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Atticus Teams on Top 2/12/19
- Details
- Written by shankly
- Category: Atticus 2
Another convincing performance on Monday Night saw Atticus 2 gain another 6-1 victory this time over Formby. This leaves the team on top of the League during the Christmas Break. However Atticus 1 are only 1 point behind and also well placed for a Title Challenge in the New Year.
| Atticus 2 | 171 | 6.0 : 1.0 | Formby 1 | 142 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Kee, Steve |
195 |
1-0 |
Haslinger, Gareth J |
171 |
2 |
Stancak, Andrej |
193 |
0.5-0.5 |
Colbourne, David CA |
150 |
3 |
Bimpson, Tom |
173 |
1-0 |
Clarke, James |
145 |
4 |
Boumphrey, Luke S |
170 |
1-0 |
Haslinger, J Mike |
139 |
5 |
Christodoulou, Giorgos |
171 |
1-0 |
Barooah, Michael |
137 |
6 |
Williams, John P |
177 |
1-0 |
Jordan, Paul |
134 |
7 |
Burge, Steve J |
121 |
0.5-0.5 |
Owens, Robert |
121 |
Atticus 1 beat St Helens 2/12/19
- Details
- Written by NM
- Category: Atticus 1
| Atticus 1 | 170 | 5.0 : 2.0 | St Helens 1 | 161 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Redmond, John P |
214 |
1-0 |
Mazek, Marek |
186 |
2 |
Kennaugh, Charles W |
192 |
0-1 |
Hill, David F |
170 |
3 |
James, David J |
194 |
0.5-0.5 |
Dugdale, Tom |
158 |
4 |
McCarthy, Jim P |
170 |
1-0 |
Potter, Steven |
150 |
5 |
Wadsworth, Mark S |
125 |
0.5-0.5 |
Ellis, Gareth |
139 |
6 |
Martin, Nicholas E |
166 |
+/- |
- |
|
7 |
Blasczyk, Martin |
132 |
+/- |
- |
|
Atticus 1 hosted St Helens 1 (the re-branded Widnes team) last night 02-12-2019. Widnes had won the MCA 1st Division title in consecutive years in recent memory, however St Helens are now close to leaving the MCA which would be a great shame. In their previous 2 matches they had defaulted the bottom 2 boards against Atticus 2, and then defaulted the whole match against Formby. Against Atticus 1 they again only had 5 players meaning defeat was inevitable even before the match commenced.
Board 1: John Redmond v Marek Mazek saw John play an aggressive Nimzo-Indian which led to him having a rook and 2 pieces for a queen but Marek had a serious attack on the H-file. John played a set of forcing moves followed by a sacrifice which led to the win of the queen. It was a superbly played game and a joy to watch.
Board 2. Charlie Kennaugh v Dave Hill Dave played a Najdorf Sicilan and obtained pressure on the c-file. Dave then won the exchange and Dave consolidated to get St Helen's solitary victory.
Board 3. Dave James v Tom Dugdale This was a G3 Sicilian and Tom still seemed to have quite a lot of play when he agreed the draw offer.
Board 4. Jim McCarthy v Steve Potter Steve played his tricky E6, B6 line against Jim's D-pawn opening. Jim played solidly and managed to get a strong clamp on the dark squares and a pawn on D6. Steve was too open and Jim eventually forced a mate on G7. Yet another calmly executed win from Jim.
Board 5. Mark Wadsworth v Gareth Ellis Out of an unusual opening, Gareth had two bishops but Mark had good piece play and restricted the Bishops well. Mark had slightly the better game as pieces came off. But when it was down to a Rook and pawn endgame both players were happy with a draw.
Nick Martin and Martin Blasczyk played each other as the remaining Atticus players did not have an opponent. Therefore Atticus 1 remain in 2nd place half a point behind Atticus 2 who deservedly top the table.
Report Nick Martin
The Miracle of Widnes
- Details
- Written by Sanjoy Banergee
- Category: Club News
2. December 2009, MCA Division 1 |
||||
|
Widnes 1 |
|
3½-4½ |
|
Atticus 2 |
|
GM Nigel Davies (B) |
233 |
1-0 |
176 |
Andrzej Stancak (W) |
|
Miroslav Gruca (W) |
211 |
½-½ |
176 |
Tom Bimpson (B) |
|
Russell James (B) |
195 |
0-1 |
158 |
Dave Stuttard (W) |
|
Mark Ellis (W) |
185 |
1-0 |
138 |
Marcus Chard (B) |
|
Nicholas Barnaby (B) |
187 |
0-1 |
134 |
Farhad Amir-Afshari (W) |
|
Richard Clissold (W) |
160 |
0-1 |
132 |
Sanjoy Banerjee (B) |
|
Phil Coughlin (B) |
160 |
½-½ |
123 |
Steve Burge (W) |
|
Michael Connor (W) |
147 |
½-½ |
127 |
Martin Blasczyk (B) |
Ten years ago this day, I was involved in one of the biggest upsets in Merseyside Chess history, when Atticus 2 travelled to Widnes for a match where we were significantly outgraded on every board.
Widnes were league leaders at the time and you had to go back to the 2007/2008 season to find when they had last lost a match. Conversely our second team that season was rather a patched up affair, following the loss of a number of players. What unfolded just goes to show that you can never take anything for granted in sport. Whoever the opponent, and however long the odds, nothing is ever impossible!
It was the start of a successful decade for Atticus 2, under Steve Burge’s leadership, culminating in a hat-trick of title successes in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
Ten years on, six of the eight players are still regular club members, and we still like to reminisce from time to time about that memorable night.
Xmas Meal Bookings
- Details
- Written by santa
- Category: Club News
Just a reminder to everyone.Can you please contact Martin Blasczyk before December 4th if you would like to book a place for the Atticus Xmas Meal at Zorba's on December 11th.
A Ringside Seat
- Details
- Written by Sanjoy Banergee
- Category: Atticus 3
| Atticus 3 | 138 | 4.0 : 2.0 | Skelmersdale 1 | 141 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Stuttard, David |
149 |
1-0 |
Melia, Steven |
168 |
2 |
Ewart, Brian R |
148 |
1-0 |
McGreal, Mike |
160 |
3 |
Lambert, John F |
145 |
0.5-0.5 |
Cowell, Russell |
137 |
4 |
Ellington, Ben |
131 |
1-0 |
Stanfield, David snr |
134 |
5 |
Blasczyk, Martin |
132 |
0-1 |
McHugh, Bart |
128 |
6 |
Burge, Steve J |
121 |
0.5-0.5 |
Quickfall, Andy |
116 |
Tonight’s match was on a knife-edge until very late in the piece, and that we were able to ultimately take home the points was due to some solid and some quite scintillating performances across the team.
By prior arrangement, Steve had kindly agreed to act as stand-in captain on the night, since due to work commitments I could not be sure to arrive in time. The denouement of this particular episode of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” saw my taxi from Manchester Airport arrive at the door the Cross Keys at 7.28pm, which afforded me the luxury of being able to watch the games from start to finish.
Ben was first to finish. There is a brutal poetry to his chess right now, of the kind that would surely have appealed to Norman Mailer. Starting briskly from the opening bell, he dropped his opponent to the canvas inside the opening few rounds, and continued to rain blow with deadly accuracy until the towel was duly thrown.
Shortly afterwards Steve locked up a further half-point, in a fashion that is starting to haunt my dreams with its familiarity. Like his beloved football team, he is yet to lose this season and long may that last!
Brian was next to finish, playing a textbook game which began with kingside pressure, developing into a breakthrough in the centre establishing a strong, centralised knight pair before finally infiltrating his opponent’s position with queen and rook who took personal responsibility for the surrender treaty.
Martin had looked in a precarious position from early on, with an exposed king, but fought hard and turned weakness to strength in the form of counter-play as his h-pawn began to march. The result was still hanging in the balance when a late tactic sealed the point for his opponent in the cruellest fashion.
John looked rock solid in his game, with a slight positional advantage for much of the game, but Russell was able to fight back and equalise.
Which left all eyes on the game between Steven Melia and Dave Stuttard. Steven is a class act and will not drop many points this season. Coming out of the opening he looked handily placed to prevail, but Dave managed to find some sharp play which culminated in piece versus marching kingside pawns where Dave was able to force resignation with just seconds remaining on his opponent’s clock.
Atticus Christmas Dinner 2019
- Details
- Written by Martin Blasczyk
- Category: Club News
The Christmas Dinner this year will be on
Wednesday, 11th December at 8 p.m.
at
Zorbas, 1 Leece Street, Liverpool, L1 2TR
You can take bottles of wine but a corkage charge of £3 will be charged.
Please register till Wednesday, 4th December 2019, for this event, sending an This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
No deposit required.
We will meet up in the Grapes from 7pm onwards.