No shame in this as our opponents Eccles B were rated over 200 points per board higher on average. Kudos to Vijay Kakarparthi who won, and Sheraz Khallil who had a winning position but his opponent managed to engineer a draw by perpetual. I did not improve my 0% record against Mike Surtees, with Tony Lane, James Lawrence and John Roche also losing.
[Event "Stockport League Division 2 - Eccles B v Altrincham A "]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2025.12.09"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Marcial Flores"]
[Black "Sheraz Khalil"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[BlackElo "1739"]
[ECO "A07"]
[EventDate "2025.12.09"]
[WhiteElo "2018"]
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.O-O Bg7 5.d4 O-O 6.b3 c6 7.Bb2 Bf5 8.Nbd2 Nbd7 9.Re1 Re8 10.c4 Ne4 11.Nh4 Nxd2 12.Qxd2 Be6 13.e4 dxe4 14.d5 cxd5 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.cxd5 Nf6 17.Qb2 Bxd5 18.Rad1 Qa5 19.Qe5 e6 20.Bxe4 Qxa2 21.Ng2 Qxb3 22.Ne3 Bxe4 23.Ng4 Qf3 24.Rxe4 Qxd1+ 25.Kg2 Qd8 26.Rd4 Qe7 { The computer suggestion is } ( 26...Qxd4 27.Qxd4 e5 { after which the Rooks and two passed pawns should be enough to defeat the Queen. But it would take some courage to play this! } ) 27.Rf4 b6 28.Rxf6 Qb7+ 29.Rf3+ Kf8 30.Qh8+ Ke7 31.Qf6+ Kd6 32.Qe5+ Ke7 1/2-1/2
01/12/2025 - Altrincham A 1½ Northenden 4½
Nick Lowe was the only winner, and James Lawrence drew. Vijay Kakarparthi, Tony Lane, Simon Calvert and myself all lost. Tony had an advantageous position but let it slip. Simon also seemed to have the advantage in a Knight v Bishop ending, but missed a tactic from his opponent's tricky Knight. I made another awful blunder in time shortage - in the position below, Kg1 would lead to a draw by perpetual check. Instead I played Bg2??? allowing mate in 3 starting with ...Rd1+.
17/11/2025 - Wilmslow ½ Altrincham A 5½
Our first league match was a tremendous win at Wimslow, despite having a lower average rating than our opponents. Most of the rating discrepancy was on the top two boards. Simon Calvert has overtaken me by a few rating points, so I used team captain's prerogative to place him on board 1, where he had a great result, drawing with Mike Lamb who is rated over 300 points higher. I overcame a smaller rating gap (150 points) to win on board 2. Ratings were fairly even on the other four boards, but James Lawrence, Sheraz Khalil, Vijay Kakarparthi and John Roche (on his Stockport League debut) all won.
We came very close to causing a Cup upset. Danilo had a good win with the Black pieces on board 1, but on the other boards we had rating deficits averaging about 300 points, so kudos to Sheraz Khalil who also won, and to Tom Tomkins who drew. Tony Lane and James Lawrence lost leaving the score level, so the match depended on the last game to finish, which was me (Reg). A draw would have given us the match on tiebreak (lower board elimination) but I was unable to hold a difficult Knight & pawn ending.
