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

16-12-24 Keddie Cup

The annual Christmas handicap tournament, the Keddie Cup, was a well-attended event, with 26 competitors initially split across 5 groups. From Group A, Victor and Dave qualified. From Group B, Kenny qualified with Elsa just missing out. From Group C, Gordon and I qualified. From Group D, Kai qualified with Toby just missing out, and from Group E Rudra and Sean qualified.

Quarter-finals:
Victor Liu 0-1 Rudra Pardhi
Kenny MacPherson 1-0 Dave Hewitt
Gordon Allcock 1-0 Sean Flanagan
Kai Austin 1-0 Graham Anderson

Semi-final 1 - Kenny (left) starts a rook and c pawn down against Kai.

Semi-final 2 - Gordon (left) starts a rook down against Rudra.

Kenny MacPherson 0-1 Kai Austin
Rudra Pardhi 1-0 Gordon Allcock

And so to the Rudra - Kai final. With very similar gradings, Kai started off with 9 minutes and Black to Rudra's 10 minutes.

The crowd watch on in interest...

Thanks to Isaac and Dave for a Keddie Cup first - someone recorded a game!

[Event "Keddie Cup"] [Site "Stirling CC"] [Date "2024.12.16"] [Round "F"] [White "Pardhi, R"] [Black "Austin, K"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E90"] [Opening "King's Indian"] [Variation "Zinnowitz Variation"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bg5 O-O 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. h3 Bd7 8. Be2 c5 9. d5 Qa5 10. Qb3 Bc8 11. O-O Nbd7 12. Qa4 Qxa4 13. Nxa4 Re8 14. Rfe1 Nxe4 15. Bd3 Nxg5 16. Nxg5 Ne5 17. Rad1 h6 18. Ne4 Bd7 19. Nac3 f5 20. Ng3 Ba4 21. Nxa4 f4 22. Nf1 Rab8 23. g3 Nf3+ 24. Kg2 Nxe1+ 25. Rxe1 Bf6 26. Bxg6 Rf8 27. gxf4 b5 28. cxb5 Rxb5 29. Nc3 Rxb2 30. Ne4 Kg7 31. Nxf6 Rxf6 32. Bb1 Kf7 33. a4 Rxf4 34. Kg3 Rxa4 35. Nh2 Rb3+ 36. Kg2 Rd4 37. Bc2 Rc3 38. Be4 e6 39. dxe6+ Kxe6 40. Nf3 Ra4 41. Bc2+ Kd5 42. Bxa4 Ra3 43. Bd7 c4 44. Rd1+ Kc5 45. Bf5 Kb4 46. Rb1+ Kc3 47. Rc1+ Kb4 48. Be6 c3 49. Ne1 a5 50. Nc2+ Ka4 51. Nxa3 Kxa3 52. Rxc3+ Ka4 53. Bb3+ Kb4 54. Rd3 Kc5 55. Kf1 d5 56. Rxd5+ Kb4 57. Ke1 Kxb3 58. Rxa5 Kb4 59. Rh5 Kc4 60. Rxh6 {Black resigns.} 1-0

Rudra receives the trophy from club president Gordon. Well done Rudra!

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!

19-12-2022 Keddie Cup

Dave Hewitt writes:- There were 21 players (best wishes to those who intended to be there but were unwell) so it was played in the traditional four-group format (as opposed to five groups at Easter, when 29 played) and the top two from each group progressed to the knockout phase. The only person with a 100% score at this stage was Sandy, but in typical Keddie style he then promptly lost to Cameron A. The only previous winner to make it to the KO games was Sam Cook - very good to see him back from Glasgow Uni - and the quarter-finals were a good mix of newer and more established players. Sam beat Mick - excellent to see Mick reach the latter stages - Kenny beat Cameron D, and Thomas F beat Nathanael. Several of these people will surely do well in future Keddies - there's a tradition of eventually winning it after having reached the KO phase a time or two before.

The semis saw the two juniors progress: Cameron A beat Kenny and Thomas beat Sam. That set up something approaching a normal final - the players were only 65 points apart in grade (actual allegro grades, rather than estimates) and it looked like being a fairly straightforward win for Cameron after Thomas miscalculated and lost a R, leaving him with just one R against Cameron's two in an endgame. But the game continued, Thomas put up staunch defence, Cameron lost his way and was eventually - 20 or 25 moves later - obliged to give up his last R to stop one of Thomas's pawns. That led to a pawn endgame and stalemate - and hopes that this would be the first Keddie in years to finish before 10pm were replaced by the need for a replay, the first in a Keddie final since Gordon beat Martyn Roe over two games in 2013.

This time Cameron had white and both players had half the time as in the first game - five minutes vs four-and-a-half. Cameron again got ahead - he was a piece up - but perhaps still affected by his failure to win the original game he made first one illegal move then another (the second was a strange RxR diagonal-move effort) and Thomas thus became Keddie champion in curious and rather unfortunate circumstances. Congratulations to him, a fine win - and commiserations to Cameron, whose day in the Keddie and in other competitions will surely come.

It was good to see so many Keddie newcomers along with the old hands, and there was an air of a changing of the guard about the whole KO section - it was, for instance, the first time since 2007 that none of Gordon, Graham or I had got beyond the groups in a Keddie where we'd all played (and there was a run of eight years in a row when at least two of us always qualified). Gordon - a Keddie specialist - almost qualified this time but missed out on being runner-up in Group D on second tiebreak.

25 April 2021 - Keddie Cup

Dave Hewitt writes: Monday evening saw the first OTB Keddie Cup since December 2019 (the December 2020 one was an online Chess960 tournament as people will recall), and there was a joint-record turnout: 29 people played in the 2017 Keddie and 29 played in this latest one. There were five preliminary groups - four of six and one of five - with all group winners going through to the quarter-finals plus the three best runners-up (the two unlucky people in that regard with Robbie and Harley, who both did well nonetheless). Isaac went right through the tournament with a 100% record, scoring 5/5 in his group then continuing his good form into the KOs - congratulations to him on taking home the silverware, a fine result at his first attempt. Gordon gave Isaac a proper scare in the final however, before going wrong in some late-game complications. He thus finished as tournament runner-up for the third time in eleven years, although happily he has won the Keddie during that same period too. Sam Cook and Richard both put in excellent efforts in two very hard-fought semis, and with all four semi-finalists being quite close in grade the latter stages of the tournament felt suspiciously like normal chess. Special mention should be made of Nadzieja and Callum qualifying for the KO phase - an excellent effort by both. Congratulations too to Kalina, whose tenth birthday coincided with the Keddie - she kindly brought along some snacks and Happy Birthday was duly sung. Thanks to Dave for organising the ties, and to Jim for the raffle prizes.

Some early action.

Isaac (left) and Sam in the semi-final.

Gordon and Richard in the other semi-final.

Gordon (left) and Isaac in the final.

Gordon, as club president, presents the trophy to Isaac. Congratulations Isaac!

17 December 2018 - Keddie Cup

A bumper 27 members took part in this years Keddie Cup, and for the fourth season in a row, it was won by a junior. Congratulations to Idris Benwell! Idris's performance in the final against newcomer Harry meant that the winner was never really in doubt - especially when he picked up his Knight on g5 and confidently placed it on e7, delivering check and going on win the Rook on c8. Yes, the Keddie was its normal mixture of time trouble, illegal moves and chaos.

The quarter-finals get underway - in the foreground it's Harry v Robert, while in the background Jordan takes on last year's winner Alex.

The other quarter-finals - in the foreground Kenny plays Nikolai, and in the background Idris plays Jim.

The semi-finals:- in the foreground, Jordan plays Idris, while in the background Harry plays camera-shy Kenny (in the first of three games to decide this tie).

The final is ready to start - Idris (left) v Harry.

Idris receives the trophy from club president Tony Pitson.

18 December 2017 - Keddie Cup

Dave Hewitt writes:-

The 2017 Keddie Cup was another good one, with what could well have been a record entry of 29 (the previous highest I know of was 27 in 2008) and some very lively and hard-fought chess as usual. Congratulations go to Alex Brimlow, who had the lowest non-estimated grade of anyone in the room (377) and who beat his best pal Idris Benwell (394) in an entertaining final. Alex built up a good position early on (after making a rectified illegal move which gave Idris an extra minute on his clock), then missed a mate in two after which which Idris found two excellent defensive Q moves to keep the game very much alive. He went wrong again however and this time Alex did manage to spot a mate - an attractive mid-board one, which he missed on the first opportunity but then found to give the game and the tournament a nice conclusion. Alex thus becomes the third consecutive Keddie winner from the ranks of the low-graded juniors, after Carl Zihan Kang (803) last year and Sam Cook (488) in 2015, following a run of three wins by adults from the higher grades. It was the first junior vs junior final since the period when the Blake boys dominated the Keddie.

For the preliminary stage this year we switched from the traditional model of four groups to five, and this felt like it went very well. In future years, five groups is likely to be the norm for any Keddie with more than 24 players, as five rounds per group feels very manageable and we were into the mid-session raffle-and-food break by just after 9pm last night. The potential complication with five groups - that only the best three runners-up go through to join the group winners - didn't prove to be a problem. Alex S was the best runner-up, and was joined by Crawford (who was in the only group of five so had his score of 3/4 converted to 3.75/5) and Richard. The unlucky runners-up who didn't make it through were Martin Pringle and Craig Manson, who each scored 3/5. Ken Stewart was particularly unfortunate in that he scored 3.5/5 but still only managed to finish third in his group, behind the two Alexes (if that's the correct plural form of Alex).

No one had a 100% score on the night, as Ken took a draw off Alex B in the group. Idris and Gordon each scored 5/5 in the groups, but of course both lost a KO game later. Bill Gray and Mick Bloor contrived to lose all their games, but hopefully weren't too dismayed by this and will return in hope of doing better next year. For once there were no drawn games in the KO phase (hence the Keddie's first Armageddon game will need to await another year), while the only ties requiring to be broken in the groups came with Steve finishing level with Crawford in group E but winning the group courtesy of his victory in their actual game, and Craig Manson similarly finishing ahead of Maria Ash on head-to-head result in group C, although this still wasn't enough to see him through to the quarter-finals.

It was nice to meet the newcomer Ashley Clayton from the university club - making your first appearance at the club on Keddie night must be quite daunting, but he finished with a respectable 1.5/5 in group D. Overall, I reckon there were nine people making their Keddie debut - good to see. (Alex S wasn't sure if he'd played before, but he got to the quarter-finals in 2008.) It was good to see friends from the Grangemouth, Stirling University and Glasgow Polytechnic clubs, and it was especially good to see John and Jonathan Blake back in Keddie action after a break.

Graham Anderson v Alex Scott in the quarter final

Crawford Welsh v Alex Brimlow in the quarter final

Steve Smith v Idris Benwell in the quarter final

Richard Warcup v Gordon Allcock in the quarter final

The semi-finals start!

Alex and Idris start the final.

Alex with the trophy - well done Alex!

19 December 2016 - Keddie Cup

The Cake Defence

Twenty five people took part in Monday night's Keddie Cup. Kudos to Mrs Cook for providing the chess piece cupcakes! The Cake Defence was much in evidence, as was the Mince Pie Attack, and it was also good to see Lucky Christmas Jumper sacrifice. Carl and I made it through to the Final.

Having already beaten Carl in the group stage (the only person to have done so), I was frankly sceptical of lightning striking twice. So it proved, with Carl making mincemeat of my poorly structured attack, and even having time to make several mince pies out of it before I resigned.

Congratulations to Carl, seen here receiving the trophy from president Tony Pitson, and a special thanks to Dave Hewitt for all his organisation.

The club will reconvene on Monday 9 January 2017. Merry Christmas!

Keddie Cup 2015

Congratulations to Sam Cook, winner of the 2015 Keddie Cup handicap tournament! Starting as the lowest graded player in the tournament, Sam calmly beat every player put up against him, winning all of his group games and progressing through the knock-out stages to the final against Gordon Allcock. Starting a Queen and Knight down and with only three minutes to Sam's ten, Gordon made a good job of frustrating Sam's attacks, until, down to seconds, Gordon blundered a Rook which also turned out to be checkmate. Well done Sam!

Bill Cook presents Sam with the trophy.

Thanks to everyone who turned up, and special thanks to Dave Hewitt for his organisation.

22 December 2014 - Keddie Cup

Dave Hewitt writes:- Congratulations to Kenny McGeoch, who won the Keddie Cup last night with a fine unbeaten display, dropping only two draws en route to the title. He beat me in the final in a typical wild Keddie game - after 20 or so moves I was ahead and almost winning, having increased the initial material advantage and launched a strong attack. But Kenny instigated clever counterplay involving an advanced e-pawn and threats down the f-file - too good for me and the second half of the game turned into a K-hunt with the mating threats only avoided at the cost of a completely lost endgame position. A fine performance by Kenny, who was clearly the strongest and most in-form player on the night. I was having a good (if repeatedly very lucky) night too, but was no match for him in the end, even with the handicap in my favour.

The beaten semi-finalists were Neil Irving and the 2013 winner Gordon Allcock. Full results will be posted in due course.

It's the first time anyone has won the Keddie from the top-grader slot since Paul a decade ago, and as far as I'm aware Kenny becomes first non-member to take home the trophy - although of course he was a Stirling stalwart before work took him away to the wilds of West Lothian and the Badgers Brook club. The late Maxwell Thornton (in the period before its current handicap incarnation) has most Keddie wins with four, while Nick Blake also has three wins.

There were 19 players in all last night, as against 20 last year. The various visitors generally did well in terms of reaching the knockout stage, and an oddity was that each of four groups had one of their qualifying places decided by the head-to-head tiebreak between two players with the same score. Another curiosity was the high number of draws - last year the only drawn game was the first encounter in the final, whereas this time 11 games in all were drawn (including four involving me) out of 45 games played overall.

Dave and Kenny start the Final

Kenny with the trophy

Thanks again to everyone who played, brought catering items and raffle prizes and generally helped with setting up and packing away. The club is now closed for two Mondays - so there's nothing happening on 29 Dec and 5 Jan - then we reconvene on 12 Jan.