24 September 2018 - Central League Division 2

Stirling D		v		Grangemouth B
Craig Thomson Martin Pringle Ross Warcup Idris Benwell Alex Brimlow	822   542 522 437	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1	1620 1351 1337 1308 1104	Ian Mason Crawford Welsh Hugh Hanlon Alasdair Sandham David Fowler
		0 - 5

Hopefully the D team players enjoyed their games, despite the results, and I'm sure the wins will start coming soon.

24 September 2018 - Central League Division 1

Dunfermline A		v		Stirling A
Ben Volland Jamie O'Connor Calum Smith Stewart Brisbane Gordon Grieg	1822 1664 1612 1465 1396	½ - ½ 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½	1771 1712 1667 1634 1488	Jim Shemilt Steve Smith Graham Anderson David McAlister Brad Duthie
		1 - 4

Jim finished first, with his grandmaster draw against Ben. I followed about 30 minutes later - see below for my game. The rest of the games went on for some time - Steve deflected what I thought was a good Queen side attack and moved the focus back to the King side where he was stronger. David's game was too complicated for me to follow for a while, but he prevailed, and Brad finished last with a draw in a game that had been drawn for about 20 moves before it finally finished.

Smith - Anderson

Game

Thanks to Steve Smith for providing the game and analysis below - in the second round of the recent Bridge of Allan congress, Steve had White against Julius Schwartz. With Julius rated at 2123, this is just over 400 points above Steve.

ChessBase

Smith, S–Schwarz, J0–1Bridge of Allan Congress226.08.2018

1.e4 c5 2.f3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 a6 5.d3 c5 6.b3 e7 7.0-0 d6 8.c3 f6 9.e3 b6 10.f4 0-0 11.e2 After the game my opponent said he'd been worried that I had a forced win here, with the line 11 e5 dxe5 12 fxe5 Nd7 13 Bxh7+ Kxh7 14 Qh5+ Kg8 with Rf3 and Rh3 leading to mate. However, despite his high grade he was seeing phantoms here as after 15 Rf3 Black has f6 and if 16 Rh3 Nxe5 holds the King's defences. However, 11 e5 dxe5 12 fxe5e Nd7 should be followed by 13 Qf3 when White has some initiative. Black plays 13 .. Ra7 or the subtle Qc7 when 14 Qxa8 loses to Bb7 followed by Nc6. bd7 12.ad1 c7 13.g4 h6 14.g5 hxg5 15.fxg5 h7 16.h5 e5 17.d4 g6 18.h4 Black can instead win the pawn with 18 ... Bxg5 19 Bxg5 Nxg5 20 Qxg5 Qc5 regaining the piece. d8 19.f3 xf3+ 20.xf3 xg5 21.xg5 xg5 22.g3 f6 White is a pawn down but has some initiative. 23.df1 e5 24.g2 e7 25.d1 b7 26.c3 d5 27.f2 g7 28.g4 The decisive mistake, exd5 had to be played dxe4 29.xe4 f5 30.xg6 fxe4 31.xf8+ xf8 32.xf8+ xf8 33.xe4 xe4 34.xe4 c5+ 35.f1 f5+ White resigns. 0–1

Download PGN

17 September 2018 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B		v		Stirling C
Brad Duthie Dave Hewitt Richard Warcup Tony Pitson Craig Manson	1488 1550 1456 1456 1436	1 - 0 ½ - ½ 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	1385 1243 1163 822 766	Tom Wallace Robert Togneri Mick Bloor Craig Thomson Tom McKay
		4½ - ½

Grading list 2018/19

Name	Grade	Allegro Grade
Shivan Murdochy   Neil Irving   Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   David McAlister   Bill Cook   Dave Hewitt   John Blake   Brad Duthie   Kyle Kirkpatrick   David Scobie   Tony Pitson   Richard Warcup   Craig Manson   Alex Scott   Tom Wallace   Martyn Roe   Robert Togneri   Gordon Allcock   Mick Bloor   Craig Thomson   Tom McKay   Ross Warcup   Idris Benwell   Alex Brimlow   Martin Pringle   Chris Mintern   Douglas Pringle	1916   1904   1771   1712   1667   1634   1576   1550   1531   1488   1480   1473   1456   1456   1436   1398   1385   1379   1243   1226   1163   822   766   542   522   437	1916   1748   1696   1582   1695   1634   1562   1530   1627   1494   1462   1481   1386   1493   1223   1398   1357   1423   1164   1342   1194   725   766   858   376   436   1251   1249   400