18-12-2023 Keddie Cup

Monday night saw the latest installment of the annual handicap tournament, the Keddie Cup. Sixteen players started in four groups of four. From Group A Ross and Kenny qualified, from Group B, Cameron and Dave qualified, from Group C Kai and Nicholas (Nicholas on the drawing of lots), and from Group D Nathanael and Sam qualified.

Ross 1-0 Dave
Cameron 1-0 Kenny
Kai 1-0 Nathanael
Sam 1-0 Nicholas
The highest graded player, Sam, along with the three lowest graded players,qualified for the semi-finals.

Ross 1-0 Kai
Cameron 1-0 Sam
Thus, the final was Ross v Cameron.

There was only 33 grading points difference between the two, so Cameron started with Black and 9 minutes. Ross won a knight earlier on, calculating a big swap-off well before setting a fine discovered check attack on an undefended Rook - which also led to checkmate.

Congratulations to Ross, seen here receiving the trophy from club president Gordon Allcock. Well done Ross! Other thanks go to Dave for the organisation, Steve for the raffle, and Jim who organised a similar tournament for the youngsters downstairs. The club is closed for the next two weeks, and reconvenes on 8 January for the New Year blitz. Merry Christmas!

11-12-23 Stirling E v Stirling C

Stirling E		v		Stirling C
David Fowler Harley Lang Thomas Forsyth Cameron Anderson Kai Austin	1133 1096 947	0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1 0 - 1	1542 1513 1440 1492 1476	Richard Warcup Dave Hewitt Kenny MacPherson Bill Cook David McAlister
		1 - 4

Thanks to Thomas for the game below, where he had White against Kenny. A second fine win for Thomas this season.

[Event "Stirling E v Stirling C"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2023.12.11"] [Round ""] [White "Forsyth, T"] [Black "MacPherson, K"] [Result "1-0"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bg5 e6 4. e3 c5 5. c4 cxd4 6. exd4 Qa5+ 7. Bd2 Bb4 8. a3 Ne4 9. Bxb4 Qb6 10. Be2 a5 11. Bc3 dxc4 12. O-O Qc7 13. Nbd2 Nxc3 14. bxc3 b5 15. Rb1 Ba6 16. Re1 O-O 17. Qc2 Nc6 18. Ng5 f5 19. Nxe6 Qd6 20. Nxf8 Rxf8 21. Bf3 g5 22. Bxc6 Qxc6 23. Re5 Bb7 24. f3 g4 25. Rxf5 gxf3 26. Rxf8+ Kxf8 27. Qf5+ { Black resigns } 1-0

04-12-2023 Stirling B v Stirling A

Stirling B		v		Stirling A
Graham Anderson Brad Duthie Dave Hewitt Nathanael Loch Kenny MacPherson	1703 1520 1513 1504 1440	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 ½ - ½	1988 1755 1632 1542 1492	Isaac Browning William Spiers Steve Smith Richard Warcup Bill Cook
		½ - 4½