23-01-2023 Stirling A v Stirling B

Stirling A		v		Stirling B
Shubham Lakudkar Isaac Browning Sam Coates William Spiers Steve Smith	2040 1934 1843 1722 1621	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 ½ - ½	1569 1562 1523 1513 1418	Leyla Kim Dave Hewitt David McAlister Nathanael Loch Kenny MacPherson
		4½ - ½

16-01-2023 Stirling D v Stirling C

Stirling D		v		Stirling C
Tom Wallace Harry Feather Sandy Carmichael Harley Lang Robbie McDermott	1358 1327 1283 1082	0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½ 0 - 1 0 - 1	1670 1523 1489 1483 1418	Graham Anderson Brad Duthie Bill Cook Ruaridh Simpson Kenny MacPherson
		½ - 4½

This is my game on board 1, where I had White against Tom.

[Event "Stirling D v Stirling C"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2023.01.16"] [Round ""] [White "Anderson, G"] [Black "Wallace, T"] [Result "1-0"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. c3 d5 4. e5 Nc6 5. d4 e6 6. Bd3 Qb6 7. a3 h6 8. O-O c4 9. Bc2 Nge7 10. Re1 Bd7 11. Nbd2 Ng6 12. Bxg6 fxg6 13. Nh4 Ne7 14. Qg4 g5 15. Nhf3 O-O-O 16. Rb1 Nf5 17. b3 Qc7 18. bxc4 Be7 19. cxd5 exd5 20. e6 g6 21. exd7+ Qxd7 22. Ne5 Qe6 23. Qd1 h5 24. Ndf3 g4 25. Ng5 Bxg5 26. Bxg5 Rde8 27. Qb3 Nd6 28. Qb6 h4 29. Qc5+ Kb8 30. Nc6+ Ka8 31. Qa7# 1-0

09-01-2023 - New Year's Blitz

Time control: 3 minutes + 2 seconds per move each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Place
1	Jim Shemilt	1790	0 W 7	1 B 4	1 W 6	1 B 2	1½ W 12	2½ B 8	3½ W 11	=8
2	Steve Smith	1636	0 B 8	1 W 12	1 B 3	2 W 1	3 B 6	4 W 5	4 W 7	=2
3	Harley Lang	1585	0 W 9	1 B 11	2 W 2	2 B 4	2 W 8	3 B 12	3 W 6	10
4	Dave Hewitt	1512	0 B 10	0 W 1	1 B 12	2 W 3	3 W 11	3 B 7	3½ B 9	=8
5	Bill Cook	1507	1 W 11	2 B 9	2½ W 7	3½ B 6	4 W 10	4 B 2	4 W 8	=2
6	Nathanael Loch	1447	1 B 12	1 W 8	2 B 1	2 W 5	2 W 2	3 B 10	4 B 3	=2
7	Kenny MacPherson	1399	1 B 1	2 W 10	2½ B 5	3½ W 8	4½ B 9	5½ W 4	6½ B 2	1
8	Sandy Carmichael	1349	1 W 2	2 B 6	2 W 9	2 B 7	3 B 3	3 W 1	4 B 5	=2
9	Gordon Allcock	1346	1 B 3	1 W 5	2 B 8	2½ W 10	2½ W 7	3½ B 11	4 W 4	=2
10	Harry Feather	1333	1 W 4	1 B 7	2 W 11	2½ B 9	3 B 5	3 W 6	4 W 12	=2
11	Stewart Cairns	1099	0 B 5	0 W 3	0 B 10	1 W 12	1 B 4	1 W 9	1 B 1	11
12	Oleks Vynnytski	u/g	0 W 6	0 B 2	0 W 4	0 B 11	½ B 1	½ W 3	½ B 10	12

19-12-2022 Keddie Cup

Dave Hewitt writes:- There were 21 players (best wishes to those who intended to be there but were unwell) so it was played in the traditional four-group format (as opposed to five groups at Easter, when 29 played) and the top two from each group progressed to the knockout phase. The only person with a 100% score at this stage was Sandy, but in typical Keddie style he then promptly lost to Cameron A. The only previous winner to make it to the KO games was Sam Cook - very good to see him back from Glasgow Uni - and the quarter-finals were a good mix of newer and more established players. Sam beat Mick - excellent to see Mick reach the latter stages - Kenny beat Cameron D, and Thomas F beat Nathanael. Several of these people will surely do well in future Keddies - there's a tradition of eventually winning it after having reached the KO phase a time or two before.

The semis saw the two juniors progress: Cameron A beat Kenny and Thomas beat Sam. That set up something approaching a normal final - the players were only 65 points apart in grade (actual allegro grades, rather than estimates) and it looked like being a fairly straightforward win for Cameron after Thomas miscalculated and lost a R, leaving him with just one R against Cameron's two in an endgame. But the game continued, Thomas put up staunch defence, Cameron lost his way and was eventually - 20 or 25 moves later - obliged to give up his last R to stop one of Thomas's pawns. That led to a pawn endgame and stalemate - and hopes that this would be the first Keddie in years to finish before 10pm were replaced by the need for a replay, the first in a Keddie final since Gordon beat Martyn Roe over two games in 2013.

This time Cameron had white and both players had half the time as in the first game - five minutes vs four-and-a-half. Cameron again got ahead - he was a piece up - but perhaps still affected by his failure to win the original game he made first one illegal move then another (the second was a strange RxR diagonal-move effort) and Thomas thus became Keddie champion in curious and rather unfortunate circumstances. Congratulations to him, a fine win - and commiserations to Cameron, whose day in the Keddie and in other competitions will surely come.

It was good to see so many Keddie newcomers along with the old hands, and there was an air of a changing of the guard about the whole KO section - it was, for instance, the first time since 2007 that none of Gordon, Graham or I had got beyond the groups in a Keddie where we'd all played (and there was a run of eight years in a row when at least two of us always qualified). Gordon - a Keddie specialist - almost qualified this time but missed out on being runner-up in Group D on second tiebreak.

12-12-2022 Padowans v Parents 2

Last night saw a return crunch match, with the Parents looking to avenge last year's doing. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, as the Padowans took everything they've learned and put it into practice. Samay was first to finish, but the rest weren't far behind. Perhaps the parents would like to join us for coaching?

My thanks to the parents who took this in the spirit intended, and my apologies again for the equipment malfunction which saw some of the sets missing pieces. Thanks to the older Camerons for standing in as parents in a couple of games.

Padowans	v	Parents
Victor Samay Josh Elsa Cameron A Nadzieja Kalina Finn Jamie Aleks Elsa Victor Paul Cameron D	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	Dad Dad Mum Cameron D Mum Mum Mum Dad Finn's Dad Cameron D Dad Cameron A Dad Graham
	14 - 0

12-12-2022 Stirling E V Stirling C

Stirling E		v		Stirling C
Callum Richardson Harley Lang Mick Bloor Euan Tortolano Thomas Forsyth	1097 1082 1079	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½ 0 - 1	1523 1489 1418 1358 1283	Brad Duthie Bill Cook Kenny MacPherson Tom Wallace Sandy Carmichael
		½ - 4½

05-12-2022 Stirling B v Stirling A

Stirling B		v		Stirling A
Leyla Kim Dave Hewitt Bill Cook Sean Flanagan Kenny MacPherson	1569 1562 1489 1487 1418	0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ ½ - ½	1722 1621 1523 1523 1358	William Spiers Steve Smith David MacAlister Brad Duthie Tom Wallace
		1½ - 3½