The league website is http://selscl.org.uk/
Season 2025
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1st team fixtures
2nd team fixtures
01/09/2025 - Altrincham II 2½ Bolton II 1½
The E Division (West) decider. A draw would suffice for Bolton, but we needed to win. Simon Calvert continued his good form with a win on board 1, Tony Lane drew on board 2, and Vijay Kakarparthi lost on board 3. So it all came down to Tom Tomkins' game on board 4. After a long battle a Queen ending was reached, which should have been drawn. Black's passed pawn looks dangerous, and Tom can hope for no more than a draw by perpetual check. But in the position below his opponent blundered with ...Ke5?? after which Qc7+ wins the Black Queen and the game for Tom. The team therefore goes into a play-off for the overall E Division championship against Bury 2, the winners of E Division (East).
21/08/2025 - Swinton & Worsley II ½ Altrincham II 3½
A good win for our 2nd team, despite being outrated on the top 3 boards. Simon Calvert's Queen overcame his opponent's Rook & minor piece on board 1. James Lawrence's game also had a material imbalance, with James's Bishop & Knight eventually drawing with his opponent's Rook & 2 pawns. Alan Tyson played patiently with a slow build up, and his opponent eventually cracked under the pressure. Daniel Clucas spotted a tactic in his game against another of our members, Taarush Goel, who plays for Swinton in the Summer League. In the position below Daniel played ...Qxc1!, and the Queen cannot be recaptured due to the back rank mate.
A win in the team's final match against Bolton would put us top of E Division (West) and into a play-off with the winners of E Division (East) for the E Division championship.
14/08/2025 - Eccles I 5½ Altrincham I ½
With Danilo again available for this match, I was expecting to avoid playing Eccles' usual board 1, Mike Surtees, who has won each of our five encounters, three of which were in the last 12 months. However, on the morning of the match, in my capacity as League Registration Secretary, I received a request from the Eccles Secretary to register GM Danny Gormally to play for them - he was in the area for the weekend's Manchester Congress, so had agreed to play a game for Eccles in the Summer League.
So Danilo got to play Danny on board 1, and put up a very decent performance, with only the GM's ability to cash in on small advantages proving decisive in the end. Meanwhile on board 2 I faced yet another of Mike Surtees' weird openings, and was soon out of my comfort zone after the opening moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nh3. On all boards we had rating deficits of between 200 and 400 points, so credit to Tony Lane for achieving a draw to avoid a whitewash.
This may well be the first time a GM has played in the Summer League!04/08/2025 - Altrincham I 5 Stockport I 1
Danilo Soares played his first game for nearly two years, helping us to an important victory which may be crucial in avoiding a second successive relegation for the team. He had a formidable opponent in former British Women's champion Sarah Longson, but won in just 19 moves. On board 2 I also won in 19 moves, having prepared for my opponent's likely opening, and only having to think for the last 3 moves after my opponent went wrong. There were also wins for Tony Lane, Nicolas Rojas and James Lawrence, with Simon Calvert's run of good results coming to an end against a strong opponent.
[Event "Summer League, Altrincham v Stockport"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2025.08.04"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sarah Longson"]
[Black "Danilo Soares"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B13"]
[EventDate "2025.08.04"]
{ Danilo comments "I had learned this trap quite recently in an opening book and was quite lucky to get this exact line against a dangerous opponent. White cannot win a piece with f3 because black gets a strong attack. I knew the moves up to 0-0-0; the rest I had to figure out over the board." }
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.h3 e5 7.dxe5 Nxe5 8.Bb5+ Bd7 9.Qe2 Ne4 10.Bxd7+ Qxd7 11.f3 O-O-O 12.fxe4 dxe4 13.Nd2 Nd3+ 14.Kd1 e3 15.Kc2 exd2 16.Bxd2 Qa4+ 17.Kb1 Nxb2 18.Kxb2 Ba3+ 19.Kb1 Rxd2 {20.Qxd2 Qe4+ forces mate. Exchanging Queens by 20.Qg4+ does not help White, as the second Black Rook will come into play to finish the job. }0-1
21/07/2025 - Altrincham II 0 Chorlton VI 4
The 2nd team suffered its first defeat. Nine year old Valent Siu played his first match for the club, and hopefully will benefit from the experience. The first lesson will be to slow down a bit, and make full use of the time available! Steve Burgess missed a chance to win a piece after just 6 moves, and soon afterwards dropped a piece himself. Faris Zaheer won the exchange early on and was looking good for a win - I didn't see what happened to convert this into a loss. John Brophy was under pressure for much of the game, but managed to hang on for most of the three hour session until finally succumbing.
We have used 10 different players in the three second team matches so far.17/07/2025 - Marple I 4 Altrincham I 2
On board 1 I won my first Summer League game for two years (a consequence of having spent last season on board 1 in A Division!). In a complex game I managed to trap my opponent's over-adventurous Knight. Simon Calvert had another excellent draw on board 3, with Bill McCartney also having a solid draw on board 6. Nicolas Rojas and Tony Lane both lost from decent positions due to time shortage.
[Event "SE Lancs Summer League B; Marple v Altrincham"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2025.07.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Reg Clucas"]
[Black "Richard Marshall"]
[Result "1-0"]
[BlackElo "2121"]
[ECO "B09"]
[EventDate "2025.07.17"]
[WhiteElo "1766"]
{ My opponent's rating should be taken with a pinch of salt, as it is based on just 3 games, though it does include a win over Bolton's Nick Barnaby, rated 1948. }
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 Bg4 { Not the best. Black is more or less committed now to give up the Bishop for Knight. } 6.Be3 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.Qd2 ( 8.cxd6 Nxe4 { did not appeal to me. } ) 8...Bxf3 9.gxf3 Nc6 10.Nb5 Qxd2+ 11.Bxd2 O-O-O 12.cxd6 a6 13.Nc3 ( 13.dxe7 Rxd2 14.Kxd2 axb5 15.Bxb5 Nxe7 { gives me a Rook and 3 pawns for two Knights, but I was concerned about the unopposed dark square Bishop. } ) 13...Nd4 14.O-O-O Nxf3 15.Bh3+ e6 16.Be3 { Aiming to trap the Knight. } 16...Nd7 17.Rhf1 Nh4 18.Bf2 Nf3 19.Rd3 Nxh2 20.Rh1 Bh6 21.Bg3 Ne5 { I had missed this, but fortunately it doesn't help Black's cause. } 22.Re3 Neg4 23.Re2 f5 24.e5 { Black now has to lose a piece - I just need to move my King off the c1-h6 diagonal, after which Bxh2 is playable. } 24...Nxe5 25.Rxe5 Nf3 26.Rxe6 Nd4 27.Re7 Rxd6 28.Bg2 b5 29.Rxh6 Rhd8 30.b4 { ...and I managed to avoid any time trouble tricks and won a few moves later. } 1-0
30/06/2025 - Altrincham 2½ Eccles 3½ (Alan Yarker Cup)
We came close to causing an upset in our Summer League cup match. Our boards 2 to 6 had an average rating deficit of over 100 points per board, but Tony, Sheraz, Simon, Nick and James all drew. The last game to finish was on board 1 where I faced Mike Surtees, rated 400 points higher, and predictably lost the decisive game.
23/06/2025 - Altrincham II 3 Urmston 1
Steve Douglas and John Brophy drew on boards 1 & 2, with John playing our former member Stuart Sumner. Vinay Saravanan seemed to be in trouble on board 4, down the exchange and a pawn, but his opponent then blundered a Rook. Daniel Clucas clinched the match in his first game for the club for more than 10 years, winning a tricky Rook & Pawn ending.
16/06/2025 - Altrincham I 2½ Bolton I 3½
We had been hoping that Mark Hann would be playing on board 1 again after several months, but he had to drop out through illness. So Tony shuffled the board order, moving Simon Calvert to board 1, where he had an excellent draw against an opponent rated around 250 points higher. Unfortunately Tony and I were unable to replicate this on boards 2 & 3 and Vijay also lost after blundering a piece in a winning position. Sheraz had a good win though, and James after some wobbles managed to win a very tricky endgame, see below -
[Event "Altrincham v Bolton"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2025.06.16"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Ian Lamb"]
[Black "James Lawrence"]
[Result "0-1"]
[BlackElo "1651"]
[EventDate "2025.06.16"]
[FEN "8/P1n5/4ppp1/7p/3k1KPP/5P2/8/8 b - - 0 37"]
[SetUp "1"]
[WhiteElo "1621"]
{ Black's Knight is tied down to prevent the a-pawn promoting, but the Black pawns are winning. } 37...e5+ 38.Kg3 Kc5 { Black is still winning after this, though the simple ...Ke3 was much quicker. } 39.f4 hxg4?? { James - "I saw f5, and I want to say that I didn't see how dangerous it was, but the honest truth is I thought my opponent wouldn't play it. Of course he would play it, why wouldn't he!" Black should play ...exf4+ first. } 40.f5! { A classic pawn breakthrough theme. At this point, watching, I (Reg) thought White might even be winning, though it should now be a draw with best play (which is not ...gxf5?? allowing the h-pawn to promote!) } 40...Kd6 41.fxg6 Ke7 { Black's King is just in time to stop the pawns. } 42.h5?? { Kxg4 was best. Thankfully, he gives the game back here though still a bit more thinking to do... } 42...f5 43.h6 Kf8 44.Kf2 { This is a concession (a king can't stop three connected pawns on his own). Kh4 doesn't work but at least it gives me a chance to go wrong, e.g. } ( 44.Kh4 Kg8 45.Kh5 g3 46.h7+ Kh8?? 47.a8=Q+ Nxa8 48.Kh6 ) 44...f4 45.Ke2 e4 46.Kf2 f3 47.Kg3 e3 0-1
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| Date | Competition | Opponents | H/A | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16/06/2025 | B Div | Bolton I | H | Lost | 2½-3½ |
| 30/06/2025 | Cup | Eccles | H | Lost | 2½-3½ |
| 17/07/2025 | B Div | Marple I | A | Lost | 2-4 |
| 04/08/2025 | B Div | Stockport I | H | Won | 5-1 |
| 14/08/2025 | B Div | Eccles I | A | Lost | ½-5½ |
| 11/09/2025 | B Div | 3Cs II | A |
2nd team fixtures
| Date | Competition | Opponents | H/A | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/06/2025 | E Div(W) | Atherton II | A | Won | 2½-1½ |
| 23/06/2025 | E Div(W) | Urmston | H | Won | 3-1 |
| 21/07/2025 | E Div(W) | Chorlton VI | H | Lost | 0-4 |
| 21/08/2025 | E Div(W) | Swinton & Worsley II | A | Won | 3½-½ |
| 01/09/2025 | E Div(W) | Bolton II | H | Won | 2½-1½ |
| 16/09/2025 | E Div Play-off | Bury II | A |
01/09/2025 - Altrincham II 2½ Bolton II 1½
The E Division (West) decider. A draw would suffice for Bolton, but we needed to win. Simon Calvert continued his good form with a win on board 1, Tony Lane drew on board 2, and Vijay Kakarparthi lost on board 3. So it all came down to Tom Tomkins' game on board 4. After a long battle a Queen ending was reached, which should have been drawn. Black's passed pawn looks dangerous, and Tom can hope for no more than a draw by perpetual check. But in the position below his opponent blundered with ...Ke5?? after which Qc7+ wins the Black Queen and the game for Tom. The team therefore goes into a play-off for the overall E Division championship against Bury 2, the winners of E Division (East).
21/08/2025 - Swinton & Worsley II ½ Altrincham II 3½
A good win for our 2nd team, despite being outrated on the top 3 boards. Simon Calvert's Queen overcame his opponent's Rook & minor piece on board 1. James Lawrence's game also had a material imbalance, with James's Bishop & Knight eventually drawing with his opponent's Rook & 2 pawns. Alan Tyson played patiently with a slow build up, and his opponent eventually cracked under the pressure. Daniel Clucas spotted a tactic in his game against another of our members, Taarush Goel, who plays for Swinton in the Summer League. In the position below Daniel played ...Qxc1!, and the Queen cannot be recaptured due to the back rank mate.A win in the team's final match against Bolton would put us top of E Division (West) and into a play-off with the winners of E Division (East) for the E Division championship.
14/08/2025 - Eccles I 5½ Altrincham I ½
With Danilo again available for this match, I was expecting to avoid playing Eccles' usual board 1, Mike Surtees, who has won each of our five encounters, three of which were in the last 12 months. However, on the morning of the match, in my capacity as League Registration Secretary, I received a request from the Eccles Secretary to register GM Danny Gormally to play for them - he was in the area for the weekend's Manchester Congress, so had agreed to play a game for Eccles in the Summer League.
So Danilo got to play Danny on board 1, and put up a very decent performance, with only the GM's ability to cash in on small advantages proving decisive in the end. Meanwhile on board 2 I faced yet another of Mike Surtees' weird openings, and was soon out of my comfort zone after the opening moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nh3. On all boards we had rating deficits of between 200 and 400 points, so credit to Tony Lane for achieving a draw to avoid a whitewash.This may well be the first time a GM has played in the Summer League!
04/08/2025 - Altrincham I 5 Stockport I 1
Danilo Soares played his first game for nearly two years, helping us to an important victory which may be crucial in avoiding a second successive relegation for the team. He had a formidable opponent in former British Women's champion Sarah Longson, but won in just 19 moves. On board 2 I also won in 19 moves, having prepared for my opponent's likely opening, and only having to think for the last 3 moves after my opponent went wrong. There were also wins for Tony Lane, Nicolas Rojas and James Lawrence, with Simon Calvert's run of good results coming to an end against a strong opponent.21/07/2025 - Altrincham II 0 Chorlton VI 4
The 2nd team suffered its first defeat. Nine year old Valent Siu played his first match for the club, and hopefully will benefit from the experience. The first lesson will be to slow down a bit, and make full use of the time available! Steve Burgess missed a chance to win a piece after just 6 moves, and soon afterwards dropped a piece himself. Faris Zaheer won the exchange early on and was looking good for a win - I didn't see what happened to convert this into a loss. John Brophy was under pressure for much of the game, but managed to hang on for most of the three hour session until finally succumbing.We have used 10 different players in the three second team matches so far.