25 October 2017 - Central League Division 2

Grangemouth A v Stirling A
Ubong Archibong   Alan Bell   Graham Hamilton   David Wallace   John Smith	2210   1990   1962   1757   1702	1 - 0   ½ - ½   ½ - ½   0 - 1   ½ - ½	1767   1704   1663   1622   1428	Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Bill Cook   Graham Anderson   Brad Duthie
		2½ - 2½

I was first to finish, in a bit of a crazy game. Both of us got into time trouble, although David was a bit worse, having just less than a couple of minutes to make 9 moves to get to 30. I managed to lay just enough threats, and combined with the rejuvenated lucky underpants, got the win on move 34. We both, unsurprisingly, missed much better variations. Brad got a good draw on board 5, but I didn't see much of the other games.

19 October 2017 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B v Cumbernauld B
Dave Hewitt Brad Duthie Martyn Roe Gordon Allcock Richard Warcup	1584 1428 1419 1284	1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0	1404 1272 1085 964 883	Derek McAteer Steven Gentleman Liam Heron Mark Heron Euan Wallace
		2 - 3

Dave Hewitt writes:- An excellent win for Cumbernauld, for whom their juniors did really well. It was one of the notional away matches for Cumbernauld with them required to field at least three juniors, and Stirling (lacking three of their B nominees but with solid reserves available) were comprehensively outplayed. Cumbernauld fairly quickly went one up when Gordon missed a R idea and Mark cashed in. It was soon back level with Richard picking up a couple of pawns against Euan, but the other three games were quite lengthy affairs.

Brad opted for an overambitious exchange sac which eventually led to a loss, while in the battle of the captains on top board I'd nabbed a pawn fairly early on and decided to try and hang on to it, which I did but it wasn't much fun as Derek had the initiative for ages and it was only around the time control that I managed to disentangle and get into smoother waters via a heavy piece ending. That just left the board 3 game between Martyn for Stirling and the older Heron boy for Cumbernauld, and Liam made a very nice job of converting a pawn-up bishop ending with the clocks running down. So that saw Cumbernauld home for a well deserved win, and gave Stirling an early season setback.

16 October 2017 - Central League Division 2

Dunfermline B v Stirling C
Mark Brown Kenny Aiston Dave McGilvray Derek Raffan Steve Lawson	1468 1433 1430 1375	1 - 0 ½ - ½ 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1	1388 1386 1284 1273 1107	Alex Scott Tom Wallace Gordon Allcock Robert Togneri Mick Bloor
		3½ - 1½

9 October 2017 - Central League Division 1

Stirling A v Dunfermline A
Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Bill Cook   Graham Anderson   Dave Hewitt	1767   1704   1663   1622   1584	½ - ½   1 - 0   ½ - ½   1 - 0   ½ - ½	1919   1675   1661   1660   1581	Ian Robertson   Stuart Black   Jamie O'Connor   Michael Roy   Calum Smith
		3½ - 1½

Bill finished first with his draw, then I got my win soon after (see below). Steve then finished with a win, calmly converting a pawn up in a rook and pawn ending. The remaining two games continued on for a while, before Jim offered Ian a draw in what looked a winning position to make sure of the match victory. Dave and Calum continued until each player was down to around a minute. Dave took an en prise bishop then offered a draw which Calum accepted.

[Event "Stirling A v Dunfermline A"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2017.10.09"] [Round ""] [White "Roy, M"] [Black "Anderson, G"] [Result "0-1"] 1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. Qc2 O-O 7. e3 Be6 8. Bd3 Nbd7 9. Nf3 h6 10. Bh4 Rc8 11. O-O c5 12. Rac1 cxd4 13. exd4 Bb4 14. Qb3 Qa5 15. Rfe1 Nh5 { Aiming for f4, to attack d3. However, this is wrong, it should have been Ne4. I had briefly considered this, and missed that if White takes it, taking back with d pawn is a discovered attack on the Queen. } 16. Ne5 Nxe5 17. Rxe5 Nf4 18. Bb1 { And now that the position comes up, I've missed Qc2 for White threatening mate. } 18... Qb6 { Cool computer analysis says that Bg3 is the correct response here, and I'd discounted that after Qxd4. Michael spent some time considering his reply, and ran very short of time. } 19. Qd1 Bd6 { This produces a discovered threat on b2. } 20. Qc2 g6 21. Re3 { The computer recommends giving up the exchange with Bf6. } 21... Qxd4 22. Rd1 Ne2+ 23. Qxe2 Qxh4 24. Bxg6 { Down to under 2 minutes of time, this is a fatal mistake. } 24... Qxh2+ 25. Kf1 Qh1# 0-1

2 October 2017 - Central Allegro League

Stirling Bruce 11½ - 4½ Stirling Wallace
Round 1
Bill Cook	½ - ½	Steve Smith
John Blake	1 - 0	Tony Pitson
Dave Hewitt	½ - ½	Gordon Allcock
Brad Duthie	1 - 0	Richard Warcup
Round 2
Bill Cook	1 - 0	Richard Warcup
John Blake	1 - 0	Steve Smith
Dave Hewitt	1 - 0	Tony Pitson
Brad Duthie	1 - 0	Gordon Allcock
Round 3
Bill Cook	½ - ½	Gordon Allcock
John Blake	1 - 0	Richard Warcup
Dave Hewitt	½ - ½	Steve Smith
Brad Duthie	1 - 0	Tony Pitson
Round 4
Bill Cook	½ - ½	Tony Pitson
John Blake	1 - 0	Gordon Allcock
Dave Hewitt	0 - 1	Richard Warcup
Brad Duthie	0 - 1	Steve Smith