Stirling Chess Club has won both Divisions of the Central League, but there remain a few matches left to play before the League season is wrapped up.
We start with two matches from the second tier.
Central League Division 2
Stirling E 2-3 Clackmannanshire
1. Rudra Pardhi 930 1-0 Glen Wilson 1047
2. Josh Heesom u/g 1-0 Joseph Lambert u/g
3. Samay Banakar u/g 0-1 Aiden Cameron u/g
4. Jamie Scanlon u/g 0-1 Roman Quinn u/g
5. Aarika Pawar u/g 0-1 Catherine Lambert u/g
Stirling had White on boards 3 and 4
Graham reports:
A first win of the season for Clackmannanshire - congratulations to them! It was great to see so many juniors - 8 - involved in this match.
Samay resigned early on, then Josh set a mating trap, with the lure of a Queen, for Joseph which he fell into.
Jamie missed a mate in two combination for five moves in a row before Roman swapped Queens, and the extra pawns made the difference.
Aarika got slowly strangled by Catherine before a back rank mate. Rudra - Glen will hopefully be on the club website soon.
Central League Division 2
Stirling D 2½-2½ Badgers Brook B
1. Tom Wallace 1313 ½-½ Antonio La Gamma 1269
2. David Fowler 1300 ½-½ David Lawrence 1180
3. Mick Bloor 1084 0-1 Connor George 977
4. Victor Lui 928 ½-½ Douglas Scott 973
5. Elsa Lui u/g 1-0 Peter Woollven 907
Stirling had White on boards 4 and 5
Tom reports:
Elsa secured an early point with a good win against Peter.
Mick blew a winning position and lost a rook and eventually the game.
Victor and Douglas drew a Knight and pawn ending.
I had managed to draw with Antonio in a Knight and Bishop ending with lots of blocking pawns to force the draw.
The last game was an agreed draw with Stirling's David’s clock dropping but Badgers David only had a knight left. David F should have claimed a draw with under 2 minutes left and Kenny pointed out the King and Knight could theoretically mated with David’s rook and pawn in the corner. The 2 David’s had agreed a draw so all square in the end.
In Division 1, Stirling B's last match of the season against Badgers Brook A resulted in a 3.5 -1.5 win for the visitors:
Central League Division 1
Stirling B 1½-3½ Badgers Brook A
1. Richard Warcup 1637 0-1 Kenny McGeoch 2014
2. Brad Duthie 1552 0-1 Suzy Cooke 1902
3. Bill Cook 1544 ½-½ Jonathan Rowney 1543
4. Steve Smith 1549 0-1 Graham Kerr 1482
5. Kenny MacPherson 1506 1-0 Colin Matthews 1394
Stirling had White on Boards 2 and 4
Bill reports:
Kenny MacP was a piece up fairly early on and converted to bring the first point. Suzy also won a piece and was the second game to finish.
I didn't see the end of the Board one game but apparently Richard had four pawns for two pieces but with only a couple of minutes left Kenny McG still managed to win.
I won a pawn and had possibly a winning advantage but spent some time trying a failing to see a way through and with both of us having about one minute left we agreed a draw.
In the last game to finish Steve won a pawn but Graham conjured up a mating attack.
Thanks to Badgers for a good match - slightly closer than the final score indicated.
To illustrate Bill's final point, here is the Board one game - a complicated and fluctuating encounter, which eventually ended up in the notorious KBN -v- K endgame. At this point, Kenny McG's endgame technique was up to a challenge which has proved too much for many club players and even much stronger ones.
