On Monday club-night, there were a number of friendly games played in the main room and junior coaching downstairs. The only competitive action was in the Richardson Cup with two semi-finals in the four-player qualifier to find the seventh player for the Club Championship.
Brad played the Fianchetto Variation against Kenny's King's Indian Defence. Kenny allowed one of his pawns to be taken, thinking it could easily be recovered but in a tactical sequence, there was a sting in the tail allowing Brad to snaffle a Rook with Kenny then immediately resigning.
In the other game Bill played the Advance Variation against Nathanael's French Defence. Bill was able to exploit a weak square on the King's side and won a pawn. Nathanael's King was caught in the centre, but he re-grouped and tried to exploit an open file for a King's side attack of his own. However, instead of just defending the threat, Bill re-routed his Queen and forced resignation with checkmate unavoidable.
On Wednesday night our Under 1500 team travelled to Alloa for the semi-final, and below is captain Steve's report on proceedings.
Central League Under 1500 Cup Semi-final
Clackmannanshire ½-4½ Stirling
1. Glen Wilson 1106 ½-½ Toby Geyer 1491
2. Joseph Lambert 1043 0-1 Harry Feather 1471
3. Roman Quinn u/g 0-1 Steve Smith 1460
4. Catherine Lambert u/g 0-1 Tom Nimmo 1169
5. Coupar Thomson u/g 0-1 Rudra Pardhi 995
Clackmannanshire gave a debut to a 10 year old on board 5 and a game played at junior speed finished first. A mistake in the opening had cost Roman material and I managed to build on my advantage. Board 4 was fairly level until Catherine overlooked a knight fork and an aggregate win for Stirling was ensured.
Boards 1 and 2 were longer struggles. Harry eventually went a couple of pawns up and ground Joseph down. On board 1 after Glen had defended well against a dangerous king side attack it looked as if Toby would get into a won ending, but Glen spotted a check which led Toby to accept a repetition as the alternative was to lose his rook.
It was my first visit to Clackmannanshire's venue and I was impressed. It's a fine building and there was a thriving junior coaching session going on. The friendly volunteers told me about the work that's going on developing school chess in the county so there should be a good future for our game there.
The result means that Stirling will be travelling to Dunfermline for the final next Tuesday.
