Wednesday 29 April 2015

20 April 2015 - Under 1500 Cup

Cumbernauld v Stirling
Derek McAteer

Steven Monaghan

Daniel McAteer

David Flaherty

Andrew Carruth
1233

1124

 

1117

1102
0 - 1

0 - 1

1 - 0

0 - 1

0 - 1
1442

1440

1362

1262

1236
Dave Hewitt

Martyn Roe

Robert Leckie

Craig Manson

David Brodie
    1 - 4    

Well done to all the players, and good luck in the final which is due to be played this Monday.

Thanks to David Brodie for providing the game below, where he had Black against Andrew Carruth.


Carruth - Brodie

Edinburgh Congress

Congratulations to Dave Hewitt, who finished joint first in the Bishops section of the Edinburgh Congress with 4/5. A picture of Dave (second from the left) on the winner's podium is here. Dave's round 4 game against Angus Ruthven is below, and further below is his round 5 game against 14 year old Stuthi Hegde. All analysis is from Dave.

Congratulations, also, to Neil Irving, who with 3 draws and two wins finished joint-second in the Challengers with a tournament performance of 1977.


Ruthven - Hewitt


Hewitt - Hegde

Tuesday 28 April 2015

Thoughts from the Badgers Brook allegro match

Dave Hewitt writes:- Kenny McGeoch played an amazing move against me in the Bruce vs Badgers match. It was in the fourth and final round of the night, and I think the game (with Kenny having the white pieces) started as follows:

I'm not sure what Kenny played next - possibly Bf4, or moving the Rf1 - but whatever it was I played 10 ...Nd5 as planned, thinking I'd be able to give him doubled pawns on the c-file once the Q moved. Whereupon Kenny played 11 Qxg7+.

After 11 ...Kxg7 (which I spent about half a minute on even though it was the only move, as I was startled to say the least and needed a bit of time to get my bearings), 12 cxd5 leaves white effectively a piece down but with a lot of activity and initiative.

I can't recall the middle part of the game, but I didn't find a means of simplifying in any way that seemed helpful, and was under constant pressure with Kenny maintaining a bind based on my K being stuck in the corner, his pair of Bs pointing at it, his R on the seventh rank and my f6 pawn pinned against the Kh8. Something like 30 moves later we reached this position, or a close approximation (it's not quite right, as I don't think Kenny had scope for playing Bb4 to attack my Rf8, but it's not far off and anyway it's black to move):

I'd stabilised things a fair bit - freeing up my Q to head towards Kenny's K had felt like quite a triumph - and I knew what I probably should try to do in terms of playing for a win, namely find a way to sac the exchange, put my K on the safe-coloured squares of whichever white B had disappeared, then try and win with Q vs R+B. But I'd been on the defensive all game, the clock was ticking, John had already won his game, a glance along showed that Graham probably should win and Paul wasn't worse, so a draw here ought to help ensure that we didn't lose the match (we needed 2.5/4 in the last round for a draw) and might actually help to win it. So I started playing for a perpetual with Qf2+, and after a few more checks we agreed a draw. I reckoned that so long as I didn't let Kenny's K reach g6, with Kxh6 to follow, I should be OK - so the idea was that if he went Kf5 I needed to be able to play Qd3+.

So it was drawn, and after Graham won and Paul drew we managed to win the match. But it was an extraordinary eleventh move by Kenny - a real sense of adventure to it, a let's see where this takes us kind of move, possibly a bit end-of-season-ish as well (and certainly showing confidence that he reckoned he could outplay me from a piece down). A computer or a stronger player would most likely dismiss it as simply winning for black. But over-the-board, with Kenny being a lot stronger than me, it was hard to face. It also supported the theory - which Steve Smith has suggested, I think - that Kenny has become quite a bit stronger over the past year or so, and is now quite possibly somewhere close to the 2000 level. It's just a pity that he's a Badgers Brook player these days, rather than still with us...

Anyway, I'm glad he played Qxg7+ - it made for a very interesting game and I can't recall when I was last so wowed by a move, particularly one played so early in a game.

Wednesday 8 April 2015

8 April 2015 - Central League Division 1

Grangemouth A v Stirling A
Ubong Archibong
 
Dougie Will
 
Alan Bell
 
Ian Mason
 
Bill Gray
 
 
1954
 
1920
 
1694
 
1511
1 - 0
 
1 - 0
 
1 - 0
 
1 - 0
 
½ - ½
1907
 
1782
 
1727
 
1584
 
1573
Shivan Murdochy
 
Steve Smith
 
Graham Anderson
 
Robin Hayles
 
John Blake
    4½ - ½    

The A team suffered their heaviest defeat for a long time against a very strong Grangemouth team, featuring on board 1 a Nigerian state champion. I have a couple of games to add when I get the chance.

Monday 6 April 2015

6 April 2015 - Central Allegro League

Badgers Brook 7½ - 8½ Stirling Bruce
Round 1
Kenny McGeoch ½ - ½ Paul Prescott
John Smith 1 - 0 John Blake
David McGilvray 0 - 1 Graham Anderson
Gordon Walker 1 - 0 Dave Hewitt
Round 2
Kenny McGeoch 1 - 0 John Blake
John Smith 1 - 0 Graham Anderson
David McGilvray ½ - ½ Dave Hewitt
Gordon Walker 0 - 1 Paul Prescott
Round 3
Kenny McGeoch ½ - ½ Graham Anderson
John Smith 1 - 0 Dave Hewitt
David McGilvray 0 - 1 Paul Prescott
Gordon Walker 0 - 1 John Blake
Round 4
Kenny McGeoch ½ - ½ Dave Hewitt
John Smith ½ - ½ Paul Prescott
David McGilvray 0 - 1 John Blake
Gordon Walker 0 - 1 Graham Anderson

Although technically an away match for Stirling Bruce, this was played at Stirling chess club.

After Dunfermline Minnows' recent 14-2 victory over Badgers Brook, Bruce had to win by 15-1 (what would be a record victory for any team in this league) to retain the league title. This hugely unlikely score became simply a dream as the first round of matches finished. Going into the fourth round, Bruce trailed 5½ - 6½, but a last round win of 3-1 gave us the match, but not the title.

Congratulations, then, to Dunfermline Minnows on their league title!

Wednesday 1 April 2015

30 March 2015 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C v Grangemouth B
Gordon Allcock

Robert Leckie

Craig Manson

Robert Togneri

David Brodie
1416

1362

1262

1245

1236
½ - ½

0 - 1

½ - ½

0 - 1

1 - 0
1511

1473

1352

1245

862
Bill Gray

Hugh Hanlon

Crawford Welsh

Ross Heenan

David Fowler
    2 - 3    

The final Division 2 league table looks like this:-

  Played
 
Won
 
Drawn
 
Lost
 
Game Points
 
Match Points
 
Stirling B
 
Dunfermline B
 
Stirling C
 
Grangemouth
 
6
 
6
 
6
 
6
 
6
 
4
 
1
 
1
 
0
 
0
 
0
 
0
 
0
 
2
 
5
 
5
 
22
 
20.5
 
10
 
7.5
 
12
 
8
 
2
 
2