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!

ChessBase

Pardhi, R–Austin, 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

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

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

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.

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	3½ B 5	=4
5	Bill Cook	1578	1 W 16	1½ B 11	1½ W 8	2½ B 15	3 W 4	=6
6	Steve Smith	1562	½ B 17	½ W 21	½ B 15	1½ W 18	1½ 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	1½ W 5	2½ B 3	3½ B 8	3½ 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	1½ W 19	1½ B 17	=18
15	Mick Bloor	1095	0 W 4	½ B 20	1½ W 6	1½ W 5	2 B 16	=13
16	Glen Wilson	1028	0 B 5	0 W 22	0 B 19	1 W 20	1½ W 15	=18
17	Kai Austin	719	½ W 6	½ B 10	1½ W 20	1½ B 12	2½ 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.

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.

ChessBase

Lawrence, D–Pardhi, 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

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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+.

ChessBase

Bill Cook1470–Shriya 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

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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.

ChessBase

MacPherson, K–Geyer, 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

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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.