2025-01-26 Match between the Stirling D and E teams

   Central League Division 2

   Stirling D       3-2  Stirling E

1. Harry Feather  1461  1-0  Mick Murphy     1087
2. David Fowler   1300  0-1  Mick Bloor      1084
3. Tom Wallace    1313  1-0  Rudra Pardhi    930
4. Kai Austin     946   1-0  William Feather 875
5. Andreas Hoelin u/g   0-1  Chris Woodhouse u/g  

Tom Wallace's comments on course of the match:

Kai finished 1st quite quickly and I managed to get the better of Rudra after his Kingside attack.

Chris beat Andreas on board 5 and Harry beat Mick M in a tight game on board 1.

Mick B sacked a knight on g5 to set up a Kingside onslaught which eventually paid off.

[Event "Stirling D v Stirling E"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2026.01.26"] [Round "?"] [White "Bloor, M."] [Black "Fowler, D."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B06"] [WhiteElo "1084"] [BlackElo "1300"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [BlackFideId "-1"] [PlyCount "63"] [GameId "2271377084424222"] [EventDate "2026.??.??"] 1. e4 g6 2. d4 d6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Nf3 Nd7 5. Bc4 e6 6. Be3 Ne7 7. Qd2 h6 8. h4 b6 9. O-O-O Bb7 10. Ng5 hxg5 11. hxg5 Nc6 12. Rxh8+ Bxh8 13. Rh1 Bg7 14. Rh7 Kf8 15. f4 Kg8 16. Rh3 Na5 17. Bd3 c5 18. d5 e5 19. f5 Bc8 20. Qf2 c4 21. Be2 Nc5 22. Qh4 gxf5 23. Qh7+ Kf8 24. exf5 f6 25. Rg3 b5 26. gxf6 Qxf6 27. Rg6 Qf7 28. Bh6 Bxh6+ 29. Qxh6+ Ke8 30. Qh8+ Qf8 31. Rg8 Nd7 32. Bh5+ {Black resigns.} 1-0

2026-01-19 Three Teams, Two Matches

The third Monday of the New Year brought forward a double-header. The Stirling A and B Teams faced each other, while the E team hosted Grangemouth C.

   Central League Division 1

   Stirling B            1-4  Stirling A 

1. Richard Warcup  1637  0-1  Isaac Browning  2054
2. Brad Duthie     1552  1-0  John Iwuozor    2020 (Default)
3. Bill Cook       1544  0-1  Leo Gardner     1896
4. Douglas Heatlie 1563  0-1  Sean Flanagan   1698
5. Kelechi Nwosu    u/g  0-1  Nathanael Loch  1515

Stirling B were the 'home' team.
The Bs had White on Boards 1 and 2.

Bill provided this report:

Both teams were missing 2 players and the Bs were heavily out-graded but there were no quick games.

Sean won a pawn fairly early on and he converted smoothly in an endgame with rook and bishop each.

Kelechi lost the exchange and wasn't able to recover.

Leo had a strong attack but after I had sacrificed a pawn managed to get a bit of counterplay and then blundered with just a few minutes left.

Board 1 was very close for a long time and Isaac only won when Richard had to sacrifice a bishop to prevent a pawn queening but couldn't prevent a second pawn.

An enjoyable match.

   Central League Division 2

   Stirling E           1-4  Grangemouth C

1. Mick Bloor     1084  ½-½  Bill Gray      1486
2. Mick Murphy    1087  ½-½  Jim Stallard   1330
3. Rudra Pardhi   930   0-1  Crawford Welsh 1243
4. Stewart Cairns 719   0-1  Joe Johnstone  u/g
5. Josh Heesom    u/g   0-1  Sean Gray      u/g

Grangemouth had White on 1,3 and 5.

Graham provided this report

On board 3, both sides started a pawn push that saw Crawford win a rook. While Rudra had some play left, analysis showed that it would have been very difficult to get his a2 pawn promoted.

On board 5, Josh also dropped during Queen exchanges.

I only saw the very end of board 4 when Stewart, already a piece had a defender of g2 distracted then resigned.

I didn't see any of boards 1 and 2, although I'm told Mick M did well to get a draw, and with the match well and truly decided Mick B and Bill agreed a draw rather than grind out a long end-game.

2026-01-12 The return match between the C and D teams

  Central League Division 2 Match
 
  Stirling C             4-1  Stirling D 

1 Nathanael Loch   1515  1-0  Douglas Heatlie  1563
2 Kenny MacPherson 1506  1-0  Harry Feather    1461
3 Toby Geyer       1302  1-0  Sandy Carmichael 1357
4 Mick Bloor       1084  1-0  David Fowler     1300  
5 Josh Heesom      u/g   0-1  Victor Liu       928

The Sirling D team had White on Boards 2, 4 and 5

C Team captain Nathanael provided this report:

All five games were quite aggressive all around. The only pairing I did not witness was Josh vs Victor, but Victor came out with a quick win (less 30 minutes if I recall correctly), so I presume some sort of opening trap led to Victor-y (pun intended).

Board 4 featured a level game for a long time, until eventually David pressed for a mating attack which ultimately failed to manifest. In doing so, about 2 pawns fell and the endgame was ultimately lost in R vs R.

Board 3 is one I didn't see the beginning of, but during the middlegame, Toby somehow ended up with 2 extra pieces, but things were not so cut and dry. Sandy held the game until the very end as losing at that point would have meant a guaranteed win for Stirling C. The two rooks kept chances in the air, but the material proved too strong even after Toby sacced a bishop back, winning RRN vs RR.

Board 2 seemed very level to me until at one point a sequence led to Kenny having two bishops for a rook (with pawn interest), and due to both bishops looking at the castled king protected by only an f-pawn remaining, the bishops proved stronger than the rooks, leading to a situation where Harry would have to lose a piece by force after trading queens; hence the endgame was too dire to play out to the end.

Board 1 was tense the whole way. Douglas traded his knight for my bishop (g3) which opened my h-file on move 11. The result was a constant attack on the castled king (kingside) until eventually I was able to sacrifice a knight to break through with the pieces. Not quite a true sacrifice as taking would lead to Qh7# supported by the rook on h1. The engine showed White was for choice the whole attack, but Douglas did have one move to get a -0.2 evaluation from Stockfish. Unfortunately, this was not found in the game.

2025-12-15 Keddie Cup

It is a well-established tradition that the club runs the Keddie Cup on the final meeting before Christmas. It's a fun tournament with a complicated handicapping formula (see below) to give everyone, whatever their grading, a chance of winning the Cup.

A very helpful number of 24 players took part, allowing for four groups of six players in each, with the top two in each group going through to the knock-out stages.

Group 1 games

Group 3 games

The 2024 Champion, Rudra Pardhi and the 2023 winner, Ross Warcup were among the eight players going through to the quarter-finals.

Quarter-finals

The fourth quarter-final was an all-junior game

Semi-finals

The final was a contest between experience and youth, and the two protagonists are pictured with the trophy immediately before the deciding game.

Finalists

Club Treasurer Steve Smith presents the trophy