CHEDDLETON AND LEEK CHESS CLUB
CHECKMATE FOR CLUB AS
THEY GO TOP OF THE LEAGUE
heddleton and Leek’s Chess
Club first team have made it
to the top of the table in the
Premier Division of the
National Chess League known as
the 4NCL (Four Nations Chess
League).
The League, now bigger than
ever, saw all ninety six teams in
action
before
Christmas
with Cheddleton 1 playing a
strong Oxford team which
involved an epic match which
lasted most of the seven hours set
aside for it.
Cédric Paci, playing in his first
match for Cheddleton, was the
first player to finish when he
agreed a draw with his opponent
and it was not long before a
second draw was agreed when
newly-crowned
grandmaster
Alex Colovic followed him into
the analysis room. After that, it
was a steady succession of
victories for the local team.
Cheddleton’s other debutant,
Simon Williams was the third to
finish, closely followed by Jovica,
Keith and Jonathan. This left
David and Fiona who played on
for another two and a half hours
after the match was already
won. These matches showed why
chess is such a fascinating
spectator sport as the games
swung from side to side with the
players with the superior
endgame technique finally
coming out on top – first David
and then at last, Fiona.
The second day of play saw
three wins for the local
teams. The top team did
amazingly well again against a
very strong opposition. Keith had
a draw against an old adversary,
then Simon and Fiona won giving
Cheddleton a comfortable lead. A
long period of tight play resulted
C
in draws from Jonathan, Alex
and Cédric. With the match won,
there were two more games that
carried on towards the bitter end.
David broke through with a win
over Terry Chapman and the
ever-dependable Jovica put the
icing on the cake with a last
minute victory.
An early win by 13 year old
prodigy Zheming Zhang gave
Cheddleton 2 a lead over
Bradford B. With a loss, two wins
and two draws, the match was
safely won quite early but Colin
Davison fought hard and took the
match down to the wire before he
added another victory to the tally.
Early wins by twelve-year-old
Jacob Boswell and fellow junior,
Alex Cartlidge, added to a very
early win by John Yee.
Cheddleton 3 were soon in the
driving seat against Manchester
2. Only one half point was needed
from the rest to win the match.
This was eventually forthcoming
when Ian Jamieson took the
point in his game.
Thus ended an extremely
successful weekend for the local
club.
Fiona Steil-Antoni
Leek Life January/February 2014 21