Our final match of the season resulted in a narrow win, though this didn't look likely at one point, with Steve and AJ both losing. I got us on the scoreboard with a 21 move win, and Tony continued his excellent run of results to square the match. Mark then scored the decisive point, with his attack prevailing with both players down to their last 5 minutes.
This win takes us level on match points with Ashton and Wilmslow, but they would need to suffer big defeats in their final matches for us to win the division, which is most unlikely.
08/01/2024 - Altrincham 1½ Marple 3½
Our unbeaten record in the Stockport League has come to an end, with Marple winning 3½-1½ to avenge our 6-0 win over them in the Summer League. A good win for Steve Douglas and a draw for Reg. Tony Lane lost a won position in time trouble, and Richard White and Tom Tomkins also lost.
11/12/2023 - Macclesfield B 2½ Altrincham 2½
(Report by Tony Lane) Christmas came early for me playing in the absence of Reg as captain on top board. I prepared for a Sicilian dragon which my opponent duly played, and was delighted to slay it with a 20 move mate! The first 9 of these followed Nunn v Clucas from the 2017 British Championships, when Reg was able to last 4 moves longer before conceding to the grandmaster.
One advantage of an early finish was that it provided an opportunity to view the other matches. Thomas was already at the endgame stage, a pawn down in a rook and pawn ending which didn't look promising. However, a quick scan of the other 3 boards had me predicting a comfortable victory.
Alan was also in a rook and pawn ending, but his opponent's rooks were passive on the back ranks and he had a weak isolated central pawn. Bill had all his pawns but his opponent had lost 3 of his on the kingside, and Bill's kingside pawns were rampaging forward. Richard was about to go a piece up.
As I started to watch Thomas lost another pawn and had to concede defeat. Unfortunately, Alan was unable to capitalise on his endgame advantage and had to agree a draw, but a win for the team was still favourite. Richard had won his piece, but his king was frustratingly stuck in a corner where his opponent's queen and rook provided plenty of menacing threats, while Richard was running short on time. Bill duly promoted one of his pawns, and just as Danilo had done earlier in the season, looked forward to recording the movement of his 2 queens on his scoresheet.
Although Bill predictably won shortly after obtaining his second queen, Richard offered a draw only to discover he had just lost on time. So a topsy turvy night came to an end with the honours shared .
06/12/2023 - Urmston B 2 Altrincham 3
Once again missing some key players, but we kept up our 100% league record. Urmston's usual room was unavailable, so we played in a room at the top of an open flight of stairs leading down to a very noisy room where both Manchester clubs' football games were being shown! Bill, Sheraz and Alan all won very quickly to wrap up the points before the football kicked off! Steve lost not long afterwards, but my game went on for quite a bit longer before losing. Still finished in time to see the last few minutes of the football!
22/11/2023 - East Cheshire B 1½ Altrincham 3½
Another win put us at the top of Division 2, despite having several players unavailable. Wins for Tony, Sheraz and Vijay, and a draw for Reg. Once again Tony won whilst playing on increments, and this takes him (maybe briefly!) to the top of the SDCL performance table.
23/10/2023 - Altrincham 4½ Ashton ½
A good start to our League matches, though the match was closer than the score suggests. Steve and Tony both continued their good form against higher rated players, with Steve first to finish with a win. He has annotated his game on Gameknot. Tony seemed to be hanging on for dear life, a pawn down and playing on increments for a long time. But it was his opponent who eventually blundered, despite having plenty of time, first dropping a piece and soon after allowing checkmate. I then put us 3-0 up after having an advantage for most of the game. Danilo seemed to have a drawish endgame, but his young opponent was short of time and Danilo was able to take advantage. It looked like Mark would complete the whitewash, the exchange up, but his opponent managed to blockade the position with his strong Bishop pair, so a draw was agreed.
We were missing some key players so this was a respectable result against 1st Division Chorlton. Danilo drew on board 1, and Tony and Steve Douglas had excellent draws against much higher rated players. Vijay and Bill were playing their first games since before the pandemic, and found the going tough, as did Sheraz.