2026-02-09 A double-header against Dunfermline

   Central League Division 1

   Stirling B           3-2  Dunfermline A 

1. Richard Warcup 1637  0-1  Ian Robertson    2059 
2. Brad Duthie    1552  1-0  Gregor McCluskey 1571
3. Ross Warcup    1494  1-0  Calum Smith      1599
4. Bill Cook      1544  0-1  Euan Bell        1429
5. Steve Smith    1549  1-0  Gonzalo Ferero   1556

Stirling were white on Boards 2 and 5

Bill provided these comments on the match.

Dunfermline were missing their strongest player, Volodymyr. Dunfermline had two promising young players and Stirling a fast improving one.

Ross won quickly in only about 20 moves. I didn't see much of the top board and that finished fairly quickly to make it 1-1.

Brad established a pawn wedge and eventually won Gregor's queen and his pawn was going to promote when Black resigned.

Steve and Gonzalo had what looked like a fairly level game but after Steve won a pawn he went on to win.

Euan sacrificed a piece against me and I had to give it back to prevent mate, but still two pawns down. I did get back to equality but started to get short of time and Euan took advantage well.

A closely fought match played in a good spirit.

   Central League Division 2

   Stirling C             4-1  Dunfermline B 

1. Douglas Heatlie  1563  0-1  Calum Newton            1508
2. Nathanael Loch   1515  1-0  Dimitris Giannakopoulos 1400
3. Kenny MacPherson 1506  1-0  Daniel Lynch (default)  1239
4. Toby Geyer       1302  1-0  Glynis Grant            1180
5. Kelechi Nwosu    u/g   1-0  Brian Easton            999

Stirling were white on Boards 1 and 3

Nathanael provided these comments on the match.

Dunfermline B had some player troubles as their A-team needed some B-team players to play that same evening. Daniel Lynch sadly couldn't make it, hence Kenny -v- Daniel was a defaulted result.

I was quite engrossed in my game until the end, so I missed other people's matches in full. On board 1, I believe Calum won with a cheeky knight fork picking up a full queen.

On board 2, I thought I was doing quite well the whole game, but the engine showed that I won by the only winning line for me, all others completely losing! But a difficult positional game for both sides, so details are expected to be missed.

On board 4, it looked like an equal endgame to me, two bishops and a queen, equal pawns on both sides. Unfortunately I didn't see how this ended.

On board 5, Kelechi did well out the opening having a full rook by the time I was observing. But Brian did well to actually win material back with some knight tricks. Sadly Kelechi had about 4 pawns extra on top of the piece advantage. But a good try from Brian; without the pawns, it certainly would have been a clutch!