28 October 2019 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B		v		Grangemouth B
Brad Duthie Dave Hewitt John Blake Richard Warcup Martyn Roe	1494 1547 1531 1463 1425	½ - ½ 0 - 1 ½ - ½ 1 - 0 1 - 0	1572 1341 1319 1281 1161	Ian Mason Alasdair Sandham Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh David Fowler
		3 - 2

Grangemouth had white on boards 3, 4 and 5.

There's now quite a long gap until the final B team match of the first half of the season - we're way at Cumbernauld B on Thursday 12 December.

21 October 2019 - Central Allegro League

Stirling Wallace 7 - 9 Dunfermline Minnows
Round 1
Kabir Pandit	½ - ½	Ian Robertson
David McAlister	1 - 0	Gonzalo Forero
Richard Warcup	1 - 0	Stewart Brisbane
Tom Wallace	½ - ½	Gordon Grieg
Round 2
Tom Wallace	0 - 1	Ian Robertson
Kabir Pandit	1 - 0	Gonzalo Forero
David McAlister	1 - 0	Stewart Brisbane
Richard Warcup	0 - 1	Gordon Grieg
Round 3
Gordon Allcock	0 - 1	Ian Robertson
Tom Wallace	0 - 1	Gonzalo Forero
Kabir Pandit	1 - 0	Stewart Brisbane
David McAlister	0 - 1	Gordon Grieg
Round 4
David McAlister	0 - 1	Ian Robertson
Gordon Allcock	0 - 1	Gonzalo Forero
Tom Wallace	0 - 1	Stewart Brisbane
Kabir Pandit	1 - 0	Gordon Grieg

14 October 2019 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C		v		Badgers Brook B
William Spiers Gordon Allcock Martyn Roe Tony Pitson Robert Togneri	1640 1284 1425 1413 1236	0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	1644 1497 1485 877	John Smith Dave McGilvray Mark Brown Peter Woollven Craig van der Heever
		3 - 2

Gordon's appearance on board 2 (out of grading order) was to the late arrival of Craig M back from holiday - Gordon stood in when it seemed as if Craig wasn't going to make it.

14 October 2019 - Central League Division 2

Stirling E		v		Stirling B
Aaron Nobile Tom Wallace Kenny MacPherson Mick Bloor Craig Thomson	1398 1389 1326 1158 824	½ - ½ 0 - 1 ½ - ½ 0 - 1 0 - 1	1494 1567 1547 1531 1463	Brad Duthie David McAlister Dave Hewitt John Blake Richard Warcup
		1 - 4

Stirling B had white on boards 3, 4 and 5.

The Stirling C team were also in League action at home to Badgers Brook B and recorded a 3 -2 win. Hopefully further details on this match will follow.

9 October 2019 - Central League Division 1

Grangemouth A		v		Stirling A
Graham Hamilton Alan Bell Dougie Will David Wallace Ian Mason	1984 1970 1816 1735 1572	1 - 0 1 - 0 ½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0	1793 1753 1662 1592	Kabir Pandit Jim Shemilt Steve Smith Graham Anderson Bill Cook
		3½ - 1½

This is my game from board 4, where I had White against David Wallace. A very topsy-turvy game - after 18 g4 I felt I had he initiative, but handed it back with 22 Qh5 and 25 Qh6. 29 Ne5+ saved my bacon.

ChessBase

Anderson, G–Wallace, D1–0Grangemouth A v Stirling AGrangemouth CC09.10.2019

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 f5 4.f3 e6 5.d3 xd3 6.xd3 b6 7.0-0 e7 8.bd2 f5 9.b3 d7 10.e3 e7 11.c3 0-0 12.g5 xg5 13.xg5 h6 14.f3 David said afterwards that he was dreading 14 g4, something I didn't even consider here. 14 ... hxg5 (pretty much forced) 15 gxf5 c5 15.d2 To avoid c4. c4 16.c1 fc8 17.e2 f8 18.g4 This has been coming for a while. e7 19.g3 Preferred to g5, to prevent h5. d8 20.g5 hxg5 21.xg5 Stockfish prefers Nxg5 instead, and now reckons Black can switch play back to the Queen-side with b5 or Rc6. eg6 22.h5 I regretted this move almost instantly, and began to see the Queen getting trapped. f5 23.exf6 I wasn't sure what to do here. Stockfish recommends Ne2 instead, followed by Kh1 then Rg1, and gives White the advantage with this. gxf6 I had expected Qxf6 instead. 24.ae1 c7 25.h6 h7 26.d2 White has lost the advantage now. Stockfish preferred 25 Kh1 Rh7 26 Qg4 instead. d6 27.h1 f7 28.g1 f4 29.e5+ This came to me out of the blue... fxe5 30.dxe5 e7 31.xf4+ e8 32.e2 d7 33.d4 f7 34.g3 h7 35.f4 Black resigns. Black cannot prevent f5 and the subsequent pressure on e6. 1–0

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7 October 2019 - Central League Division 2

Updated 9 October 2019

Stirling B		v		Stirling C
Brad Duthie David McAlister Dave Hewitt John Blake Richard Warcup	1494 1567 1547 1531 1463	½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	1425 1398 1389 1413 1284	Martyn Roe Aaron Nobile Tom Wallace Tony Pitson Gordon Allcock
		3½ - 1½

Dave Hewitt has annotated his game, describing it as "the first really lively one I've had for a while, after a series of quiet encounters."

ChessBase

Wallace, Tom –Hewitt, Dave0–1C00Central League Division 207.10.2019Hewitt

My game against Tom was an interesting scrap which, as often in suddenly unstable positions, included a defensive resource (for White) which we both missed and which would potentially have led to equality. The first crucial point came at move 15. Before that it was pretty quiet - Tom got behind in development but I didn't manage to take the initiative. 1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.d4 f6 5.h3 e7 6.f3 0-0 7.c4 e8 This was a rudimentary trap, as something such as 8 Bb2 allows 8 ...Bb4#, not that Tom was ever going to fall for that (and I felt slightly bad/rude about setting it up at the time, as 8 ...c5 would have been better long-term). 8.e2 c6 9.0-0 bd7 10.e1 e4 11.a3 df6 12.d3 f5 13.c5 h6 14.f4 h5 15.xh6 I'd expected 15 Bh2 (which, like Be3 or Be5, gives White a slight edge according to the computer), but after quite a long think Tom opted to liven things up with 15 Bxh6. This doesn't work, and the machine reckons I should just have taken the piece, but I'd been eyeing-up an f2 sac of my own and now, with the dark-squared Bishop having gone elsewhere, it proved too tempting to resist, hence xf2 16.xf2 Tom had to take this - if the Queen moves, eg 16.d2 then xd3 wins without much fuss but there now came the second key moment. 16...h4+ Instead of this check, I should have taken one of the pieces - 16 ...Bxd3 or ...gxh6, with a solid advantage. However, 16 ...Bh4+ looked obvious and I played it without much analysis. 17.xh4 After this capture it's just lost - once the Queen comes in with check it's too strong and everything collapses quickly, as the Bd3 drops with check and can't be recaptured because of 19 ...Rxe1#. But after 16 ...Bh4+, Tom had scope to play the calm 17.g1 the point being that after xe1 White has 18.g5 and then after f6 the loose Bf5 (which I'd been worried about throughout the combination) drops, viz. 19.xf5 fxg5 20.xe1 and White is OK. Complicated stuff, but instructive given that there's so often a moment like this within an attack when the defender can fend things off. 17...xh4+ 18.f1 xd3+ 19.e2 xe2+ 20.xe2 g3+ 21.g1 xe2+ 22.h2 xh6 White resigned. At the end - which is horrible for White, as suddenly all of black's pieces are on the right squares - I thought I'd missed a mate, not that it mattered by then, and indeed I had 22...g3+ 23.h1 e1+ 24.h2 g1# 0–1

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2 October 2019 - Central League Division 2

Grangemouth B		v		Stirling C
Ian Mason Alaisdair Sandham Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh David Fowler	1572 1341 1319 1281 1161	½ - ½ 1 - 0 ½ - ½ 0 - 1 1 - 0	1640 1448 1398 1326 1158	William Spiers Craig Manson Aaron Nobile Kenny MacPherson Mick Bloor
		3 - 2

Thanks to Kenny for providing the game below, where he was Black and facing Bird's opening for the first time.

ChessBase

Welsh, C–MacPherson, K0–1Grangemouth B v Stirling CGrangemouth CC02.10.2019

1.f4 d5 2.f3 c5 3.e3 c6 4.b5 a6 5.xc6+ bxc6 6.e5 d6 7.0-0 f6 8.h5+ g6 9.xg6 hxg6 10.xh8 h6 11.b3 f7 12.f3 g7 13.h7 f5 14.b2 g5 15.fxg5 xh7 16.gxh6 xh6 17.h3 g7 18.c3 xc2 19.f1 h8 20.ff3 f7 21.e2 d1 22.g3 xf3 23.f5 e6 24.xh6+ g6 25.xf3 xh6 White resigns 0–1

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Richardson Cup

Thanks to David for providing this game, played recently as a qualifier for the Richrdson Cup (club championship), and for the new format for showing games.

ChessBase

McAlister, David–Duthie, Brad1–0C01Richardson Cup qualifying1Stirling25.09.2019McAlister

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.f3 f6 5.d3 d6 6.0-0 0-0 7.c4 c6 8.c3 g4 9.g5 dxc4 10.xc4 e7 11.d3 xf3 12.xf3 xd4 White has probably sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn. 13.b3 h6 A mistake. 13...bd7 would have been better here. 14.ad1 e5 15.h4 bd7 16.fe1 c5 17.xd7 This combination leads to a winning advantage for White. ae8 If 17...xd7 18.xe7 ae8 or 18...b6 19.xf8 xf8 20.e7 or 18...fe8 19.xf7+ h8 20.xe8 xe8 21.f7 xc3 22.xe8+ h7 23.d6 19.xc5 xe1+ 20.f1 xc5 18.xf6 gxf6 If 18...xf6 19.xf7+ xf7 20.xe8+ f8 21.xf8+ xf8 19.g4+ h8 20.h4 g7 21.e3 b5 22.g3+ h7 23.d3+ f5 24.h5 g5 25.xf7+ h8 26.xf8+ xf8 27.xg5 e1+ 28.f1 d6 Black lost on time. 1–0

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30 September 2019 - Central League Division 2

Badgers Brook B		v		Stirling B
Mark Brown Dylan Gillies Gordon Walker Peter Woollven Craig van den Heever	1485 1378 1267   877	0- 1 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ 0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 4	1494  1567  1547  1531  1463	Brad Duthie David McAlister Dave Hewitt John Blake Richard Warcup

Thanks to Brad for providing the game below, where he had White against Mark Brown.

ChessBase

Duthie, B–Brown, M1–0Badgers Brook B v Stirling BBadgers Brook CC30.09.2019

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.f3 c6 4.e3 a6 5.a3 d7 6.c3 e7 7.cxd5 cxd5 8.d3 h6 9.0-0 b5 10.d2 b6 11.e4 f6 12.e5 fd7 13.e2 0-0 14.c1 c4 15.xh6 xb2 16.xg7 xd3 17.h6 f5 18.h8+ f7 19.xf8 xf8 20.a2 b4 21.d2 xf2 22.xf2 bxa3 23.f4 e8 24.g6 d7 25.xe7 xe7 26.f6 xf6 27.exf6 h7 28.e5+ e8 29.f7+ f8 30.h4 a5 31.g4 f6 32.g2 xg4 33.xg4 fxg4 34.xg4 xf7 35.f2+ e7 36.g8 b8 37.a2 b1+ 38.h2 d7 39.g7+ e8 The recording of the moves is unclear from here, but Brad thinks it may have been 40. Rxa3 a4 41. h5 e5 42. h6 Rb6 43. h7 Rh6+ 44. Kg3 exd4 45. Rg8+ Ke7 46. h8=Q Rxh8 47. Rxh8 Kd6 48.Kf4 Kc5 49. Rg3 Kc4 50. Rg7 Bb5 51. Ra8 d3 52. Ke3 Kc3 53. Rc7+ Kb3 1-0 1–0

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