22 December 2014 - Keddie Cup

Dave Hewitt writes:- Congratulations to Kenny McGeoch, who won the Keddie Cup last night with a fine unbeaten display, dropping only two draws en route to the title. He beat me in the final in a typical wild Keddie game - after 20 or so moves I was ahead and almost winning, having increased the initial material advantage and launched a strong attack. But Kenny instigated clever counterplay involving an advanced e-pawn and threats down the f-file - too good for me and the second half of the game turned into a K-hunt with the mating threats only avoided at the cost of a completely lost endgame position. A fine performance by Kenny, who was clearly the strongest and most in-form player on the night. I was having a good (if repeatedly very lucky) night too, but was no match for him in the end, even with the handicap in my favour.

The beaten semi-finalists were Neil Irving and the 2013 winner Gordon Allcock. Full results will be posted in due course.

It's the first time anyone has won the Keddie from the top-grader slot since Paul a decade ago, and as far as I'm aware Kenny becomes first non-member to take home the trophy - although of course he was a Stirling stalwart before work took him away to the wilds of West Lothian and the Badgers Brook club. The late Maxwell Thornton (in the period before its current handicap incarnation) has most Keddie wins with four, while Nick Blake also has three wins.

There were 19 players in all last night, as against 20 last year. The various visitors generally did well in terms of reaching the knockout stage, and an oddity was that each of four groups had one of their qualifying places decided by the head-to-head tiebreak between two players with the same score. Another curiosity was the high number of draws - last year the only drawn game was the first encounter in the final, whereas this time 11 games in all were drawn (including four involving me) out of 45 games played overall.

Dave and Kenny start the Final

Kenny with the trophy

Thanks again to everyone who played, brought catering items and raffle prizes and generally helped with setting up and packing away. The club is now closed for two Mondays - so there's nothing happening on 29 Dec and 5 Jan - then we reconvene on 12 Jan.

8 December 2014 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B v Dunfermline B
John Blake Bill Cook Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt Gordon Allcock	1573 1556 1536 1442 1416	½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0 ½ - ½ 1 - 0	1570 1537 1487 1387 1260	Stuart Black Douglas Rew Bryan O'Rourke Peter Horne Derek Rodger
		3 - 2

1 December 2014 - Central League Division 1

Badgers Brook v Stirling A
Kenny McGeoch   Fabio Biancalana   Mark Cooke   John Smith   Graham Kerr	1873   1889   1912   1735   1574	½ - ½   ½ - ½   1 - 0   ½ - ½   ½ - ½	1907   1787   1782   1727   1584	Shivan Murdochy   Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles
		3 - 2

I finished first with a draw in 20 moves against John Smith, followed by Jim and Shivan. Steve then lost after being out-manoeuvred by Mark. This left Robin to battle on in a very closed position. He eventually managed to open the g file, although he initially tried to do it by removing the wrong pawn in an en passant capture. At the end, Robin was a bishop up, but with just three seconds left was unlikely to convert it to a win.

24 November 2014 - Richardson Cup

On Monday night, Bill and I played out the following game in the Richardson Cup. It proved to be a game of complications, threats, sacrifices and the advantage being passed back and forward. Stockfish had a rare old time analysing it...

Cook - Anderson

17 November 2014 - Central League Division 2

Dunfermline B v Stirling C
Douglas Rew Bryan O'Rourke Peter Horne Ben Volland Derek Rodger	1537 1487 1387 1273 1260	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1	1416 1362 1262 1236 1199	Gordon Allcock Robert Leckie Craig Manson David Brodie Mick Bloor
		4 - 1

10 November 2014 - Central League Division 1

Stirling A v Dunfermline A
Shivan Murdochy   Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Bill Cook	1907   1787   1782   1727   1556	½ - ½   1 - 0   ½ - ½   ½ - ½   0 - 1	2115   1732   1631   1598   1570	Ian Robertson   Gavin Saxton   Fred Ossowski   Jim Webster   Stuart Black
		2½ - 2½

9 November 2014 - Scottish National Chess League

Division 2 - Forth Valley A v Cumbernauld
Dougie Will   Shivan Murdochy   Kenny McGeoch   Steve Smith   Ian Mason	1954   1907   1873   1782   1694	½ - ½   1 - 0   1 - 0   1 - 0   ½ - ½	1906   1782   1746   1737   1593	Steven Kelly   Mark Monaghan   Kevin Mayo   Ralph Stirrat   George Thomson
		4 - 1

Division 2 - Giffnock & Clarkston v Forth Valley A
Neil Thomson   Antonios Floros   Rosie Guilian   David McDonald   Andrew McCulloch	1984   1830   1806   1336   1139	0 - 1   ½ - ½   0 - 1   ½ - ½   0 - 1	1954   1907   1873   1782   1694	Dougie Will   Shivan Murdochy   Kenny McGeoch   Steve Smith   Ian Mason
		1 - 4

Division 3 - Forth Valley B v CSBOS1
Neil Irving   Bill Gray   Hugh Hanlon   Robert Leckie   David Brodie	1644   1511   1473   1362   1236	1 - 0   0 - 1   0 - 1   ½ - ½   1 - 0	1853   1803   1802   1668   1641	Nigel Chapman   Jamie Mollison   Crawford McNab   Rudolph Austin   David Stewart
		2½ - 2½

Division 3 - Dumfries & District v Forth Valley B
Michael Green   David Brown   Robert Walton   Gordon Lyburn   Stavros Karampatos	1975   1893   1740   1689   1661	1 - 0   1 - 0   1 - 0   ½ - ½   1 - 0	1644   1511   1473   1362   1236	Neil Irving   Bill Gray   Hugh Hanlon   Robert Leckie   David Brodie
		4½ - ½

3 November 2014 - Central Allegro League

Mixed fortunes for for the two Stirling teams as they participated in a home double header - Stirling Bruce were up against Grangemouth, while Stirling Wallace took on Dunfermline Sharks. Wallace fared better against three man Sharks, recording their first match win in some time by 8½ - 7½. Bruce struggled from the start, winning just the third of the four rounds, and going down 9½ - 6 ½, ending their 11 match unbeaten run.

Stirling Bruce 6½ - 9½ Grangemouth
Round 1
Paul Prescott	1 - 0	Hugh Hanlon
John Blake	0 - 1	Bill Gray
Dave Hewitt	0 - 1	Dougie Will
Graham Anderson	½ - ½	Ian Mason
Round 2
Paul Prescott	0 - 1	Dougie Will
John Blake	1 - 0	Hugh Hanlon
Dave Hewitt	0 - 1	Ian Mason
Graham Anderson	½ - ½	Bill Gray
Round 3
Paul Prescott	½ - ½	Ian Mason
John Blake	0 - 1	Dougie Will
Dave Hewitt	1 - 0	Bill Gray
Graham Anderson	1 - 0	Hugh Hanlon
Round 4
Paul Prescott	1 - 0	Bill Gray
John Blake	0 - 1	Ian Mason
Dave Hewitt	0 - 1	Hugh Hanlon
Graham Anderson	0 - 1	Dougie Will

 

Stirling Wallace 8½ - 7½ Dunfermline Sharks
Round 1
Steve Smith	½ - ½	Stuart Black
Tony Pitson	1 - 0	Fred Ossowski
Robin Hayles	0 - 1	Peter Horne
David Brodie	1d - 0d
Round 2
Steve Smith	1d - 0d
Tony Pitson	½ - ½	Stuart Black
Robin Hayles	½ - ½	Fred Ossowski
David Brodie	1 - 0	Peter Horne
Round 3
Steve Smith	0 - 1	Peter Horne
Tony Pitson	1d - 0d
Robin Hayles	½ - ½	Stuart Black
David Brodie	0 - 1	Fred Ossowski
Round 4
Steve Smith	0 - 1	Fred Ossowski
Tony Pitson	0 - 1	Peter Horne
Robin Hayles	1d - 0d
David Brodie	½ - ½	Stuart Black

27 October 2014 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B v Grangemouth B
John Blake Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt Martyn Roe Gordon Allcock	1573 1536 1442 1440 1416	1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0	1511 1473 1352 1047 862	Bill Gray Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh Hutch Williams David Fowler
		4 - 1

22 October 2014 - Central League Division 2

Grangemouth B v Stirling C
Bill Gray Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh Ross Heenan Keith Kleinman	1511 1473 1352 1245	0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1 ½ - ½ ½ - ½	1416 1262 1245 1236 1199	Gordon Allcock Craig Manson Robert Togneri David Brodie Mick Bloor
		2 - 3

20 October 2014 - Central League Division 1

Stirling A v Grangemouth A
Shivan Murdochy   Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles	1907   1787   1782   1727   1584	½ - ½   0 - 1   1 - 0   1 - 0   ½ - ½	1954   1511   1473   1352   1245	Dougie Will   Bill Gray   Hugh Hanlon   Crawford Welsh   Ross Heenan
		3 - 2

My game, presented below, was first to finish. It's been a long time since I faced 1 f4. Next to finish was Jim resigning against Bill while two pieces down. Steve then defeated Hugh, with two passed a and d pawns proving too much to stop. The last two games had Robin a pawn up in 3P v 2P ending which Ross defended well, while on board 1 Shivan had a bishop for two pawns. Both matches agreed draws within seconds of each other, to give Stirling a rare win against Grangemouth.

Welsh - Anderson

13 October 2014 - Richardson Cup

Thanks to John Blake for providing the game below. This was a qualifier for the Richardson Cup (club championship) between John Blake (White) and Bill Cook. While Stockfish analyses the final position as a draw, unfortunately John lost on time.

Blake - Cook

6 October 2014 - Club Allegro

Dave Hewitt writes: The autumn allegro on Monday evening was well attended, with 16 players including the two juniors Andrew and Ewan - they both had to leave before the end but it was good to see them getting involved. Given that various regulars were absent there could well be scope for an event with 20 players in due course, and it's good to see the club busy.

For a while it looked as if Shivan was going to stroll to 5/5 (he beat me in a long game and then saw off Neil in nine moves en route to 3/3), but Robin uncorked a Q sac against him in r4 and was suddenly on 100% himself. The last round saw Robin lose to Neil and Shivan beat Graham, so it finished as a three-way tie between Neil (who was also joint-winner last time), Shivan (making his debut in the event) and Robin, who had somehow contrived never to win any of the 18 previous allegros. Tony finished fourth with 3.5/5, while Robert T played well and made an excellent start - a draw with Graham and a win against Steve - before finishing on 2/5. Craig had his best result thus far, 3/5, including a curious r3 encounter with Gordon where both players ended up with not much time but Gordon had been the beneficiary of a two-minute bonus for an illegal move earlier, except that this had been remembered rather than actually added (don't tell anyone at FIDE, otherwise we'll be banned). At least with Craig's flag being the one to fall this meant that there wasn't any need to solve the puzzle of what to do if the person with spare unadded time actually ran out of the regular stuff first. (Problems relating to digital clocks, no.263...)

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16	Shivan Murdochy   Graham Anderson   Neil Irving   Steve Smith   Robin Hayles   Dave Hewitt   Tony Pitson   Gordon Allcock   David Brodie   Robert Togneri   Mick Bloor   Craig Manson   Paulo Ferreira   David Little   Andrew Richardson   Ewan Lennox	1907   1610   1603   1583   1522   1502   1425   1376   1332   1197   1189   1134   u/g   u/g   u/g   u/g	1 W 9   ½ B 10   1 W 11   0 B 12   1 W 13   1 B 14   1 W 15   1 B 16   0 B 1   ½ W 2   0 B 3   1 W 4   0 B 5   0 W 6   0 B 7   0 W 8	2 B 6   1½ W 12   2 B 7   0 W 10   2 B 8   1 W 1   1 W 3   1 W 5   1 W 14   1½ B 4   1 W 15   1 B 2   1 W 16   0 B 9   0 B 11   0 B 13	3 W 3   1½ B 5   2 B 1   1 bye   3 W 2   2 B 10   2 B 11   2 B 12   2 B 13   1½ W 6   1 W 7   1 W 8   1 W 9   1 B 15   0 W 13   -	3 B 5   2½ W 11   3 W 8   2 W 13   4 W 1   2½ W 7   2½ B 6   2 B 3   2½ W 10   2 B 9   1 B 2   2 B 14   1 B 4   1 W 12   1 bye   -	4 W 2   2½ B 1   4 W 5   3 B 11   4 B 3   3 B 8   3½ W 9   2½ W 6   2½ B 7   2 W 12   1 W 4   3 B 10   1 W 14   2 B 13   -   -	=1   =8   =1   =5   =1   =5   4   =8   =8   =11   =13   =5   =13   =11   =13   16

Thanks to Neil for providing his third round match against Shivan below, with analysis.

Murdochy - Irving

29 September 2014 - Thornton Cup

After much negotiation over the summer, we managed to complete our first Portuguese signing, from CC Porto, of Paolo Ferreira. Unfortunately he arrived injured, and was unable to make his competitive debut until last Monday night. He faced, as White, Craig Manson in the Thornton Cup.

Ferreira - Manson

25 September 2014 - Central League Divison 1

Cumbernauld v Stirling A
Steven Kelly   Mark Monaghan   Ralph Stirrat   George Thomson   J Pearson	1906   1782   1737   1593   1568	½ - ½   ½ - ½   ½ - ½   ½ - ½   0 - 1	1907   1787   1782   1727   1416	Shivan Murdochy   Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Gordon Allcock
		2 - 3

Gordon finished first, in just less than an hour, when a passed pawn in the endgame proved unstoppable. I didn't see much of the other games, but I finished last, agreeing a draw to win the match. I thought I was winning, but the computer disagrees, and rudely pointed out that if my 30th move in the position below had been Qf7+ instead of Qg4+, I would have won.

Anderson - Thomson

22 September 2014 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C v Stirling B
Gordon Allcock Robert Leckie Craig Manson David Brodie Mick Bloor	1416 1362 1262 1236 1199	0 - 1 ½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1	1573 1566 1536 1442 1245	John Blake Bill Cook Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt Robert Togneri
		1½ - 3½

The game below is from board 1, where Gordon Allcock had White against John Blake.

Allcock - Blake

15 September 2014 - Thornton Cup

As well as the allegro match between the two Stirling teams, there was the battle of the Roberts - Mr Leckie v Mr Togneri - in the Thornton Cup. The game played as below, with analysis from Mr Leckie.

Leckie - Togneri

15 September 2014 - Central Allegro League

Stirling Bruce 8½ - 7½ Stirling Wallace
Round 1
Paul Prescott	½ - ½	Steve Smith
John Blake	0 - 1	Tony Pitson
Bill Cook	½ - ½	Robin Hayles
Graham Anderson	1 - 0	Martyn Roe
Round 2
Paul Prescott	1 - 0	Martyn Roe
John Blake	0 - 1	Steve Smith
Bill Cook	1 - 0	Tony Pitson
Graham Anderson	1 - 0	Robin Hayles
Round 3
Paul Prescott	1 - 0	Robin Hayles
John Blake	0 - 1	Martyn Roe
Bill Cook	0 - 1	Steve Smith
Graham Anderson	½ - ½	Tony Pitson
Round 4
Paul Prescott	1 - 0	Tony Pitson
John Blake	½ - ½	Robin Hayles
Bill Cook	½ - ½	Martyn Roe
Graham Anderson	0 - 1	Steve Smith

Starting their defence of the Central Allegro League title, Bruce managed to grind out a victory over Wallace in a match that went down to the very last game. My lucky underpants were over-worked in rounds 1 and 2 - I recovered from a piece for a pawn down to a roughly equal endgame. I then survived Martyn missing a fork to win my rook. In my second game, Robin allowed me to queen a pawn, as he forgot that it could promote.

The last round saw Bill and John agreeing draws, before I miscalculated against Steve to lose a rook while already behind. This left the match tied at 7½ - 7½, before Paul triumphed against Tony.

Thornton Cup - 8 September 2014

The first competitive game of the season was played at the club last Monday, a prelimnary round match of the Thornton Cup. Dave Hewitt had White against 10 year old James Warwick. The game is notable as James' first ever competitive game (when James is a GM in 15 years time, Dave will happily claim "Ach, beaten him."), and a discovered checkmate from a pawn promotion.

Hewitt - Warwick

Grading List 2014/15

Name	Grade	Allegro Grade
Paul Prescott   Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Neil Irving   Robin Hayles   John Blake   Bill Cook   Tony Pitson   Dave Hewitt   Martyn Roe   Gordon Allcock   Robert Leckie   Jonathan Blake   Craig Manson   Robert Togneri   David Brodie   Nicholas Blake   Mick Bloor   Tom McKay   George Clarke	1960   1787   1782   1727   1644   1584   1573   1556   1536   1442   1440   1416   1362   1301   1262   1245   1236   1227   1199   818   812	1775   1705   1583   1610   1603   1522   1691   1666   1425   1532   1420   1376   1268   1197   1134   1197   1332   1398   1189   905   812

Lindsay Cup winner - Tony Pitson

Dave Hewitt writes:- The 2013-14 Lindsay Cup final was played on Wednesday afternoon, between Tony Pitson and Gordon Allcock, both of whom had won the fine old trophy once before. Tony won the toss and went on to win what was an interesting and well-fought game. He thus acquires not only the trophy itself but also one of the qualifying slots for the 2014-15 Richardson Cup.

Congratulations to Tony for a fine victory, and commiserations to Gordon for putting in a good effort only to end as runner-up. Thanks also to the other eight players who made this an enjoyable event.

The two players before the game...

...and Tony Pitson with the Lindsay Cup afterwards.

19 May 2014 - Club Allegro

Dave Hewitt writes: The penultimate night of the season saw the spring allegro being played - the 18th in the series - and 12 players took part. Congratulations to John and Neil who shared first place with 4/5 - both were unbeaten and they drew with each other (but not a grandmaster draw) in r5. It was Neil's first win - always good to see a new name on the roll of honour (there have now been 11 different winners or joint-winners) - and John's fifth, leaving him just one win behind Steve in overall terms.

Tony claimed the other place on the podium - an excellent result given that he started with a loss - and he won an interesting QvsRR game against Steve in r5 when a win for the latter would have seen him finish joint-first. It was good to see young James getting his first proper tournament outing - always a bit daunting, and even though the three games he played all ended in defeat it will have been good practice and will hopefully be just the start of a long competitive career.

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12	Bill Cook   John Blake   Graham Anderson   Neil Irving   Tony Pitson   Steve Smith   Dave Hewitt   Robert Togneri   David Brodie   Mick Bloor   Craig Manson   James Warwick	1684   1657   1593   1588   1581   1575   1502   1278   1276   1130   1071   u/g	1 W 7   1 B 8   1 W 9   1 B 10   0 W 11   1 B 12   0 B 1   0 W 2   0 B 3   0 W 4   1 B 5   0 W 6	1 B 4   1½ W 6   2 B 11   2 W 1   ½ B 9   1½ B 2   0 W 10   1 B 12   ½ W 5   1 B 7   1 W 3   0 W 8	1 W 2   2½ B 1   2 W 4   3 B 3   1½ W 10   2½ W 11   1 W 12   2 W 9   ½ B 8   1 B 5   1 B 6   0 B 7	2 B 10   3½ W 3   2 B 2   3½ W 6   2½ W 8   3 B 4   1½ B 11   2 B 5   1½ Bye   1 W 1   1½ W 7   0 -	2½ W 3   4 B 4   2½ B 1   4 W 2   3½ B 6   3 W 5   2½ W 9   3 W 11   1½ B 7   2 Bye   1½ B 8   0 -	=6   =1   =6   =1   3   =4   =6   =4   =10   9   =10   12

14 May 2014 - Central League Division 2

Grangemouth B v Stirling C
Bill Gray Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh Ross Heenan David Fowler	1496 1442 1259 764	½ - ½ 1 - 0 1 - 0 ½ - ½ 0 - 1	1383 1318 1323 1245 1207	Gordon Allcock Craig Manson Mick Bloor Robert Togneri David Brodie
		3 - 2

Richardson Cup - Paul Prescott wins again!

Congratulations to Paul Prescott, who last night retained the Richardson Cup. Paul agreed a draw with John Blake to move to 4½. With a match to spare, Paul has reached a score that no-one else can catch. Well done Paul!

Blake - Prescott

28 April 2014 - Central League Division 2

Dunfermline B v Stirling C
Fred Ossowski Douglas Rew Bryan O'Rourke Derek Rodger	1662 1569 1474 1239	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1 1d - 0d	1318 1245 1207 1182	Craig Manson Robert Togneri David Brodie Robert Leckie
		4 - 1

28 April 2014 - Central League Division 1 - League Decider!

Both teams went into tonight's re-arranged match with a league record of played 7, won 3, drawn 3, lost 1. No other teams in the league can catch either team. Badgers Brook had a slight advantage in board points, meaning a drawn match would have been enough for them, whereas Stirling had to win.

The match got off to a bad start for Stirling when Robin lost to Kenny - although the match could have been settled sooner if Kenny had noticed Robin's en prise knight. I then finished against Andrew with a draw (game below). I looked at the other games, and thought they could all have gone either way. I nipped downstairs to the toilet, came back upstairs and found that all the remaining games had finished as draws.

Congratulations, then, to Badgers Brook on their league title!

Stirling A v Badgers Brook
Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles   Neil Irving	1810   1750   1670   1660   1657	½ - ½   ½ - ½   ½ - ½   0 - 1   ½ - ½	1904   1942   1792   1776   1629	Martin Clancy   Mark Cooke   Andrew McHarg   Kenny McGeoch   Graham Kerr
		2 - 3

McHarg - Anderson

Thornton Cup winner - Robert Leckie

Congratulations to Robert Leckie, who beat David Brodie in the final of the Thornton Cup on Monday night. Well done, Robert!

Comiserations to David Brodie, who has been runner-up in this competition for four seasons in a row...

2 April 2014 - Under 1500 Cup

Stirling v Grangemouth
Bill Gray Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh Ross Heenan David Fowler	1496 1442 1259 764	0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1	1383 1318 1323 1245 1207	Gordon Allcock Craig Manson Mick Bloor Robert Togneri David Brodie
		3 - 2

I'm a bit late posting this - going to blame the Easter holidays...

14 April 2014 - Central League Division 1

Cumbernauld v Stirling A
Steven Kelly   Mark Monaghan   Ralph Stirrat   David Johnstone   George Thomson	1830   1715   1703   1599   1518	½ - ½   1 - 0   ½ - ½   1 - 0   ½ - ½	1810   1670   1660   1657   1616	Jim Shemilt   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles   Neil Irving   Bill Cook
		3½ - 1½

A disappointing result for Stirling A, as we slipped to our first defeat of the season. The three drawn games finished very close together, and then Neil lost on board 4. I battled on looking for a win, but spent much of the game in time trouble, and eventually lost on time while lost on the board.

7 April 2014 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B v Dunfermline B
Jim Shemilt Bill Cook John Blake Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt	1810 1616 1559 1520 1518	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	1662 1569 1474 1342 1335	Fred Ossowski Douglas Rew Bryan O'Rourke Peter Horne Tom Russell
		5 - 0

31 March 2014 - Central League Cup

Badgers Brook v Stirling
Mark Cooke   Fabio Biancalana   Martin Clancy   Andrew McHarg   Kenny McGeoch   Stuart Ward   Graham Kerr	1942   1927   1904   1792   1776   1630   1629	½ - ½   ½ - ½   1 - 0   1 - 0   ½ - ½   1 - 0   ½ - ½	1750   1670   1660   1657   1616   1559   1458	Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles   Neil Irving   Bill Cook   John Blake   Martyn Roe
		5 - 2

It would have been a big surprise if Stirling had managed to progress against such a strong team. My lucky underpants were worked overtime on board 2, after I missed a very strong reply to my attempt to get rid of an isolated d pawn. Fabio won two pawns, then in a time scramble to get to 30 moves lost a bishop. His three queenside pawns still looked to be very strong against my lonely-looking b pawn. Further analysis suggested he should probably have won.

24 March 2014 - Richardson Cup

On Monday night, John Blake (with White) and Bill Cook fought out this 87 move epic in the Richardson Cup.

Blake - Cook

24 March 2014 - Central Allegro League

Stirling Wallace 6 - 10 Dunfermline Minnows
Round 1
Robin Hayles	0 - 1	George Webb
Steve Smith	0 - 1	Jim Webster
Jim Shemilt	½ - ½	Ian Robertson
David Brodie	0 - 1	Ben Volland
Round 2
Robin Hayles	½ - ½	Jim Webster
Steve Smith	0 - 1	Ian Robertson
Jim Shemilt	1 - 0	Ben Volland
David Brodie	½ - ½	George Webb
Round 3
Robin Hayles	0 - 1	Ian Robertson
Steve Smith	1 - 0	Ben Volland
Jim Shemilt	1 - 0	George Webb
David Brodie	½ - ½	Jim Webster
Round 4
Robin Hayles	1 - 0	Ben Volland
Steve Smith	0 - 1	George Webb
Jim Shemilt	0 - 1	Jim Webster
David Brodie	0 - 1	Ian Robertson

19 March 2014 - Central League Division 1

Grangemouth A v Stirling A
Alan Bell   Dougie Will   John Smith   Ian Mason   Crawford Welsh	1946   1912   1739   1733   1259	½ - ½   1 - 0   0 - 1   1 - 0   0 - 1	1810   1750   1670   1660   1657	Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles   Neil Irving
		2½ - 2½

A tough match, the result of which does more for Stirling than Grangemouth. Again, Stirling got all their points from the White pieces. I was first to finish (game below), quickly followed by Steve resigning against Dougie on board 2. Ian then defeated Robin, leaving us 2-1 down. Neil converted his three pawn majority to a win, leaving Jim battling it out with Alan Bell on board 1. I couldn't really tell who was doing what, and Jim and Alan agreed a draw just after the time control.

The game below is from board 3, where I had White against John Smith.

Anderson - Smith

10 March 2014 - Central League Division 2

Dunfermline C v Stirling B
Bryan O'Rourke Peter Horne Matthew Stewart Derek Rodger Ben Volland	1474 1342 1300 1239 1090	½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1	1810 1616 1559 1520 1518	Jim Shemilt Bill Cook John Blake Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt
		2½ - 2½

I'm a bit late with this, but below is Dave Hewitt's game from board 5 where he had White against young Ben Volland.

Hewitt - Volland

Allegro Game

The game below is Paul Prescott v Ian Mason, from the last round of last week's Allegro match against Grangemouth. This was the first game of the round to finish, and put the score at 7½ - 5½ in favour of Stirling Bruce. This left Bill, John and I just needing a draw for Bruce to retain the title.

Prescott - Mason

5 March 2014 - Stirling Bruce retain the Central Allegro League title!

With 5 wins out of 5, Stirling Bruce retain the Central Allegro League title. Once the other teams complete their fixtures, I'll post the final table.

Grangemouth Tigers 7 - 9 Stirling Bruce
Round 1
Dougie Will	1 - 0	Paul Prescott
Ross Heenan	0 - 1	John Blake
Keith Kleinman	0 - 1	Graham Anderson
Ian Mason	1 - 0	Bill Cook
Round 2
Dougie Will	0 - 1	Bill Cook
Ross Heenan	1 - 0	Graham Anderson
Keith Kleinman	0 - 1	Paul Prescott
Ian Mason	0 - 1	John Blake
Round 3
Dougie Will	1 - 0	John Blake
Ross Heenan	½ - ½	Paul Prescott
Keith Kleinman	0 - 1	Bill Cook
Ian Mason	1 - 0	Graham Anderson
Round 4
Dougie Will	1 - 0	Graham Anderson
Ross Heenan	0 - 1	Bill Cook
Keith Kleinman	½ - ½	John Blake
Ian Mason	0 - 1	Paul Prescott

24 February 2014 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B v Grangemouth B
Jim Shemilt Bill Cook Dave Hewitt Tony Pitson Robert Togneri	1810 1616 1518 1520 1245	1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0	1496 1442 1259 764	Bill Gray Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh Ross Heenan David Fowler
		4 - 1

24 February 2014 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C v Dunfermline B
Martyn Roe Mick Bloor Craig Manson David Brodie Robert Leckie	1458 1323 1318 1207 1182	½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1	1662 1569 1342 1300 1090	Fred Ossowski Douglas Rew Peter Horne Matthew Stewart Ben Volland
		1½ - 3½

23 February 2014 - Scottish National League

Forth Valley A v North Ayrshire Crusaders
Dougie Will   Kenny McGeoch   Steve Smith   Ian Mason   Robin Hayles	1912   1776   1750   1733   1660	1 - 0   0 - 1   0 - 1   0 - 1   1 - 0	2000   1706   1754   1576   1232	David Grant   Daniel Deary   David Deary   Paul MacDonald   Jack Stewart
		2 - 3

CS BOS1 v Forth Valley A
Crawford Macnab   Nigel Chapman   Rudolph Austin   Thomas Grundy   David Stewart	1805   1774   1720   1678   1614	1 - 0   ½ - ½   0 - 1   ½ - ½   ½ - ½	1912   1776   1750   1733   1670	Dougie Will   Kenny McGeoch   Steve Smith   Ian Mason   Graham Anderson
		2½ - 2½

 

Pentland Hills v Forth Valley B
David Begg   Robin Bauld   Charles Nisbet   Walter Pearson   Richard Heathwood	1786   1616   1605   1458   1436	0 - 1   1 - 0   ½ - ½   0 - 1   ½ - ½	1657   1616   1496   1442   1207	Neil Irving   Bill Cook   Bill Gray   Hugh Hanlon   David Brodie
		2 - 3

Forth Valley B v Inverclyde
Neil Irving   Bill Cook   Bill Gray   Hugh Hanlon   David Brodie	1657   1616   1496   1442   1207	½ - ½   0 - 1   0 - 1   0 - 1   0 - 1	2069   1880   1822   1696   1666	Kevin McDonald   John Calder   Steve Hilton   David Logue   Andrew Curran
		½ - 4½

Things look grim for Forth Valley A in division 2 - 4 draws and 2 defeats leave them bottom of the table, with a tough final fixture against Dunfermline. Forth Valley B, with 2 victories and 4 defeats, should be safe in division 3.

10 February 2014 - Central Allegro League

Stirling Bruce 10½ - 5½ Badgers Brook
Round 1
Bill Cook	½ - ½	Fabio Biancalana
John Blake	0 - 1	Graham Kerr
Graham Anderson	1 - 0	Kenny Aiston
Dave Hewitt	1 - 0	Robert Liddle
Round 2
Bill Cook	1 - 0	Robert Liddle
John Blake	0 - 1	Fabio Biancalana
Graham Anderson	1 - 0	Graham Kerr
Dave Hewitt	½ - ½	Kenny Aiston
Round 3
Bill Cook	1 - 0	Kenny Aiston
John Blake	1 - 0	Robert Liddle
Graham Anderson	½ - ½	Fabio Biancalana
Dave Hewitt	1 - 0	Graham Kerr
Round 4
Bill Cook	1 - 0	Graham Kerr
John Blake	0 - 1	Kenny Aiston
Graham Anderson	1 - 0	Robert Liddle
Dave Hewitt	0 - 1	Fabio Biancalana

3 February 2014 - Richardson Cup match

Last night, Steve and I fought out the following game in the Richardson Cup. I had White.

Anderson - Smith

27 January 2014 - Central League Division 2

Dunfermline C v Stirling C
Bryan O'Rourke Peter Horne T Russell Derek Rodger Ben Volland	1474 1342   1239 1090	½ - ½ 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1 ½ - ½	1458 1323 1318 1245 1207	Martyn Roe Mick Bloor Craig Manson Robert Togneri David Brodie
		3 - 2

27 January 2014 - Central League Division 1

Stirling A v Dunfermline A
Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles   Neil Irving   Tony Pitson	1750   1670   1660   1657   1520	0 - 1   ½ - ½   ½ - ½   1 - 0   1 - 0	2149   1740   1607   1569   1321	Ian Robertson   Iain Sneddon   Stuart Black   Douglas Rew   George Webb
		3 - 2

20 January 2014 - Club Allegro

Dave Hewitt writes: Congratulations to Steve for winning the club allegro last Monday - his sixth win or joint-win in the 17 events held thus far (since 2005), which takes him two clear of the next most frequent winner (Graham). By the end of r3 this edition was a shakeup between Steve, Graham and me in terms of who was going to win it. I was clear leader after r3 but was then well beaten by Steve, who held his nerve to win a tricky ending against Robert L in r5 was I was squeezing past Graham to finish second.

As ever there was an entertaining mix of tight margins and sudden turnarounds. Robert L - who surely did better than anyone in relative grading terms - scored 2½/5 but also came very close to getting draws in his games against Graham and Steve (and possibly a win against Graham - a pawn on h7 just needed to be pushed one more square and the result would have been different). The final-round game against Steve was possibly the tightest of the lot - it was heading for a technical drawn ending as the clocks ticked down, but when Steve had just 25 secs left Robert moved into a check and the resulting two-minute bonus gave Steve enough time to work out how to win.

Steve also had a close shave in r3 against Gordon - with very little time left he was just one move away from mate but forgot to press his clock. Gordon very sportingly pointed this out to him. My own r3 game was also exciting and included probably the biggest swindle of the night - I was losing in about 20 different ways to Neil and close to resigning before he played something odd and allowed a two-move mate that I certainly didn't deserve.

Overall there were 12 players, and everyone won at least one game - always good to see. The next club allegro will probably be on Mon 28 April, although as ever with late-season stuff there might be a bit of date-juggling to accommodate postponed matches etc.

Time control: 15 minutes each for all moves

	Name	Grade	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Place
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12	Bill Cook   Graham Anderson   Neil Irving   Tony Pitson   Steve Smith   Dave Hewitt   Gordon Allcock   Robert Togneri   David Brodie   Robert Leckie   Mick Bloor   Craig Manson	1684   1593   1588   1581   1575   1502   1406   1278   1276   1224   1130   1071	1 W 7   1 B 8   1 W 9   ½ B 10   1 W 11   1 B 12   0 B 1   0 W 2   0 B 3   ½ W 4   0 B 5   0 W 6	1 B 6   1½ W 5   2 B 4   ½ W 3   1½ B 2   2 W 1   1 W 12   0 B 11   0 W 10   1½ B 9   1 W 8   0 B 7	2 W 11   2½ B 10   2 W 6   1 B 8   2½ W 7   3 B 3   1 B 5   ½ W 4   0 B 12   1½ W 2   1 B 1   1 W 9	2 B 2   3½ W 1   2 B 10   2 W 12   3½ B 6   3 W 5   1 W 11   ½ B 9   1 W 8   2½ W 3   2 B 7   1 B 4	3 W 4   3½ B 6   3 B 11   2 B 1   4½ W 10   4 W 2   1 B 9   1½ W 12   2 W 7   2½ B 5   2 W 3   1 B 8	=4   3   =4   =7   1   2   11   10   =7   6   =7   12

13 January 2014 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C v Stirling B
Martyn Roe Gordon Allcock Craig Manson Mick Bloor David Brodie	1458 1383 1318 1323 1207	½ - ½ 1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0	1810 1616 1559 1520 1518	Jim Shemilt Bill Cook John Blake Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt
		3½ - 1½

Dave Hewitt writes:- Tremendous win on Monday for Stirling C vs Stirling B - especially as C were the home team and thus only had two whites (on boards 2 and 4). They almost pulled off a shock in the reverse fixture in September, and this time - despite being outgraded by an average of 266 points per board - took their chances when an out-of-sorts B team provided them.

The first game to finish was on board 4, where Tony was two pieces up but allowed Mick to conjure a mate. John quickly levelled things with a win against Craig (John's the only B-teamer who has been in steady form this season, winning all four of his games) before Gordon beat Bill on board 2 to put the Cs ahead again. This left Jim and me both needing to win in order for the Bs to snatch the match, but by this stage we were both worse - Jim was an exchange down against Martyn in what looked to be the game of the night, while I'd messed up a reasonable middlegame position (not for the first time this season) and had no realistic hope of anything better than a draw, and even that looked unlikely with David well on top by now and playing good chess. The Jim-Martyn game ended in a draw by repetition, so I now needed to win from a lost position in order to draw the match (again not for the first time this season). But it was more a case of the captain going down with the ship and I resigned when David acquired his second Q. Not the best of nights for the Bs, but a well-deserved win for the Cs, who thus broke their duck in terms of league points this season.

Hewitt - Brodie