CCC - Teams

Cockermouth played Winderemere A on an away match, on Saturday 23^rd January. The match should have been played at home but since the sever flooding of the town that occured in November, Cockermouth venue is not available. At the end of the first half of the season, and against one of the strongest team in Cumbria, this match was key to the success of Cockermouth.

Our team drew the match on the score of 2 - 2, which was a decent result considering the strength of the Winderemere team.
The first game to finish was Roger hart on board 3. Roger had a difficult game against a strong Dave Phillips, but he managed to hold his position and eventually to draw his game.
On board 2, after castling opposite side both players fiercely attacked each other kings, David with his queen, bishop and connected pawns, Bartlomiej taking hold of the g-file with his rooks and queen. Then David found a beautiful rook sacrifice that protected his king and at the same time opened the lines for an unstoppable mating attack on Bartlomiej's king.
Philippe Gleizon on board 4 was recovering from a poor opening into a good position when he took a pawn too quickly allowing David Shaw to attack both rook and queen with a discovery move. Philippe could not recover from the loss of his rook.
The fate of the match was then decided on board 1. John Jarmany managed well his game coming to the endgame with two extra passed pawns. However, John Toothill did not give him any respite, so that John Jarmany could not make progress. The draw was eventually agreed, which also drew the match.

After this honourable result, Cockermouth is still on top of the Cumbria division I, but only by a very narrow margin. After the mid-season, four teams can still pretend to the title: Carlisle A, Cockermouth, Penrith and Windermere. A very challenging season indeed!

Next match will be on the 6^th March 2010. The opponent team is not known yet.

Cockermouth B played the long awaited away match against Penrith C on 14^th February. Cockermouth came back proudly with a perfect score of 4-0.

First to finish, Peter Hornak on board 4 got three extra pawns after his young opponent swap most pieces too soon. This extra material gave Peter, who also had kept his king in the middle, a decisive advantage for the endgame.
On board 3, Peter Blackmore got quickly a knight for a pawn. This advantage was sufficient to give him a clear win, but Peter would not feel fully satisfied unless he got some stunning fireworks. He eventually checkmated his opponent with a nice queen-knight combination.
On top board, Philippe Gleizon had the pleasure to play again Eggert Früchtenicht in a very interesting closed position. After exchanging soon the knights, Philippe put heavy pressure on Eggert's pawn structure on the queen side but Eggert found the right moves to keep his structure well protected. Philippe decided then to open the centre, which allowed him to intrude behind Eggert's lines with his queen and then his pair of rooks, forcing Eggert's resignation.
Ian Stone, on board 2, built a forcing attack on Richard Farrell's kingside castling with a fiancetto bishop, queen, rooks and a pair of pawns. Richard protected well his king but at the expense of a rook. Richard continued to play but progressively lost heavy material and eventually resigned.
This 4-0 victory will boost Cockermouth B team to the top half of the 2nd division league. Well done for this achievement!.

Next match will be the return match against Penrith C on the 13^th March 2010.

The Whitaker trophy is an elimination team tournament with match point handicap. The rules of the tournament and the points handicap system can be found on the Cumbria Chess Association web site. Eight Cumbrian teams are playing this season.

The first round was played against Penrith, on 31st October 2009. The two teams had almost the same averaged grade, therefore there was no handicap. Unfortunately, our team lost on the score of 1-3 and is therefore eliminated from the Whitaker cup tournament in the first round for the second year in succession.

First game to finish on board 2 was Roger Hart playing Black against Dave McMath. The game was looking equal for a long time until Dave spotted few weak squares in Roger's king side. After the white pieces were positioned to take advantage of these weaknesses, Roger resigned in view of a forthcoming checkmate.

On board 4, Peter Hornak developed some nice tactics that gave him a decisive material advantage, and later on a won game. Once again, Peter showed the extent of his resources in chess.

At that stage board 1 and 3 had to win 1.5 points to secure a win for the team. On board 3, Philippe Gleizon lost a pawn in the opening. We could call that a gambit as he got a better developed position, but as the game was progressing his development advantage was fading away although he was putting a good effort to try to regain his pawn. The first board was looking unclear, therefore Philippe tried to raised his chances and exchanged his knight against two pawns in a desperate attempt to get an unbalanced position and a pawn majority, but after the rook exchanged, Andy McAtear's extra knight proved his superiority.

Being already down 1-2, the team had already lost. However, David Jarmany put a good show against Robert Patla. He ended with a superior position in the middlegame having a space advantage and slightly more active pieces. However Robert managed to invade David's back rank with a rook and a bishop. Both players were short on time but Robert got the initiative in trying to catch David's king. David's position was solid enough to secure a draw, but maybe due to a combination of time pressure and tiredness, he put his king on the wrong square allowing Robert to pin his rook with a bishop. He resigned few moves later.

Overall it was a disappointing team result for a promising match. There is always next year...

Carlisle B	1½	2½	Cockermouth
D.Siddall	½	½	J. Jarmany
P. Rivers	0	1	D. Jarmany
S. Cassidy	½	½	N. Jones
A.Hiatt	½	½	P. Gleizon

Cockermouth	1½	2½	Penrith
J. Jarmany	0	1	R. Patla
D. Jarmany	½	½	D. McMath
P. Gleizon	1	0	A. McAtear
P. Blackmore	0	1	KSouthernwood

SASRA	1	3	Cockermouth
F. Wright	0	1	J. Jarmany
M. Mallard	1	0	R. Hart
J. Taylor	0	1	P. Gleizon
P. Tipper	0	1	W. Henderson

Carlisle A	1½	2½	Cockermouth
S.Cunnigham	0	1	J. Jarmany
G.Glover	½	½	D. Jarmany
S.Barnes	½	½	R. Hart
I.Mackay	½	½	N. Jones

Cockermouth	2	2	Windermere
J. Jarmany	½	½	J.Toothill
D. Jarmany	1	0	B.Kaszynski
R. Hart	½	½	D.Phillips
P. Gleizon	0	1	D.Shaw

Cockermouth	2	2	Barrow
J. Jarmany	0	1	M.McKenzie
D. Jarmany	1	0	J.Woodburn
R. Hart	½	½	G.Horne
N. Jones	½	½	A.Lewellyn

Penrith C	4	Cockermouth
E.Früchtenicht	1	P. Gleizon
R.Farrell	1	I. Stone
A.Ridley	1	P.Blackmore
J.Turnbull	1	P. Hornak

Carlisle C	1½	2½	Cockermouth
[S.Cassidy]	0	1	P.Gleizon
I.Mackay	½	½	W.Henderson
S.Lowis	0	1	I.Stone
S.McStay	1	0	P.Hornak

Cockermouth	1	3	Penrith B
P.Gleizon	0	1	L.McAtear
I.Stone	1	0	K.Southernwood
W.Henderson	0	1	S.Murdoch
P.Blackmore	0	1	G.Rowan

Carlisle D	1	3	Cockermouth
S. Cassidy	½	½	P. Gleizon
B. Burgess	½	½	I. Stone
Marco Ho	0	1	W.Henderson
J.Leitch	0	1	P.Blackmore