pawns, but a draw had to be agreed as neither player could find a winning position.
 This draw was enough to ensure Manningtree C the away win they were hoping for, wining 2½ to 1½ on the night.

Prior to tonight´s clash, Manningtree B needed only 4½ points from their remaining three matches to guarantee finishing top of Division Three. And as they had got 3½ points from all of their away matches so far this season, they were confident they would get a good proportion of those 4½ points tonight. But Manningtree C had other ideas, and were very unlucky not to have pulled off a shock victory over their club rivals as the wheels nearly fell off Manningtree B´s race to the finishing line.
  David and Jim were the first to finish, and although Jim had quickly neutralised White´s opening advantage, gaining a pawn in the process, with all the minor pieces off the board, and the remaining 6 v 7 pawns semi-locked, he was struggling to find a way through. David defended well with his queen and two rooks, and with the only options to make progress deemed too risky, Jim settled for a draw.
 It was then that the Bs hit their first major set back. Adrian and Josh were locked in a Q-pawn opening with both players having d and c pawns facing each other on their respective fourth ranks. Adrian´s b-pawn push somewhat backfired and he was soon somewhere between a rock and a hard place, and Josh took full advantage. As the Q-side pawns came off, Josh was left with a passed (although isolated) a-pawn, but the dominating positions of his rook, bishop and king meant Josh was able to drive that pawn further and further up the board. Adrian´s bishop just wasn´t up to the task, and when that pawn finally reached the seventh, Manningtree B were trailing in the match.
 But things were looking good on the remaining two boards where the B-Team had the white pieces, so they were still looking good to win the match. Carl had also opened with his Q-pawn, which would normally suit John well, but he gave Carl too much space and before long John had a queen and a pair of bishops bearing down on his king, while his own pieces were mostly located on the other side of the board. Carl sacrificed one of the bishops to bring a knight into the fray, and the multiple threats were just too many, and to avoid mate John had to surrender too much material. In fact John also surrendered too much time trying to work his way through the numerous threats as his flag fell with four moves to go, but neither player noticed it, so play continued. John is the club´s highest paid, sorry, played player this season, and this was only his third defeat in twenty matches!
 With the score now level attention turned to board one. Bob had opened with 1.b3, and while this often results in more time being consumed due to its novelty value, this game proved the opposite as they reached move thirty while the rest were still pondering their 15th move. (What Bob didn´t know was that Mark had already been subjected to a number of experimental 1.b3 games over the past couple of months, so he wasn´t completely taken unawares.) A long and hard tussle ensued in which Bob dropped a couple of pawns, but sprang a lethal looking attack in which Mark had to give back the pawns, and in the process Bob missed a mate. And having missed it, Mark´s stubborn defence slowly turned the tide. With the major pieces off, it was Bob´s two bishops against Mark´s knight and bishop, and this appeared to favour Bob, but he lost one of his bishops for a couple of pawns, and now Mark looked the favourite for a win. With a C-Team victory looming, and the clocks running low, Bob gave up his remaining bishop for Mark´s last pawn, so it was now a case of whether Mark could deliver mate with his bishop, knight and king in the few remaining minutes? Bob´s plan was simple, get ahead on the clock and head for the corner opposite to the colour of the bishop. It paid off, for after 107 moves Mark ran out of time as Bob´s king kept slipping through his fingers.
 So a let off for Manningtree B, and an excellent result for Manningtree C. Unless Manningtree B do well in the next match against Felixstowe B, it could be a nervous finish to the season, for their last match is against their only challenger for the title, Saxmundham B, and Saxmundham B´s other fixture is against Saxmundham C.

Our final C-Team match of the season, and a commendable result from the team, who were without their regular board one tonight (who had to withdraw at the last minute) and also without their newest board one recruit as well. This all meant that John had to take the reins of the board one position, and he acquitted himself well by making sure that the experienced Les Jones had to share the point. John was the only player to appear in every Manningtree C match, and finished with a very respectable 61%.
 Thanks to Adrian for stepping into the breach with just a few hours notice, ensuring that Manningtree C´s inaugural season finished without the dreaded default making an appearance. Josh put in another fine performance, sacrificing the exchange as the clocks ran down, while Alan brought up the rear, no doubt disappointed he didn´t finish it on a win.
 While the team are currently standing third in the table, they will drop at least one position before the season is out, and could even drop to fifth if the Saxmundham C v Ipswich F match results in a 2-2 draw. In any event, the team have shown that they can more than hold their own in this division, scoring as close to 50% as makes no difference.

The end result was never in doubt, what with an average board difference of over 50 points. But the B-Team did their best while the A-Team did what they do best. The first to finish was board 1, and by some margin. Bob stumbled into an opening trap and Adam was merciless. Board 4 was next, and it looked as though the B-Team might actually get a whole point for a while, as a rook and pawn ending concluded with Alan a pawn up. A little while later it was all over on board 2. Andrew slowly but surely pushed John backwards, eventually giving up two pawns to gain a piece. A few moves later, when it was clear further pieces were about to fall, John resigned. All eyes now turned to board 3. And Carl appeared to be holding out against Phil´s attack, with potential threats of his own. Short on time Carl overlooked that fact that Phil´s pawn advance had opened an attack on his queen, which Phil gratefully received on his next move. However, no one was disappointed, the last thing Manningtree wanted was the B-Team in the Cup and the A-Team in the Plate.

Manningtree A safely negotiated their way through to the final of the Suffolk Cup with a comfortable victory against a team that they heavily outgraded on every board. Last year, Manningtree A won the final of the competition with a narrow victory over the same opponents, when Adam won on board one and the other three members of the team drew. This year´s match saw an exact reversal of fortunes for the same four players. Yet it could have been very different, since Adam blundered a piece and Andy sacrificed one in unclear circumstances. All turned out well, however, in the end.
  Adam seemed to be heading for a model victory, having driven a pawn wedge into the heart of his opponent´s position and trapped his king´s knight permanently on its home base, but a moment´s inattention allowed black a simple combination to win white´s active knight. Manningtree can be thankful that Adam´s opponent accepted the draw that was immediately proposed instead of playing on in a ´no lose´ situation, although a winning attempt required careful preparation.
  Leon was first to win. In a game in which he was always in control, his opponent sought salvation in an imaginative pseudo-sacrifice with a knight forking two rooks, but only ended up with a bad game after Leon ignored the tactic and proceeded with his own pawn fork of two minor pieces to establish a dominating position. Black had soon had enough and resigned on move 21.
  Andy´s opponent played the opening (a Rossolimo Anti-Sicilian) solidly, but unambitiously, and was even slightly worse out of the opening. Andy boldly advanced his g-pawn, provoking white also to weaken his king-side. The ensuing piece sacrifice that Andy played was dangerous but unsound. Luck, however, was on his side, when white went wrong in the complications, allowing his king to be mated on the open board.
  Meanwhile, Phil found himself facing an opponent who was playing a solid game in the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann after an early queen exchange, but a nice tactic on move 35 won a queenside pawn. When the loss of a second pawn became inevitable a few moves later, white resigned in a rook and knight ending.
  Andy´s opponent apart, the other Ipswich players made life easier for our team by early resignations. It may not have altered the result of the match, but it did seem that they had already accepted the differential in grading gave them little chance of progressing to their second successive final. Instead, it is Manningtree A who will now play either Saxmundham A or Ipswich D for the cup.

The final match of the 2016-17 season saw the Manningtree club add yet another cup to its trophy haul in what has been its most successful campaign by far. Manningtree A, champions of Division I, beat Saxmundham A, newly promoted from Division II, in the final of the Suffolk Cup. It was a victory that might have been expected on the basis of the grading disparity between the two teams, but the opponents put up stiff resistance on the night, before finally succumbing in the last game to finish.
  Manningtree got off to the best possible start, winning two games virtually out of the opening, but the other two games were more evenly contested and, near the end, offered Saxmundham the whiff of an upset. The first game to finish was on board four, where Phil displayed all the fire power that had already seen him win the league´s Player of the Year award. His Saxmundham opponent, faced with an early loss of his queen, resigned as the players on the other boards were only just getting into their stride. More good news was soon to follow. Andy offered a sharp line against the open Sicilian and was promptly rewarded when his opponent fell into a book trap, losing a piece for nebulous compensation. It was still early in the evening and Manningtree was two up and two to go, but if Saxmundham were to win these two games, the team would take the trophy on the elimination of bottom board rule.
  Then, on board three, careless play by black on the eighteenth move allowed a thematic pawn break, which gave the Saxmundham player an overwhelming positional initiative that he soon converted into a win. This left the score standing at 2-1 to Manningtree, with Adam pressing in the remaining game and about to win a pawn in the endgame. No worries, then? But chess is never that simple. Suddenly, Adam blunders a piece, his opponent offers a draw, Adam declines. What is going on, the spectators who were gathered around the board wondered. Adam, however, had calculated that he still had the draw in hand, while his opponent was desperately short of time and, sure enough, the Saxmundham player missed a drawing line in what had become a straightforward rook-and-pawn ending and drifted into a lost, Lucena bridge position. Manningtree A was home and dry.
  Postscript: the dryness was later somewhat abated by a short, celebratory visit to the local hostelry to toast the club´s success.

A good result for us, even though we did outgrade the opposition on every board. Adrian was the first to finish winning a pawn, then a piece and then additional material and adding to his impressive winning streak in the league.
  John´s opponent played the Kings Gambit - which John accepted - and then mishandled things letting John get a powerful bishop check in on h4 forcing white´s King to move and remain forever trapped in the centre as a target for the ensuing attack.
  Carl won a pawn in complications on the queenside. Both players ran short of time with only a couple of minutes left for 4 or 5 moves at the time control. After the time scramble Black let a white knight get to a supported outpost on c6 and his position got more difficult - white ending up with two supported passed pawns forcing a decisive material advantage.
  Josh opened with the English, winning a pawn and then the exchange. Black resigned when Josh was about to queen a pawn and deliver checkmate.

Carl heavily out graded his opponent and was the first to finish with a quick win within 24 moves. Bob was unfortunate as he was already two pawns up when he overlooked a move that allowed his opponent to save the game by repeating moves.
  Graeme´s opponent opened very aggressively using the Bishops Opening with K-bishop and knight putting early pressure on Graeme´s f7 pawn. The early fracas saw his opponent go a pawn up but for the loss of development of his major pieces. Tip toeing round the traps, Graeme managed to force a queen exchange which left his opponent with a toothless attack and a very underdeveloped defence. Graeme´s superior development soon turned the position, chasing the uncastled White king to its Q-side. Once Graeme secured a rook on the seventh rank, it then became a matter of time until he found the combination which crushed the position. An interesting game which provides an example of the rule that all chess players know but struggle to resist - the temptation of chasing a pawn proving more enticing than developing your pieces = short term game and long term pain!
  Jim was the last to finish and was involved a complicated position arising from the English opening, and after missing a simple opportunity to close the centre he allowed his opponent to dominate the board with a pair of bishops. His position then disintegrated rapidly as time control loomed.
  This win puts Manningtree B through to the final of the Plate, which means the Cup and Plate finals both involve Manningtree teams.

We went into tonight´s final knowing that we had to get at least something from our top two boards or the Plate would go to Felixstowe. We thought half a point quite achievable, but this would still require 100% from the bottom two. And while we hoped for more than half a point (to give Jim and John some wriggle room) we never expected this. Our top two boards excelled themselves, leaving the bottom two needing just half a point between them.
 Bob was the first to finish, avenging the loss he suffered to Ed the previous week in a Felixstowe v Clacton match. But he was somewhat fortunate, for Ed could have won a piece, but over-thought things and lost a pawn instead, and not long after, a second one. Bob skilfully whittled down the pieces, being mindful not to allow Ed the opportunity to simplify into a bishop of opposite colour ending. With this objective achieved, the rook and pawn ending gave Bob a fairly straightforward path to victory. The other games all went the distance, and all finished around the same time.
 Graeme proved to be a star this evening in a tremendous game of attack and counter attack. It started as a traditional French, with Phil launching himself at Graeme´s king´s position, and it was a wonder to see how Graeme survived the onslaught. And as dictated by the French, a queen´s side attack was required, and in between fending off Phil´s threats, Graeme sacrificed a piece and managed to conjure just that, which proved to be just as lethal, especially as Phil had castled queen-side. The game see-sawed on a knife edge, and tested the nerves of the spectators, let alone the players. With a piece light, and an attack that could go no further, Graeme took the next best option and forced a repetition of moves, and collected a well deserved half point.
 Knowing it was highly likely that he would need to win tonight, Jim started with that sole thought in mind. His game was also a French, although Alan lost (or sacrificed) a pawn in the opening, which on the surface, looked as though Jim had taken a step in the right direction. However, it was a pawn difficult to hold without giving your opponent a big lead in development, so Jim let Alan have it back and tried very hard to find other ways to gain a winning advantage. Alan played actively and defended well, and managed to exchange the right pieces to get a bishop of opposite colours ending, albeit with a rook each as well. With time running away, and risky lines deemed too hazardous, a draw was agreed.
 With the black pieces John also knew that it was highly likely he would need to win tonight, and when their expected board four, Gary Hemsworth, was replaced with David Robertson, he thought that task had become a whole lot easier. It hadn´t. David played the King´s Gambit, and to take him out of his prepared lines, John responded, 2. … Qh4+ 3. g3 Qe7, which appeared to work if the time spent by David on his next move was anything to go by. And though the gambit pawn was taken, and David lost a second pawn a little later, there were still no end of ways to blunder. David kept finding unexpected resources to make things difficult, and it took over fifty moves of care and patience to run those resources dry. And when they did, and the dust had settled on all three games, we were a little surprised to discover that we had came away with the Suffolk League Plate with a larger margin than we could have hoped for.
 With a fourth league trophy under our belt, Manningtree might appear to some as being a little greedy, but we´re not finished yet. As current holders of the Cup, Manningtree A have no intention of allowing Saxmundham to get their paws on it - yes, we want that trophy as well!

Manningtree´s first appearance for many a year in the Norfolk/Suffolk Cup could not have been against more formidable opposition. Bury St Edmunds came to town as the holders of the trophy. Still, the grading differential, only slightly in Bury´s favour, suggested that it would be a close match. And so it turned out. Three games were over relatively quickly. Adam drew an evenly contested game on board one, Leon struck out rashly in a sharp Sicilian and was duly punished by a sacrificial attack, while Jim benefited from equally rash play on his opponent´s part to chalk up our first win.
  This left the score all square with three games continuing well into the evening. Andy appeared to be on top, while the bottom two boards were heading towards draws, but as the endgames approached fortunes changed. Andy was unable to press home a clear positional advantage and allowed his opponent to salvage a draw in a rook-and-pawn ending, Phil lost a pawn and eventually the game in another rook-and-pawn ending, but Bob rescued the match in a king-and-pawn ending after his opponent went wrong in time trouble.
  The final result of three apiece preserved the first team´s unbeaten record at the start of this season, but more significantly it demonstrated that Manningtree can live with the best of the Suffolk teams over six boards as well as over four. Our next opponents in the Norfolk/Suffolk Cup will be Ipswich in the New Year. That will be another tough encounter, but hopes are high for another outstanding result.

The Ipswich team turned out in force against Manningtree for its home fixture in the Norfolk & Suffolk Cup, but by the end of the evening it was left pondering a failure to win the match, since at one stage in their games both Adam and Leon had offered draws only for their opponents to decide to play on … and lose.
 On board one, Andy´s opponent boldly grabbed an undefended b-pawn with his queen. This, however, proved suicidal: the queen was trapped behind Andy´s pieces, and could only be retrieved after catastrophic material losses. This result opened the scoring, but when Bob hung a piece in a tricky position, Ipswich had equalised. Meanwhile, boards two and three were fairly even affairs, while on the bottom two boards the Manningtree players were finding themselves under increasing pressure from players who outgraded them by over twenty points. The third game to finish was Leon´s. Shortly after the first time control, his opponent declined a draw offer in an equal position and promptly blundered. The game was over four moves later. This result swung the match temporarily in Manningtree´s favour, but Jim´s loss on time and Phil´s loss in a bishop and pawn ending left Adam with the unenviable task of finding a win in an evenly balanced game to salvage the situation. He set about it in exemplary fashion, demonstrating the advantage of bishop against knight in an ending in which each player has pawns on both flanks. As the clocks ran down to the final minute, Adam picked up first one pawn, then another, to ensure that Manningtree returned home undefeated.
  With this result, Manningtree has shown the ability to hold its own over six boards against the larger clubs of Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds. It may, however, be the end of the venture in the Norfolk & Suffolk Cup this season, as a win for either side in the outstanding Bury versus Ipswich match will see that team going forward to play the Norfolk contenders in the final. Should the remaining fixture also be drawn, then Manningtree would still have a chance of progressing, but that outcome remains in the lap of the gods or, less sanguinely, in the hands of the Competitions Secretary.

It was 2013-2014 since this competition was last competed for, and Ipswich are the current holders. Manningtree have entered a team in all five of the years we have records for, and in all that time we haven not won a single match. Well tonight that changed! Jim started the ball rolling, taking an early draw rather than embark on anything risky. Carl faced the same opponent John Price had faced the previous day in the U125, and one couldn´t help but wonder if a similar ´unusual´ result might occur. It was not to be, his opponent kept his clock and position under control and a draw was eventually agreed. John finished next, and after wining a pawn in the middle-game, he held the initiative throughout. In the rook and pawn ending however, his opponent stubbornly refused to make a mistake and pawn was just not enough. David finally clinched the match for us. Although he had won a piece, his opponent was not giving up, and the game went to the wire when his opponent finally ran out of time.

Bury St Edmunds had gone top of this competition after their victory over Felixstowe the night before, so our task tonight was to make sure that that was a temporary situation. It says something for the club that hosting two matches on the same evening seemed like such a routine affair, when only a few months ago it was a big milestone for us. But routine it was, as alongside us were the A-Team, taking on Bury St Edmunds B in their re-scheduled match from December 7th. It´s worth noting, that had that match gone ahead as planned, we would have seen Manningtree A, B and C all playing at the same time and at the same venue, which would have been yet another milestone for us.
  Anyway, back to the match at hand. John M finished first, having come out of the opening with a slight, but definite, minus, but was offered a draw, so he felt it prudent to accept. Jim was next and was gaining ground from his Pirc when his opponent´s phone decided to make its presence known. Jim decided against making a claim, whereupon his opponent almost immediately misplaced his knight allowing a simple combination to win a piece for a pawn, which lead to a fairly straight forward endgame win. We were now looking in good shape to get the necessary points to take us back to the top.
  John P played a steady game and reached the queen and two rooks each ending with a slight edge. After one pair of rooks came off John was offered a draw. On declining his opponent rashly forced the exchange of queens, overlooking the fact that it would cost him a pawn. The rook ending, a pawn up, and with the remainder of his opponent´s pawns vulnerable, the full point was never in doubt. With our position at the top now restored, David brought up the rear. It was a very tense affair, and David had come out of the opening a pawn down in a complicated position. And then a pawn fork presented itself and suddenly David was a piece up, albeit for two pawns. Unfortunately that two shortly became three, and eventually four, and in the end it was the four pawns that triumphed.
  Our final match in this competition is on February 28th against Felixstowe, the weakest side of the four, so it´s there for us to lose if we become complacent.

It´s pretty clear from the team that Bury St Edmunds fielded in the other U145 match taking place tonight, that they were taking this trophy very seriously. And they can consider themselves somewhat unlucky, and not only because of their own bottom board upset, but also because we were very lucky when both of our opponent´s bottom two boards blundered in otherwise quite drawn positions. But they all count, and Manningtree Chess Club takes the first Suffolk League trophy of the season, the U145 Cup.
  As we travelled down to Felixstowe tonight we knew that we had to at least equal the score of the winners of the Bury v Ipswich match, and we were reasonably confident that we could do that. But as the match progressed it was looking less and less likely that we actually would. Carl got us off to a good start and developed a very strong attack that looked good for an early lead. But his opponent consistently seemed to find just the right move to keep him at arms length, and with Carl´s time running out, and his attack doing the same, a draw was agreed, as the alternative was very risky.
  John finished next. He started with 1.g3 and got precisely nowhere. A stodgy game developed and attempts to upset it also got nowhere. And long before the end came it was clear that the looming bishop of opposite colour ending was also destined to go nowhere. So only one point from our top two boards, that wasn´t part of the plan. So our fortunes were now resting on our two C-Team regulars.
  Alan played a steady game, developed well and never looked in any trouble. He went a pawn up, but the second bishop of opposite colour ending (plus a queen) was looming, and when it arrived it offered no realistic chances of anything other than a draw. His opponent was probably surprised when Alan turned down the offer, which turned out to be the right decision, for shortly after the offer, his opponent blundered and lost his bishop. With the queens now off, the win was quite straightforward.
  Meanwhile on David´s board things were a little less simple. David appeared to have the initiative throughout, but his opponent organised his pieces well and there were no obvious ways of forcing the issue. With all things pretty much equal a draw looked likely, until that is, a fatal knight retreat meant his opponent had to surrender his queen for a rook, following which David also had a fairly straightforward win, although he still had to tread with care, for there were still two minor pieces each on the board.
  At the time, we didn´t of course know the result of the other match, but we went home hoping we had done enough, and thanks to the efforts of our C-Team regulars, it turned out that we had.

A fair result all things considered. Jaco put the team in front, although how he did it is something of a mystery. In an ´unorthodox´ opening he dropped an early piece and followed that with an exchange sacrifice leaving him a rook down. He seemed quite lost, but a little later he had ´levelled´ the game having a queen for a rook and bishop. Then he was ahead with queen for rook, shortly to be followed by just queen. His opponent fought game fully on with just pawns to attack Jaco´s position, and even when Jaco had two queens, he did not surrender until he was mated.
  Next to finish was Alan. A sort of Modern Opening that went quickly towards the middle-game with Alan a pawn down. Alan missed the opportunity to win the exchange, thinking he had to defend a threatened mate in one, and although he got his pawn back, his opponent exchanged the remaining pieces and played the pawn ending very well for such a youngster.
  Meanwhile the top two boards were played at a much slower pace. Adrian had played his trusty English, but the symmetrical position proved difficult for either player to cause an upset and a draw was almost inevitable. John was playing the only adult in the team, and his QGA (in which his opponent played 4.Qa4+) developed into quite a tussle. As the ending approached John was a pawn up, with the added advantage of having isolated two of his opponent´s pawns. And while both sides had a rook and bishop each, it was without doubt a won ending for John. And then something unusual happened. John´s opponent lost on time! Yes, you read it right, with just one move to go, not John, but his opponent lost on time!

We were out-graded on all boards tonight (with an average of over 40 points) so the final result was no big surprise. This takes the U125 team off the top spot and gives them quite a hill to climb if they are to get back. Alan was the first to fall. He had faced an Italian Game, and played dangerously by grabbing the e-pawn. It wasn´t long before the piece was lost, and as the game progressed Alan exchanged his queen for a rook. Not a good idea when you´re a piece down, but hey, Alan was now the exchange up, yes, at the cost of a queen, but the exchange is the exchange, and with two rooks against one, who knows, he might be able to get the queen back. Sadly it was not to be, and Alan had to concede when even more material was about to fall.
  Jaco fell next. His unconventional opening gave him a compromised king´s position, but he developed a surprisingly good counter attack, which evidently scared the pants off his opponent, if for no other reason than is was so unconventional. The threats meant his opponent had to tread very carefully, but it had cost Jaco material, and his opponent managed the threats well, eventually mating Jaco on the back rank.
  Adrian played his trusty Sicillian in which he emerged a pawn to the good, but he had failed to advance his d-pawn, which his opponent blocked with a well placed rook on d6. He had also blocked Adrian´s b-pawn with a knight on b6, so Adrian´s light squared bishop was unable to move. Nor was his queen side rook, stuck as it was on b8. Come to think of it, hardly any of Adrian´s pieces were able to move, so it was up to his king to sort things out, which it did, much to its credit. Unable to break through elsewhere, Adrian´s opponent eventually captured the d-pawn, and Adrian´s bishop could at last see the light of day. With material now level, and after a little manoeuvring, Adrian offered a draw, which after a little consideration, his opponent accepted.
  This just left David, who faced a Modern defence and attacked it with menace. He somehow lost the exchange but continued to press his opponent´s king´s position, surrendering more material in the process. The attack was eventually repulsed, but it led to an interesting ending in which David could have won his opponent´s queen for a knight, but this would still have left him material down, so a valiant attempt at a perpetual was his best option. It very nearly paid off, and as is often the case in chess, if he´d just had that extra move! Even so, his opponent had to be extra careful facing check after check, for one false move could have lost him his queen for nothing.
  The team is not downhearted, we have Ipswich Maybees next, and we´re sure to bounce back.

We opened our campaign in this competition at the top of the table, but then two losses meant we started this match at the bottom. Not somewhere we want to stay.
Josh got us off to a good start in a game quite different to his previous one. A solid build up with neither player giving much away, except that Josh was considerably behind on the clock trying to find that all important opening. His diligence eventually paid off and Manningtree got an early lead.
  It wasn´t long before Adrian followed. With the black pieces he handled his Sicilian to good effect as his opponent built up the pressure down the queen side. It remained more or less level throughout, although Adrian´s king remained on it´s home square for a worryingly long time. But we needn´t have worried, Adrian kept it all under control, and in the end a draw was a fair result.
  Also with the black pieces, the first three moves Alan faced were 1.b3 … 2.d3 … and 3.e3, which produced an unusual opening. A pair of minor pieces came off, and then for the next 20+ moves not so much as a pawn was exchanged. With eight pawns each the position looked destined for deadlock, but then a speculative exchange sequence left Alan a piece down, following which he was offered a draw. Alan turned it down on the grounds that his opponent was running out of time, and it was indeed that factor that got him his piece back and an easily won rook and pawn ending.
  Only John now remained and it was difficult to say who (if anyone) would come out on top. It was a well fought and evenly balanced game, with threats and counter threats on both sides. A series of exchanges allowed John to break up his opponent´s queen´s side pawns, and when the rook and pawn ending arrived John entered it a pawn to the good. Careful play was required as a slip from either side could mean curtains, and when it had eventually dwindled to just a rook and pawn each the draw was finally agreed.
  A welcome return to winning ways, and while Ipswich and Clacton are going to be tough teams to catch in this division, we´ve played them both so we should be able to at least climb up to third by the end of the season.

A good result for the U125s, but this Trophy will probably end up in the hands of the Ipswich Maybees, as only Clacton can change that now. Our target therefore is to finish third by gaining more points than Stowmarket in our final match.
  Jaco chalked up his second win for the team tonight, while John and Josh both found their opponents a little more tenacious. Try as he might, John could not break down his opponent, who traded attacking moves with equally attacking moves, which kept a hard fought game pretty much level throughout.
  Adrian was faced with a Morra gambit, which required a lot of concentration to avoid any knight sacrifices. His queen was pushed aside on the king´s side by his opponent´s e5 pawn push, but fortunately the queen side with bishop on b7 held. Adrian´s king stayed uncastled throughout, but pressure on the king´s side encouraged his opponent to make an unwise retreat of his queen to f1. Adrian was then was able to use his bishops to attack on the queen´s side, and in time pressure, his opponent blundered to give Adrian an overwhelming material advantage.
  Thus finished our second consecutive 3-1 victory, and with our final match away to Bury Oldies, there´s no reason we shouldn´t continue that run.