2026-03-30 Stirling C -v- Stirling E

   Central League Division 2
   Stirling C            4-1  Stirling E

1. Nathanael Loch  1515  1-0  Michael Murphy  1087
2. David McAlister 1445  1-0  Stewart Cairns  719
3. Toby Geyer      1302  0-1  Rudra Pardhi    930
4. Kai Austin      946   1-0  Chris Woodhouse u/g
5. Josh Heesom     u/g*  1-0  Jamie Scanlon   u/g

Stirling C had white on boards 2 and 4
* Live rating: Josh Heesom 879 

Nathanael, captain of the C's provided this report on the match:

Stirling C didn't have Kenny or Kelechi for this match, so many thanks to David, Kai and Josh for standing in.

We still have one more to play against Grangemouth C, but I believe this win cements Stirling C as winners of Division 2.

Board 1: My game against Mick was a tricky one. He played a stonewall against me, which I don't really understand how to play against, and so my opening position was truly awful. However, despite Isaac and I thinking after the game that I was probably close to losing from the opening alone, Stockfish actually only has it as +0.6 in the resulting structure. Mick pushed the pawns too early, which allowed me to win immediately with a skewer on the Rook and Queen sat on the main light-diagonal. But if not for a winning tactic, he was the favourite to win from an objective evaluation!

Board 2: I didn't see much of this game, but I believe David told me this was his first serious game for a long time, so many thanks to him for coming out of hibernation last minute.

Board 3: I believe Toby was doing well out of the opening here, but something must have gone wrong later. This was the last game to finish on the night, but I didn't see how it ended. At a few moments, I saw that Toby had chances to win the exchange, but his king was unsafe, so there was possibly some sort of danger that I wasn't aware of. Rudra did well to win this pairing.

Board 4: I didn't see any of this game, but this was the second to last to finish.

Board 5: A bit of a wild back and forth in this game. Queens were en prise from both sides throughout, and I spotted wins for both players. Ultimately, Jamie would lose his pieces allowing Josh to make two queens, and ladder mate to finish.

Thanks to Graham for providing the game-score of the E's win on Board 3.

[Event "Stirling C v Stirling E"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2026.03.30"] [Round "?"] [White "Pardhi, Rudra"] [Black "Geyer, Toby"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C70"] [WhiteElo "930"] [BlackElo "1302"] [WhiteFideId "-1"] [BlackFideId "-1"] [PlyCount "75"] [GameId "2294029309730888"] [EventDate "2026.??.??"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 b5 5. Bb3 Nf6 6. Nc3 Bc5 7. d3 h6 8. O-O d6 9. h3 Na5 10. Bd2 Nxb3 11. axb3 Bb7 12. Re1 O-O 13. Ne2 Re8 14. b4 Bb6 15. Bc3 Rc8 16. Ng3 c6 17. Nf5 Bc7 18. Bd2 d5 19. Qc1 Nh7 20. N3h4 Qf6 21. Re3 Ng5 22. Nf3 Nxe4 23. dxe4 dxe4 24. N3h4 Bd8 25. f3 g5 26. Rxe4 gxh4 27. Nxh6+ Kh8 28. Ng4 Qd6 29. Nh6 Rc7 30. f4 Qxh6 31. fxe5 Qh5 32. Be1 Rxe5 33. Bc3 f6 34. Bxe5 fxe5 35. Qd2 Bf6 36. Rf1 Bg7 37. Qd8+ Kh7 38. Rxh4 {Black resigns.} 1-0