Sun set

The sun sets over Stirling Chess Club - figuratively, but not literally. Our outdoor sessions continue, although won't last much longer as it's getting dark at 7pm, and our weekly online competition on lichess.org, with our friends from Stirling University, continue. It's still unclear when we might be allowed back into the Church, but it's unlikely to be anytime soon.
 

Outdoor Chess and a Beautiful Sunset

 The outdoor chess continues. We're a serious lot - not easily distracted by beautiful sunsets...

Outdoor Chess

The outdoor chess continues. After one of the worst storms in living memory (and it seems Stirling may only have got the edge of it), it was a beautiful warm night in Kings Park. Thanks to all who turned out.

The New Normal

The club 'met' for the first time in four months earlier tonight for some outdoor games at Kings Park. Thanks to those who came along, and those who provided the sets, to make it an enjoyable evening.

We look forward to welcoming the other clubs from the Central League here to complete the fixtures from the 2019/2020 season on a wet, windy Monday night in November </joke>

Chess Club Suspended

In line with current government advice to limit social contact to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, the chess club has been suspended until further notice.

2 March 2020 - Richardson Cup

I'm a bit late posting this, but it's worth it. Thanks to John for providing this game where he had White against Kabir in the Richardson Cup last Monday.

ChessBase

Blake, J–Pandit, K0–1Richardson CupStirling CC02.03.2020

1.d4 f6 2.f3 g6 3.c4 g7 4.c3 d6 5.e3 0-0 6.e2 c6 7.0-0 c7 8.h3 e5 9.d5 a5 10.e4 a6 11.e3 h6 12.d2 h7 13.ac1 c5 14.a3 e7 15.h2 c7 16.g4 g8 17.fd1 f5 18.h2 f4 19.xc5 a6 20.xd6 xd6 21.c5 dd8 22.b5 xb5 23.xb5 f3 24.d6 f6 25.c6 bxc6 26.xc6 b7 27.g4 h4 28.c7 xe4 29.g3 xh3 30.e3 f6 31.f1 h5 32.xa5 d7 33.a4 f5 34.a7 e6 35.a5 g5 36.b4 b8 37.d2 h5 38.b4 h3 39.d3 f6 40.xh3 xh3 41.f1 h5 42.d7 e4 43.d8 bxd8 44.xd8 xd8 45.c4 h3 46.f7 d1+ 0–1

Download PGN

9 March 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B		v		Stirling E
Dave Hewitt Brad Duthie Richard Warcup Craig Manson Godon Allcock	1547 1494 1463 1448 1284	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 0	1398   1389 1326 1158	Aaron Nobile Kris Dimitrov Tom Wallace Kenny MacPherson Mick Bloor
		4 - 1

9 March 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling Juniors(D)		v		Cumbernauld B
Glen Wilson Alex Brimlow Douglas Pringle Gordon Bowie Nadzieja Lu-Czartoryjska	406	0 - 1 ½ - ½ 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1	869 563	Euan Wallace Ibrahim Khan Chrysa Mitraka Rayhan Hussein Mark Bellamy-Collins
		½ - 4½

Thanks to Cumbernauld for travelling through. The two youngest teams to compete in the Central League for many a year...possibly ever. Well done all!

27 February 2020 - Central League Division 2

Cumbernauld B		v		Stirling B
Liam Heron Mark Heron Sophie Heron Emma Heron Arran Wallace	1225 1085 760 616 u/g	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1	1640 1494 1567 1547 1463	William Spiers Brad Duthie David McAlister Dave Hewitt Richard Warcup
		0 - 5

Stirling B extended their 100% record this season to 10 matches. There are two matches left to play but with this victory the team has already retained the Division 2 title

24 February 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C		v		Grangemouth B
Craig Manson Kris Dimitrov Tony Pitson Kenny MacPherson Gordon Allcock	1448   1413 1326 1284	0 - 1 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ ½ - ½ 1 - 0	1572   1319 1289 1035	Ian Mason Bill Gray Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh Scott Dickson
		2½ - 2½

24 February 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling Juniors(D)		v		Badgers Brook B
Glen Wilson Ross Warcup Alex Brimlow Gordon Bowie Nadzieja Lu-Czartoryjska	592 406	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1	1644   1445 1267 877	John Smith Graham Kerr Kenny Aiston Gordon Walker Peter Woollven
		0 - 5

19 February 2020 - Central Allegro League

Grangemouth Tiger 9-7 Stirling Bruce
Round 1
Alan Bell	1 - 0	Brad Duthie
Dougie Will	1 - 0	John Blake
Ian Mason	1 - 0	Dave Hewitt
Alasdair Sandham	½ - ½	Graham Anderson
Round 2
Alan Bell	1 - 0	John Blake
Dougie Will	0 - 1	Bill Cook
Ian Mason	0 - 1	Graham Anderson
Alasdair Sandham	½ - ½	Brad Duthie
Round 3
Alan Bell	1 - 0	Bill Cook
Dougie Will	1 - 0	Graham Anderson
Ian Mason	1 - 0	Brad Duthie
Alasdair Sandham	0 - 1	John Blake
Round 4
Alan Bell	0 - 1	Graham Anderson
Dougie Will	1 - 0	Brad Duthie
Ian Mason	0 - 1	John Blake
Alasdair Sandham	0 - 1	Bill Cook

17 February 2020 - Lindsay Cup

Thanks to Glen for providing the game below, where he had Black against Richard in a Lindsay Cup group game.

ChessBase

Warcup, Richard–Wilson, G0–1Lindsay CupStirling CC17.02.2020

1.e4 c6 2.f3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.d4 c6 5.c3 g4 6.e3 f6 7.h3 h5 8.g4 g6 9.g5 e6 10.a3 e7 11.d2 b6 12.0-0-0 a5 13.b1 e4 14.xa5 xa5 15.d3 c8 16.e3 0-0 17.e5 b3# 0–1

Download PGN

Nice mate!

10 February 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C		v		Stirling B
Craig Manson Kris Dimitrov Tony Pitson Gordon Allcock Craig Thomson	1448   1413 1284 824	0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ 0 - 1	1494 1567 1547 1531 1463	Brad Duthie David McAlister Dave Hewitt John Blake Richard Warcup
		1 - 4

10 February 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling E		v		Stirling Juniors (D)
Tom Wallace Kenny MacPherson Mick Bloor Martin Pringle Tom McKay	1389 1376 1158 990 770	1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0 1 - 0	592 406	Glen Wilson Ross Warcup Alex Brimlow Gordon Bowie Douglas Pringle
		5 - 0

Game of this match was definitely the bottom board clash between Tom and Douglas. It turned into a slug-fest, lasting well over two hours. Douglas missed an opportunity when the Queen exchange was offered to win Tom's Queen for a Rook, and finally resigned when Tom threatened an indefensible mate. Alex did well to force his way back into the game against Mick, before falling to a back rank mate. Thanks to Tom for providing the game below from board 1.

ChessBase

Wallace, T–Wilson, G1–0Stirling E v Stirling Juniors(D)Stirling CC10.02.2020

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 f5 4.d3 xd3 5.xd3 d7 6.f3 e6 7.0-0 g6 8.g5 e7 9.xe7 xe7 10.bd2 0-0 11.g4 b6 12.e3 fc8 13.h6 c5 14.g5 f8 15.h1 cxd4 16.g1 xc2 17.g3 ac8 18.f3 After 17 Rg3, Stockfish started shouting that 17 ... Qxb2 was the move, giving it +2. 17 ... Qxb2 18 Rb1 Rc1+ 19 Rxc1 Qxc1+ 20 Kg2 Qxd2. As soon as the Knight on g5 moves, the Queens can be exchanged and White's mate threat is pretty much gone. Given some more time, though, it settled on 17 ... Nc6 as the best move, presumably going next to e5 to protect f7. Either way, Stockfish is happy with Black's position after either of these options. Unfortunately, Rac8 doesn't really help Black. f5 19.gxf5 exf5 20.b3 b4 21.xh7 d3 22.f6# 1–0

Download PGN

Robert Togneri

Stirling chess club – and the Central Scotland Chess League – lost its longest-serving member with the death on 25 January 2020 of Robert Togneri, aged 81. Both club and league have many pleasant people among their memberships, but no one was more liked, over the half-century-plus of his involvement, than Robert. He was the most thoughtful, committed and diligent member any club could wish to have – and it helped that he was a very handy player, too.

His first appearance in a league match for Stirling appears to have been a draw against J M Allan of Dunfermline on 1 April 1964, and his first win – likewise against Dunfermline, R Roxburgh this time – came on 18 November that same year. Robert also played (and won) for Stirling C earlier this season, so he appeared in 57 of the league’s 62 seasons to date, an unrivalled achievement.

During his time at the Stirling club, Robert served in a variety of roles: secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, league secretary, first-team regular and then long-time captain of the Stirling B team. He also captained the under-1500 team during the early years of the period when it won that particular trophy nine times in 11 seasons, and was a member of the Stirling team that won the Spens Cup in 1967-68, recording a draw on board seven in the 5-2 final win against Benarty.

Robert was never club champion, as his best playing years coincided with the club having greater top-end strength than it does today, but he was runner-up at least twice, in 1967-68 and 1968-69 (behind Rainer Bartsch and Maxwell Thornton respectively), and he won the Lindsay Cup – the reserve section of the championship – three times, in 1964-65, 1983-84 and 1993-94. Robert also won the Keddie Cup – when it was played as a traditional knockout rather than the handicap tournament of modern times – in 1970-71, and he was runner-up in the club lightning tournament (what would now be called blitz) in 1970-71 and 1971-72. The club used to have something called a matchplay champion – which appears to have been determined by a season-long cumulative tally of overall results – and Robert was runner-up in this three times in a row: 1965-66, 1966-67 and 1967-68. His prowess at fast chess remained into his senior years, and as late as November 2007 he was joint-winner of the twice-yearly club allegro tournament – the five-round Swiss which from 2015 was happily played for the Robert Togneri Trophy, instituted to mark his half-century of involvement with the club.

Almost certainly, however, Robert’s finest tournament achievement was winning the Scottish Open, with a score of 5½/7 (and an extraordinary final-round stalemate to clinch the title – see below) in Dundee in 1967, and he went on to play in the main Scottish championship in the summers of 1968 (Ayr) and 1969 (Glasgow). In those days the Scottish was a closed event, and this gives some indication of Robert’s strength during that time. Grading lists dating back to 1981 show a highest grade of 1715 in 1989-90, and a steady presence in the 1600s during the earlier years of that decade. This in itself represents a very respectable standard of play, but it’s reasonable to assume Robert was quite a bit stronger than that in the pre-grading days, particularly from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

He had a sound and quietly effective technique, with a notable ability in the endgame – for many years he was regarded as the best endgame player at the club, and stories abound of his turning lost endgames into draws and drawn ones into wins. The present writer can recall embarking on a double-knights with pawns endgame against Robert that initially seemed a near-trivial win but gradually became a desperate struggle for survival, with considerable relief when a draw was eventually achieved. Dougie Will of Grangemouth similarly notes that “sometime, possibly in the late 1990s, I went into a rook and pawns endgame against Robert two pawns up, and despite being 400 points higher graded lost dismally…”. There were countless such pieces of endgame magic, and Robert retained this ability well into old age. He was often to be seen studying endgame positions alone in a corner of the club room (or demonstrating some subtlety to other club members), in much the same way that many players opt to study opening theory.

Robert appeared to have a natural aptitude in endgames, but it’s worth remembering that he grew up in the days when games were regularly adjourned – rather than thrashed out in quickplay finishes – and players would take the unfinished scoresheet home with them, study it over the course of several evenings (no computers in those days), before returning to bring the game to a conclusion a week or so later. It was in adjournment analysis that strong endgame players such as Robert honed their ability, and this was something he brought with him into the more frantic modern era.

Another notable feature of Robert’s play was how rarely he found himself in time trouble. Some people – John Blake is another with this ability at the Stirling club – seem able to play simple but strong chess at a steady rate that sees them keep comfortably on the right side of the clock. Robert for many years was Stirling’s prime exponent of this, as his various fast-chess tournament wins demonstrate. At some point in his final year or so he did actually lose a game on time – and he believed that this was the first time it had ever happened to him.

All this tournament and league detail provides only part of the picture of Robert, however. He would play friendlies with anyone, regardless of strength or age – indeed he was a great encourager of junior chess, and the recent upturn in junior enthusiasm at the club, along with the increase in membership generally, is part of his legacy. He was also a notable welcomer of new people: since his death, several of the current club members have commented that Robert was the first person they played at the Stirling club – but there is nothing surprising about this, because that kind of meet-and-greet, fancy a game? thing was what he did, year after year.

Above all, he was almost always there, a near-permanent benevolent presence at the club. There were occasional absences due to ill-health – a heart bypass at one stage and a partial withdrawal from playing, in league matches at least, for a while after his beloved Marie died in 2012 – but he would be back as soon as he was able, as the chess club, and the game itself, meant so much to him. In terms of his chess longevity – and the Stirling club’s habit of producing such people – it’s worth noting that on his 1964 league debut, Robert played on board four (of five), and sitting alongside him on board three was James Keddie – who became club champion for the sixth and final time that same 1963-64 season, having first won it in 1924-25, so the overlap with Robert covers pretty much 100 years of the club.

There is so much more that could be said about Robert – for instance his unwillingness to raise his voice even when he had a strong opinion, and his being the most neatly turned-out person at the club, with his cardigans, his old-fashioned hat and his umbrella. In his final few months he even started sporting a rather natty beard. He had exemplary manners, would always find time for a chat, and numerous of his friends from this club and beyond have described him as “a gentleman” – which is exactly what he was.

Others, elsewhere, will be able to tell of his family life, his work as a teacher, his religious faith; but in chess terms he was an absolute stalwart who gave hugely to the chess scene in central Scotland over half a century, and he will be missed greatly. Condolences to his family, and to his friends elsewhere.

ChessBase

Wilkie, H–Togneri, R½–½Scottish Open7Dundee

1.d4 f6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.c3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.f3 g6 7.e4 g7 8.e2 0-0 9.0-0 e8 10.c2 a6 11.a4 bd7 12.f4 b6 13.d2 g4 14.d3 h5 15.e3 e7 16.h3 d7 17.a5 c8 18.c4 b8 19.d2 f6 20.f4 h5 21.h2 f8 22.fe1 h6 23.c2 f4 24.f1 f5 25.e5 dxe5 26.xe5 d6 27.d3 e7 28.h1 exd5 29.xd5 g5 30.5xf4 gxf4 31.c4+ e6 32.xf4 c6 33.xe6 xe6 34.xe6+ xe6 35.xb8 c4 36.c5 e8 37.xc4+ g7 38.e6+ f6 39.f4 xf4 40.xf4 e4 41.d5+ e5 42.e3 h5 43.e1 f4 44.c2 xe1+ 45.xe1 d4 46.e2 h4 47.f3+ c5 48.xh4 b4 49.f3 xa5 50.xb7 b6 51.e4 a5 52.c2 b5 53.f3 a4 54.h4 b4 55.h5 a3 56.bxa3+ xa3 57.h6 b2 58.f5 c3 59.h7 c4 60.h8 d5 61.e5+ c6 62.xf4 d5 63.g4 c6 64.g5 d5 65.g6 c6 66.g7 c5 67.e4 d6 68.d4 c5 69.e6 d6 70.f4 c5 71.f5 d6 72.f6 c5 73.f7 d6 74.f8+ c7 75.c8+ d6 76.d7+ c5 77.g8 b4 78.ec6 a3 79.db7 ½–½

Download PGN

Robert's last win for the club is presented below.

ChessBase

Togneri, R–van der Heever, C1–0Stirling C v Badgers Brook BStirling CC14.10.2019

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 f6 4.d2 g6 5.f3 e6 6.d3 g7 7.c3 0-0 8.0-0 b5 9.c5 a5 10.b3 c7 11.a3 a6 12.e1 b4 13.axb4 xb4 14.f1 a6 15.xa6 xa6 16.e5 e4 17.xe4 dxe4 18.xb4 xe5 19.dxe5 xe5 20.d4 b8 21.xa5 e5 22.c3 xa5 23.xa5 f5 24.b4 c8 25.c4+ g7 26.c3 e8 27.d1 h5 28.h4 h6 29.d6 f4 30.f7 g8 31.xe5 f3 32.f4# 1–0

Download PGN

3 February 2020 - Central League Division 1

Stirling A		v		Grangemouth A
Kabir Pandit Steve Smith Graham Anderson Bill Cook John Blake	1753 1662 1592 1531	0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0	2146 1970 1816 1735 1319	Uby Archibong Alan Bell Dougie Will David Wallace Hugh Hanlon
		2 - 3

Uby and Kabir were first finished, in a game which seemed to me to consist of swapping off pieces. Both promoted pawns in the end game, but with Uby's pawn being further advanced he triumphed. David got Bill into a right guddle in the corner, and Bill then resigned. John beat Hugh in a game I saw nothing of. Both Steve and my games went right down to the last minutes. Alan dropped a rook in time trouble, and my game - well, it's below.

ChessBase

Anderson, G–Will, D0–1Stirling A v Grangemouth AStirling CC03.02.2020

1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.c4 f6 4.d3 h6 5.c3 d6 6.e3 g5 7.c2 Stockfish recommends 0-0 but there's no way I'm castling into those pawns. g7 8.bd2 0-0 9.0-0-0 a5 10.d4 e8 11.d3 I was happy enough with this move, trying to keep my pieces on the board, until about a minute later I saw 11 dxe5 dxe5 12 Bc5. g4 12.f1 b6 13.h4 An attempt to break up the g and h pawns and get some play towards the King. xe3 14.xe3 g4 15.h2 h5 I had initially intended f3 to this but I've only just spotted Bh6 as the reply. 16.d5 To close the game off. Black's white squared Bishop and Knight on a5 aren't going far. b7 17.g3 Still hoping to get f3 in at some point. c5 18.e2 h6 19.hf1 f5 I'd missed this, forgetting that the Knight on e3 is pinned. 20.b1 fxe4 Where I'd been quite comfortable up until now, I'm feeling the game slipping away from me here. 21.b4 a4 22.h2 a5 23.b5 c5 24.d2 xe3 25.fxe3 f5 Really stuck for a move here 26.b3 d3 27.a4 g6 28.c1 c5 29.hh1 e7 30.de1 f6 31.d1 af8 I'm pretty much resigned to losing here, so let's get rid of the two pawns preventing me from getting near Black's King. 32.xg4 hxg4 33.xg4 h8 34.h5 h7 35.h4 xa4 I hadn't even considered this, but if I let him, this allows Black to get the Knight back to d5 and protect the Queen. 36.e2 6f7 37.xe7 I don't really have a choice about this. xe7 38.g4 f2 39.c2 ef7 40.g5 7f3 41.d1 xe3 42.g6 xc3+ 43.xc3 d3+ 44.c1 xc3+ It's the gaining of the tempo capturing the Knight back that Dougie is really good at - and I am not. 45.b1 g8 46.h6 a3 47.g7+ h7 48.c1 xd5 49.xc7 g8 50.c8 b3+ 51.c1 a3 52.b1 a2+ 53.c1 e6 54.h8+ g6 55.g1+ f6 56.f8+ f7 57.g8 a1# In fairness, we're both down to seconds here. In my excitement, and having been behind for so long, I was that excited at getting to promote the pawn that I completely forgot to look at the whole board. The winning move for White is 56 Rxf7+. If 56 ... Kxf7 57 g8=Q+ (getting the tempo that I need) and if 56 ... Ke6 57 Rxf2 Ra1+ 58 Kc2 Rxg1 59 h7 and one of the pawns will promote. 0–1

Download PGN

Thanks to John Blake for providing the game below, where he had Black against Hugh Hanlon.

ChessBase

Hanlon, H–Blake, J0–1Stirling A v Grangemouth AStirling CC03.02.2020

1.e4 b6 2.c4 e6 3.f3 b7 4.d3 g6 5.0-0 g7 6.e3 xb2 7.bd2 g7 8.d4 xd4 9.xd4 a6 10.f4 c5 11.4f3 e7 12.d4 d5 13.exd5 exd5 14.e2 f5 15.f2 0-0 16.dxc5 bxc5 17.b3 c4 18.bd4 xd4 19.xd4 c6 20.c3 f6 21.h4 f5 22.g3 f6 23.b1 a5 24.f3 ab8 25.e2 a8 26.d1 be8 27.e5 xe5 28.fxe5 e6 29.h5 g7 30.e1 d4 31.a3 gxh5 32.xa5 d3 33.cxd3 cxd3 34.f3 xf3 35.gxf3 e8 36.f2 f7 37.f4 c8 38.e3 g7 39.d1 c4 40.xd3 e4+ 41.d2 xf4+ 42.e2 xh2+ 43.e3 g3+ 44.d4 f4+ 0–1

Download PGN

30 January 2020 - Central League Division 2

Cumbernauld B		v		Stirling Juniors (D)
Liam Heron Mark Heron George Ford Emma Heron Arran Wallace	1225 1085 683 616	½ - ½ 1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0	592	Glen Wilson Ross Warcup Douglas Pringle Gordon Bowie Nadzieja Lu-Czartoryjska
		2½ - 2½

Well done to all participants - credits to their clubs and the game!

29 January 2020 - Central League Division 2

Grangemouth B		v		Stirling B
Ian Mason Bill Gray Alasdair Sandham Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh	1572 1547 1341 1319 1281	½ - ½ 0 - 1 ½ - ½ ½ - ½ ½ - ½	1567 1547 1531 1463 1413	David McAlister Dave Hewitt John Blake Richard Warcup Tony Pitson
		2 - 3

27 January 2020 - Central League Division 2

Badgers Brook B		v		Stirling E
Dave McGilvray Mark Brown Derek Raffan Dylan Gillies Peter Woollven	1497 1485 1386 1378 877	½ - ½ 1 - 0 ½ - ½ 1 - 0 0 - 1	1398 1389 1326 1158	Aaron Nobile Tom Wallace Kenny MacPherson Mick Bloor Ross Coupland
		3 - 2

20 January 2020 - Central League Division 1

Badgers Brook A		v		Stirling A
Suzy Cooke Kenny McGeoch Mark Cooke Andrew Newton	2041 1994 1943 1896	0 - 1 1 - 0 ½ - ½ 1 - 0 0d - 1d	1793 1753 1662 1592	Kabir Pandit Jim Shemilt Steve Smith Graham Anderson Bill Cook
		2½ - 2½

13 January 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling E		v		Stirling C
Aaron Nobile Tom Wallace Kenny McPherson Mick Bloor Craig Thomson	1398 1389 1326 1158 824	1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1	1448 1425 1413 1284	Craig Manson Martyn Roe Tony Pitson Gordon Allcock Dave Gendall
		2 - 3

13 January 2020 - Central League Division 2

Stirling Juniors		v		Stirling B
Glen Wilson Ross Warcup Alex Brimlow Douglas Pringle Gordon Bowie	592 406	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1	1494 1567 1547 1463 990	Brad Duthie David McAlister Dave Hewitt Richard Warcup Martin Pringle
		0 - 5

6 January 2020 - New Years Blitz

Congratulations to Bill Cook, who won the first competition of the decade with 5½/7. Well done Bill. A good close competition with everybody getting at least one win. The full cross-table of results is here - it's too wide to fit on this page.

In addition to the main event, Jim ran a similar competition for the young juniors. All participants did well, but particularly well done to Nadzieja and Kalina who came out on top with 7 points out of 9. Well done girls!