2026-01-19 Three Teams, Two Matches

The third Monday of the New Year brought forward a double-header. The Stirling A and B Teams faced each other, while the E team hosted Grangemouth C.

   Central League Division 1

   Stirling B            1-4  Stirling A 

1. Richard Warcup  1637  0-1  Isaac Browning  2054
2. Brad Duthie     1552  1-0  John Iwuozor    2020 (Default)
3. Bill Cook       1544  0-1  Leo Gardner     1896
4. Douglas Heatlie 1563  0-1  Sean Flanagan   1698
5. Kelechi Nwosu    u/g  0-1  Nathanael Loch  1515

Stirling B were the 'home' team.
The Bs had White on Boards 1 and 2.

Bill provided this report:

Both teams were missing 2 players and the Bs were heavily out-graded but there were no quick games.

Sean won a pawn fairly early on and he converted smoothly in an endgame with rook and bishop each.

Kelechi lost the exchange and wasn't able to recover.

Leo had a strong attack but after I had sacrificed a pawn managed to get a bit of counterplay and then blundered with just a few minutes left.

Board 1 was very close for a long time and Isaac only won when Richard had to sacrifice a bishop to prevent a pawn queening but couldn't prevent a second pawn.

An enjoyable match.

   Central League Division 2

   Stirling E           1-4  Grangemouth C

1. Mick Bloor     1084  ½-½  Bill Gray      1486
2. Mick Murphy    1087  ½-½  Jim Stallard   1330
3. Rudra Pardhi   930   0-1  Crawford Welsh 1243
4. Stewart Cairns 719   0-1  Joe Johnstone  u/g
5. Josh Heesom    u/g   0-1  Sean Gray      u/g

Grangemouth had White on 1,3 and 5.

Graham provided this report

On board 3, both sides started a pawn push that saw Crawford win a rook. While Rudra had some play left, analysis showed that it would have been very difficult to get his a2 pawn promoted.

On board 5, Josh also dropped during Queen exchanges.

I only saw the very end of board 4 when Stewart, already a piece had a defender of g2 distracted then resigned.

I didn't see any of boards 1 and 2, although I'm told Mick M did well to get a draw, and with the match well and truly decided Mick B and Bill agreed a draw rather than grind out a long end-game.

2026-01-12 The return match between the C and D teams

  Central League Division 2 Match
 
  Stirling C             4-1  Stirling D 

1 Nathanael Loch   1515  1-0  Douglas Heatlie  1563
2 Kenny MacPherson 1506  1-0  Harry Feather    1461
3 Toby Geyer       1302  1-0  Sandy Carmichael 1357
4 Mick Bloor       1084  1-0  David Fowler     1300  
5 Josh Heesom      u/g   0-1  Victor Liu       928

The Sirling D team had White on Boards 2, 4 and 5

C Team captain Nathanael provided this report:

All five games were quite aggressive all around. The only pairing I did not witness was Josh vs Victor, but Victor came out with a quick win (less 30 minutes if I recall correctly), so I presume some sort of opening trap led to Victor-y (pun intended).

Board 4 featured a level game for a long time, until eventually David pressed for a mating attack which ultimately failed to manifest. In doing so, about 2 pawns fell and the endgame was ultimately lost in R vs R.

Board 3 is one I didn't see the beginning of, but during the middlegame, Toby somehow ended up with 2 extra pieces, but things were not so cut and dry. Sandy held the game until the very end as losing at that point would have meant a guaranteed win for Stirling C. The two rooks kept chances in the air, but the material proved too strong even after Toby sacced a bishop back, winning RRN vs RR.

Board 2 seemed very level to me until at one point a sequence led to Kenny having two bishops for a rook (with pawn interest), and due to both bishops looking at the castled king protected by only an f-pawn remaining, the bishops proved stronger than the rooks, leading to a situation where Harry would have to lose a piece by force after trading queens; hence the endgame was too dire to play out to the end.

Board 1 was tense the whole way. Douglas traded his knight for my bishop (g3) which opened my h-file on move 11. The result was a constant attack on the castled king (kingside) until eventually I was able to sacrifice a knight to break through with the pieces. Not quite a true sacrifice as taking would lead to Qh7# supported by the rook on h1. The engine showed White was for choice the whole attack, but Douglas did have one move to get a -0.2 evaluation from Stockfish. Unfortunately, this was not found in the game.

2025-12-15 Keddie Cup

It is a well-established tradition that the club runs the Keddie Cup on the final meeting before Christmas. It's a fun tournament with a complicated handicapping formula (see below) to give everyone, whatever their grading, a chance of winning the Cup.

A very helpful number of 24 players took part, allowing for four groups of six players in each, with the top two in each group going through to the knock-out stages.

Group 1 games

Group 3 games

The 2024 Champion, Rudra Pardhi and the 2023 winner, Ross Warcup were among the eight players going through to the quarter-finals.

Quarter-finals

The fourth quarter-final was an all-junior game

Semi-finals

The final was a contest between experience and youth, and the two protagonists are pictured with the trophy immediately before the deciding game.

Finalists

Club Treasurer Steve Smith presents the trophy

2025-12-08 Stirling E -v- Dunfermline B

Alongside the match on Monday night between the Stirling D -v- C teams already reported upon, the E Team had a good win over Dunfermline B.

   Central League Division 2

   Stirling E             3-2  Dunfermline B

1. Sandy Carmichael  1357 1-0  Calum Newton     1508
2. Mick Murphy       1087 0-1  Douglas Rew      1369 
3. Mick Bloor        1084 0-1  Daniel Lynch     1239
4. William Feather   875  1-0  Ali Shuttleworth 1207
5. Stewart Cairns    719  1-0  Brian Easton     999

Here is Stewart's victory on board 5.

[Event "Stirling E v Dunfermline B"] [Site "Stirling"] [Date "2025.12.08"] [Round "?"] [White "Easton, B."] [Black "Cairns, S."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D02"] [WhiteElo "999"] [BlackElo "719"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [PlyCount "92"] [GameId "2253634069524498"] [EventDate "2025.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Bf5 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Be2 Nc6 6. a3 Bd6 7. Ne5 Nd7 8. g4 Ndxe5 9. gxf5 Nc4 10. fxe6 fxe6 11. Bxc4 Bxf4 12. exf4 dxc4 13. Qh5+ g6 14. Qg5 Nxd4 15. Qxd8+ Rxd8 16. O-O Nxc2 17. Ra2 O-O 18. Nc3 Rxf4 19. Rc1 Nd4 20. Kf1 Rdf8 21. b3 Nxb3 22. Re1 Nc5 23. Nb5 Nd3 24. Ree2 Nc1 25. Nxc7 Nxa2 26. Rxa2 Rc8 27. Nxe6 Rh4 28. Kg2 c3 29. Rc2 Ra4 30. Ng5 Rxa3 31. Ne4 b5 32. Nd6 Rd8 33. Nxb5 Rb3 34. Nxa7 Rd2 35. Rc1 c2 36. Nc6 Rb1 37. Ne7+ Kf7 38. Nd5 Rxc1 39. Ne3 Rb1 40. Nxc2 Rxc2 41. Kg3 Rbb2 42. f3 Rxh2 43. f4 Kf6 44. Kg4 Rb3 45. f5 h5+ 46. Kf4 Rh4# 0-1

2025-12-08 Match between the Stirling D and C Teams

   Central League Division 2 
  
   Stirling D         1½-3½ Stirling C   
   
1. Harry Feather 1461  0-1  Nathanael Loch   1515    
2. David Fowler  1304  1-0  Kenny MacPherson 1506 
3. Tom Wallace   1313  0-1  Kelechi Nwosu    u/g     
4. Josh Heesom   u/g   0-1  Toby Geyer       1302
5. Victor Liu    928   ½-½  Rudra Pardhi     930

Stirling D had white on boards 1 and 4  

2025-12-03 Division 2 Match at Grangemouth

Stirling E travelled to Grangemouth to face their Cs, with both teams having non-playing captains - Bill Gray for the hosts and Graham Anderson for the visitors - watching on.

Grangemouth C          3½-1½ Stirling E 

1. Crawford Welsh 1486  1-0  Mick Murphy     1087 
2. Joe Johnstone  u/g   1-0  Mick Bloor      1084 
3. Harry Leishman 847   1-0  Rudra Pardhi    930 
4. Arran Short    u/g   0-1  William Feather 875 
5. Tyler Doney    u/g   ½-½  Stewart Cairns  719 

The home team had White on boards 3 & 4

Graham provides this report on the match:

Some wild games...Stewart was N+5P against N+2P in the endgame. I blinked, and it was then N+2P v N+2P. Not entirely sure how he managed to lose those pawns, but he held out for a draw. Mick M's game is below...he missed several mates. Mick B's King found its way to g3 by about move 15, but survived a ferocious attack to be 2 pawns up in the endgame, then contrived to lose. William had a lovely mate at the end (game also below).

[Event "Grangemouth C V Stirling E"] [Site "Grangemouth"] [Date "2025.12.03"] [Round "?"] [White "Murphy, M.."] [Black "Welsh, C.."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A40"] [WhiteElo "1087"] [BlackElo "1243"] [PlyCount "84"] [EventDate "2025.??.??"] 1. d4 g6 2. e3 Bg7 3. Bd3 d6 4. Nd2 e6 5. f4 b6 6. Ngf3 Bb7 7. Qe2 a6 8. O-O Ne7 9. c3 Nd7 10. e4 O-O 11. e5 d5 12. g4 c5 13. h4 b5 14. g5 Nc6 15. Rf2 Qb6 16. Qe3 cxd4 17. cxd4 Rac8 18. Nf1 Rc7 19. Bd2 Rfc8 20. a3 Bf8 21. N1h2 b4 22. Ng4 Na5 23. Nf6+ Nxf6 24. gxf6 Nb3 25. Rd1 Nxd2 26. Qxd2 bxa3 27. bxa3 Bxa3 28. Rg2 Bb4 29. Qe2 a5 30. h5 Bc3 31. hxg6 fxg6 32. Bxg6 Bxd4+ 33. Nxd4 Rc1 34. Rxc1 (34. Be8+ Kf8 35. Rg8+ Kxg8 36. Qg2+ Kf8 37. Qg7+ Kxe8 38. Qe7#) 34... Qxd4+ 35. Kh2 Qxf4+ 36. Kh3 Rxc1 37. Bxh7+ (37. Bf7+ Kxf7 38. Qh5+ Kf8 39. Rg8+ Kxg8 40. Qe8#) 37... Kh8 38. Rg8+ Kxh7 39. Qh5+ Kxg8 40. Qe8+ (40. Qg6+ Kf8 41. Qg7+ Ke8 42. Qe7#) 40... Kh7 41. Qh5+ Qh6 42. Qxh6+ Kxh6 0-1

[Event "Grangemouth C v Stirling E"] [Site "Grangemouth"] [Date "2025.12.03"] [Round "?"] [White "Short, A."] [Black "Feather, W."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C62"] [BlackElo "875"] [PlyCount "78"] [EventDate "2025.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. d3 Bd7 5. Bd2 a6 6. Bc4 Nf6 7. O-O Bg4 8. Nc3 Bxf3 9. Qxf3 Nd4 10. Qd1 c6 11. Be3 d5 12. Bb3 Nxb3 13. axb3 d4 14. Bg5 dxc3 15. bxc3 Be7 16. Ra5 Qxa5 17. b4 Qa3 18. Qd2 a5 19. bxa5 Rxa5 20. g3 O-O 21. Rb1 b5 22. Qe1 b4 23. cxb4 Bxb4 24. Rxb4 Qa1 25. Rb1 Qa4 26. c4 h6 27. Bd2 Ra6 28. f4 Ng4 29. fxe5 Nxe5 30. Qf1 Qc2 31. Rd1 Qxd3 32. Bf4 Qxf1+ 33. Kxf1 Nxc4 34. Ke2 Ra2+ 35. Kf3 g5 36. Bc1 f5 37. Rd4 Ne5+ 38. Ke3 f4+ 39. gxf4 gxf4# 0-1

2025-12-01 Match between the Stirling A and B Teams

Central League Division 1

Stirling A             5-0  Stirling B

Isaac Browning   2054  1-0  Richard Warcup 1637
William Spiers   1758  1-0  Brad Duthie    1552
Sean Flanagan    1698  1-0  Ross Warcup    1494
Nathanael Loch   1515  1-0  Steve Smith    1549
Kenny MacPherson 1506  1-0  Bill Cook      1544

Stirling A had white on boards 3 and 4

Stirling A team captain, Isaac reports:

Stirling A had to rely on two members of the C team due to shortages, but neither Kenny nor Nathanael looked out of place. Kenny won in a bishop endgame after the game simplified fairly quickly. Nathanael attacked his way to a position with a queen and extra pawn vs two rooks, the exposed black king tipping the balance in his favour.

I managed to beat Richard after breaking out of a cramped position with an extra pawn. William, playing his fifth black from five games, managed to build up a space advantage in the centre and eventually triumph.

Sean and Ross' game went right down to the wire. Sean had an extra pawn, but Ross' passer on c2 had the white rook locked down. Therefore, it seemed for a while as though white wouldn't be able to escape, but Sean managed to open the h-file and bring his rook across to threaten mate, the possible pawn promotion an irrelevance. Ross, down to his last few seconds, was unable to find the saving tactic in time.

A hard-fought match, again not fully captured by the scoreline, under difficult circumstances for all.