2 March 2022
Hello and welcome to the first website News report written by myself, Sterling Macadams.
Here’s how our three teams got on in Wednesday’s league matches in the Leeds Chess Association league.
Working from “Grandmaster” level to “Woodpusher”, lets’ start with our “A” team, who were away against Leeds University A, who – naturally – don’t play at the University, one which yours truly studied at many, many moons ago. Unfortunately it’s not still £1.20 a pint, but that’s progress for you apparently. Limewood slightly out-graded their opponents on all boards, however the match was close with our top team taking the match 3-2 with wins coming from Paul Bencher, Paul May and Rob Lockwood. This result helps the A team to consolidate their position in the top half on Division 1 where it’s very tight at the top, and just above next week’s opposition of Alwoodley A.
Into Division 2 and our B team took a trip to Alwoodley – always a nice venue – to play their C team. Unfortunately despite outgrading Alwoodley C on three board and having the white pieces, draws from John Grasham, Bob Maltby and Duncan Stables (outgraded by 250 points, so that’s a great result for Duncan) weren’t enough and Alwoodley won 3.5 to 1.5
Still in Division 2, our C team entertained relative new boys Harrogate B. I say relative, they probably joined the league three years ago but your esteemed author has completely lost track of time over the last couple of years and has just shocked himself by learning that “Scandalous” by Mis-Teeq was released almost 20 years ago, so you probably shouldn’t rely on my timekeeping. Anyway, the C team enjoyed good wins by new club members and rising stars Luskauskas brothers Rojas and Titas, and a fine draw in a crazy game from Paul Smith, who had a sole king versus king and pawn. My congratulations, sir, a brilliant coup.
These results ensured a drawn match which keeps our B and C teams level on points in Division 2, with the B team having a slightly better goal difference. Will it come down to penalties? Looks like the C team have the easier matches left in the remainder of the season and could finish above the B team, but anything can – and does – happen over the board.
So a mixed bag of results for our three teams, next week our A team are at home to Alwoodley A, the B team face a tough challenge at Alwoodley B and the C team mess up this lovely pattern by being at home to the University B team – another tough match against a team looking for promotion.
Keep pushin’ them pawns,
Sterling Macadams