Tuesday, 17 December 2024

16-12-24 Keddie Cup

The annual Christmas handicap tournament, the Keddie Cup, was a well-attended event, with 26 competitors initially split across 5 groups. From Group A, Victor and Dave qualified. From Group B, Kenny qualified with Elsa just missing out. From Group C, Gordon and I qualified. From Group D, Kai qualified with Toby just missing out, and from Group E Rudra and Sean qualified.

Quarter-finals:
Victor Liu 0-1 Rudra Pardhi
Kenny MacPherson 1-0 Dave Hewitt
Gordon Allcock 1-0 Sean Flanagan
Kai Austin 1-0 Graham Anderson

Semi-final 1 - Kenny (left) starts a rook and c pawn down against Kai.

Semi-final 2 - Gordon (left) starts a rook down against Rudra.

Kenny MacPherson 0-1 Kai Austin
Rudra Pardhi 1-0 Gordon Allcock

And so to the Rudra - Kai final. With very similar gradings, Kai started off with 9 minutes and Black to Rudra's 10 minutes.

The crowd watch on in interest...

Thanks to Isaac and Dave for a Keddie Cup first - someone recorded a game!

Pardhi, RAustin, K1–0E90Keddie CupStirling CC16.12.2024
1.d4 f6 2.c4 g6 3.c3 g7 4.e4 d6 5.g5 0-0 6.f3 g4 7.h3 d7 8.e2 c5 9.d5 a5 10.b3 c8 11.0-0 bd7 12.a4 xa4 13.xa4 e8 14.fe1 xe4 15.d3 xg5 16.xg5 e5 17.ad1 h6 18.e4 d7 19.ac3 f5 20.g3 a4 21.xa4 f4 22.f1 ab8 23.g3 f3+ 24.g2 xe1+ 25.xe1 f6 26.xg6 f8 27.gxf4 b5 28.cxb5 xb5 29.c3 xb2 30.e4 g7 31.xf6 xf6 32.b1 f7 33.a4 xf4 34.g3 xa4 35.h2 b3+ 36.g2 d4 37.c2 c3 38.e4 e6 39.dxe6+ xe6 40.f3 a4 41.c2+ d5 42.xa4 a3 43.d7 c4 44.d1+ c5 45.f5 b4 46.b1+ c3 47.c1+ b4 48.e6 c3 49.e1 a5 50.c2+ a4 51.xa3 xa3 52.xc3+ a4 53.b3+ b4 54.d3 c5 55.f1 d5 56.xd5+ b4 57.e1 xb3 58.xa5 b4 59.h5 c4 60.xh6 Black resigns. 1–0

Rudra receives the trophy from club president Gordon. Well done Rudra!

Thursday, 12 December 2024

09-12-24 Stirling B v Stirling A

Stirling B   v   Stirling A
Nathanel Loch

Kenny MacPherson

Bill Cook

Harry Feather

Ross Warcup
1513

1481

1470

1464

742
0 - 1

0 - 1

1 - 0

0 - 1

0 - 1
2008

1807

1784

1555

1599
Isaac Browning

William Spiers

Oliver Twentyman

Richard Warcup

Steve Smith
1 - 4

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

25-11-24 Stirling C v Stirling D

Stirling C   v   Stirling D
Richard Warcup

Kenny MacPherson

Harry Feather

Sandy Carmichael

Tom Wallace
1621

1489

1478

1357

1342
0 - 1

1 - 0

½ - ½

½ - ½

½ - ½
1429

 

 

1106

832
Dave Hewitt

Toby Geyer

Felix Borzik

Mick Bloor

Cameron Anderson
2½ - 2½

Thanks to Dave for providing the game below, where on board 1 Dave had White against Richard.

Thursday, 21 November 2024

18-11-24 Robert Togneri Trophy

Time control: 10 minutes + 5 second increment each for all moves

  Name Grade Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Place
 
1 Shubham Lakudkar 2125 1 W 12 2 B 24 3 W 4 4 B 2 5 B 11 1
 
2 William Spiers 1768 1 B 13 2 W 7 3 B 21 3 W 1 4 B 9 =2
 
3 Kenny MacPherson 1631 1 W 14 1 B 8 1 W 11 2 B 22 2 W 10 =13
 
4 Brad Duthie 1584 1 B 15 2 W 9 2 B 1 3 W 21 B 5 =4
 
5 Bill Cook 1578 1 W 16 B 11 W 8 B 15 3 W 4 =6
 
6 Steve Smith 1562 ½ B 17 ½ W 21 ½ B 15 W 18 B 13 =18
 
7 Harley Lang 1521 1 W 18 1 B 2 2 W 12 3 B 10 4 W 8 =2
 
8 Richard Warcup 1501 1 B 19 2 W 3 3 B 5 3 W 11 3 B 7 =6
 
9 Nathanael Loch 1503 1 W 20 1 B 4 2 W 23 3 B 24 3 W 2 =6
 
10 Douglas Heatlie 1489 0 B 21 1 W 17 2 B 22 2 W 7 3 B 3 =6
 
11 Tom Nimmo 1393 1 W 22 W 5 B 3 B 8 W 1 =4
 
12 Dave Hewitt 1363 0 B 1 1 W 19 1 B 7 2 W 17 3 B 21 =6
 
13 Scott Keenan 1204 0 W 2 1 B 18 1 W 24 2 B 23 3 W 6 =6
 
14 Mick Murphy 1125 0 B 3 0 W 23 ½ B 18 W 19 B 17 =18
 
15 Mick Bloor 1095 0 W 4 ½ B 20 W 6 W 5 2 B 16 =13
 
16 Glen Wilson 1028 0 B 5 0 W 22 0 B 19 1 W 20 W 15 =18
 
17 Kai Austin 719 ½ W 6 ½ B 10 W 20 B 12 W 14 12
 
18 Jonathan Pont 713 0 B 7 0 W 13 ½ W 14 ½ B 6 ½ B 20 24
 
19 Rudra Pardhi 644 0 W 8 0 B 12 1 W 16 1 B 14 1 B 23 =22
 
20 Elsa Liu 281 0 B 9 ½ W 15 ½ B 17 ½ B 16 11½ W 18 =18
 
21 Felix Borzik u/g 1 W 10 2 B 6 2 W 2 2 B 4 2 W 12 =13
 
22 Jia-Xi Chen u/g 0 B 11 1 B 16 1 W 10 1 W 3 1 - =22
 
23 Victor Liu 502 0 W 24 1 B 14 1 B 9 1 W 13 2 W 19 =13
 
24 Graham Anderson 1569 1 B 23 1 W 1 2 B 13 2 W 9 2 - =13

Congratulations to Shubham, winning with 5/5 for the third time!

Shubham receives the trophy from previous winner Bill.

Wednesday, 20 November 2024

11-11-24 Stirling E v Badgers Brook C

Stirling E   v   Badgers Brook C
Tom Nimmo

Mick Murphy

Stewart Cairns

Rudra Pardhi

Advait Harikumer
1084

1125

738

 

 
1 - 0

1 - 0

0 - 1

½ - ½

0 - 1
1425

1256

 

1164

999
Mark Brown

Gordon Walker

William Mundie

David Lawrence

Peter Woollven
2½ - 2½

Thanks to Rudra for the game below - a fantastic result on his league debut.

Lawrence, DPardhi, R½–½A48Stirling E v Badgers Brook CStirling CC11.11.2024
1.d4 f6 2.f3 g6 3.e3 g7 4.d3 d5 5.b3 c6 6.a3 a5 7.bd2 0-0 8.b2 e8 9.0-0 g4 10.e2 xf3 11.xf3 e6 12.c4 e7 13.e5 d7 14.f4 xe5 15.fxe5 dxc4 16.bxc4 a4 17.f3 h6 18.c2 f8 19.e4 f6 20.exf6 xf6 21.ad1 c6 22.d3 h7 23.g4 d7 24.d2 g5 25.e2 xf1+ 26.xf1 h5 27.f7+ h6 28.d5 g8 29.xe6 d8 30.f2 f8 31.d4 f6 32.e3+ g5 33.d4 f6 34.e3+ g5 Draw by repetition. Stockfish recommends 34 Qc5 instead, and when the black bishop is on f6, e5 seems to keep White going. ½–½

Games

A couple of games to post...thanks to Bill for the first one, from the SNCL where he had White against Shriya Madhu from the Edinburgh West 3 team. Bill writes: She was in a bind for a while but difficult to see a way through until I spotted the sacrifice on move 23. 24...Nh5  was the best defence and it took me a minute or two to see that swapping queens was the answer followed by Re8+ and Bf6+.

Bill Cook1470Shriya Madhu14361–0B04SNCL v Ed West 327.10.2024
1.e4 f6 2.e5 d5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 b6 5.f3 c6 6.exd6 cxd6 7.e2 f5 8.e3 d5 9.c5 d7 10.a3 g6 11.0-0 g7 12.d2 0-0 13.c3 f6 14.ad1 g4 15.h3 xf3 16.xf3 e6 17.fe1 e8 18.b5 e7 19.g5 a6 20.d6 c7 21.f4 d7 22.g4 h8 23.xe6 fxe6 24.xe6 h5 25.xd8 xf4 26.e8+ f8 27.f6+ g8 28.xa8 e6 29.e5 c7 30.c8 e7 31.b8 e6 32.xb7 xb7 33.xb7 c6 34.d6 xc5 35.dxc5 xe5 36.xd5 1–0

This second game was played between Toby and Kenny in the Lindsay Cup. The Queens are exchanged early on, only to both make a re-appearance later in the game.

MacPherson, KGeyer, T½–½Lindsay CupStirling CC11.11.2024
1.d4 f6 2.c4 d5 3.c3 c6 4.g5 f5 5.e3 e6 6.c5 e7 7.f3 b6 8.b4 a5 9.a3 bxc5 10.bxc5 bd7 11.e2 e4 12.xe7 xc3 13.xd8 xd1 14.xd1 xd8 15.h4 c7 16.xf5 exf5 17.d3 g6 18.b1 f6 19.e2 hb8 20.xb8 xb8 21.b1 xb1 22.xb1 e4 23.xe4 fxe4 24.a4 d7 25.f3 e6 26.fxe4 dxe4 27.f2 h5 28.g3 g5 29.h4 gxh4+ 30.xh4 f5 31.g5 h4 32.xh4 f4 33.exf4 d5 34.f5 xd4 35.f6 e3 36.g3 d3 37.f7 e2 38.f8 e1+ 39.h3 h1+ 40.g3 e1+ 41.f2 e5+ 42.h3 h5+ 43.g3 g5+ 44.h2 h5+ 45.g1 d1+ 46.h2 xa4 47.f5+ c3 48.g4 d4 49.g5 a4 50.g6 a3 51.f3+ b4 52.xc6 xc5 Stockfish offers, as +52 for Black: 53 ... Qf4+ 54 Kg2 a2 55 Qb7+ Kc3 56 Qg7+ Kd3 57 Qa1 Qg4+ 58 Kh2 Qh5+ 59 Kg2 Qxg6+ 60 Kh2 Qh7+ 61 Kg3 Qg8+ 62 Kh4 Qc4+ 63 Kh5 Qxc5+ 64 Kg6 Qb6+ 65 Kf7 Qb3+ 66 Ke7 Qb1 67 Qh8 Qb7+ 68 Ke6 Qb6+ 69 Kd5 Qb5+ 70 Ke6 Qc6+ 71 Kf7 Qf3+ 72 Kg6 Qg2+ 73 Kf5 Qf2+ 74 Ke6 Qe3+ 75 Kf5 Qc5+ 76 Kg6 Qg1+ 77 Kf7 53.b7+ b5 54.f7 a2 Draw agreed. According to Stockfish, on 55 g7 White loses after Qe5+ or Qe2+. White holds the draw with 55 Qxa2. ½–½

Sunday, 10 November 2024

09-11-2024 GM Jacob Aagard Simultaneous

The fledgling Clacks County chess club hosted a simultaneous display with GM Jacob Aagard. Thanks to John Blake and Dave Hewitt for providing one of the games below, where John had Black. I don't know if there were any other performances as good as John's, but if there were please pass them on.