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.