Snow joke

For a full week chess life and normal life has ground to a halt. The team lightning tomorrow has been cancelled and all club and match nights are also off. I have never known schools to be closed for a whole week.

The Kirkcaldy area of Fife has it's own micro climate. It is never as hot, cold and wet as areas only a few miles away. As a result we have had less snow and cold than most nearby areas. However, we had about a foot of snow and it was minus 12 some nights, enough to cause chaos.

Then we had more snow and cold weather, I am moving to Lapland as it is warmer there.

Preston Chess Congress

Quick summary:

Half point bye, 3 draws and a win for 3/5. Not the best and not the worst performance. Two winning (one very winning) games turned into draws. One worse position also turned into a draw. One draw came from a game were I was the exchange up and one draw were I was the exchange down. Opponent ECF grades 137, 141, 152 and 157.

Hopefully, weather permitting, Dunfermline will field its strongest team for years, into the team lightning next week. It is usually a very good event to play in.

Final round at Preston

Bad night in the office for the Dunfermline side.

I was not available for this match and waited with baited breath at what I thought would be just a matter of how much the Dunfermline side won by.

Oops, now I wish this match had been re-arranged. On the plus side, Dunfermline's results are repeating themselves from last year and the title is still in their hands.

Well done to Stirling for overcoming big grading deficits on every board.  

Captains report by Ian Robertson.

On paper this looked tricky for Stirling but in practice they possibly should have gone on to win.  With Dunfermline boards 1 & 5 suffering from ill-health both struggled to get properly involved and that could have led to a 2-0 advantage to Stirling if top board had gone for a win instead of making multiple draw offers.  Gavin’s opponent went for that good old plan of glory or bust and was rewarded with the latter when he quickly found himself 2 pawns down and zero compensation.  Garry had extra space and a bit of initiative but a breakthrough was difficult to accomplish and towards the end the position may have been turning against him when Steve opted instead to neutralise the game with an exchange of pieces on e5.  That left Michael last to finish again and he went into N & P’s endgame with an extra pawn but less active K & N.  To get his pieces in play the material had to be returned leaving a balanced position. Graham accepted the draw offer for a drawn match. 

K McGeogh 1714	.5	.5	I Robertson 2137
S Smith 1673	.5	.5	G Forbes 1768
D Hewitt 1565	0	1	G Saxton 1723
G Anderson 1557	.5	.5	M Roy 1705
J Blake 1193	1	0	F Ossowski 1703

Dunfermline V Grangemouth

The crunch match up between the leagues top teams ended up a score draw at 2.5-2.5. With three matches left to play everything is still in the balance. The return away match at Grangemouth next February will now have to decide who wins the league.

For a long time the match look like going Dunfermline's way. We were better on all five boards and certainly much better on boards one, two (with accurate play in a complicated position) and three. In the end only board one converted the win, with boards two, four and five ending as draws. 

The draw result was really down to me, as with the game at the SNCL I lost control of a game that I total control over. I knew I had a better position, I just failed to find the right moves. At the moment, I am messing up too many games with my poor decisions. Below are three of the many critical points in the game where I had a chance to seal the win. 

24.   c5 gives black a good advantage.

27.   c5 again is again a good move for black.

Black has played poorly to allow this position, but even here 43.  Q-c2 leaves white in a mess. However, by this point I was short of time and rushed my move, ggggrrrrr.

I Robertson 2137	1	0	I Mason 1879
G Forbes 1768	.5	.5	D Will 1850
J McBride 1766	0	1	M Monaghan 1675
G Saxton 1723	.5	.5	J Smith 1635
M Roy 1705	.5	.5	H Hanlon 1492

                                2.5-2.5
The captains match report:
A match whose final result got ever more difficult to predict as it progressed.  On board one Ian R gained Q for R advantage eventually converting an awkward ending.  On two Dougie played one of his speciality sacrifices leaving both players with a multitude of captures where anything could have happened but it all quickly simplified.  On three John missed two chances to take advantage of a loose piece but after that the position turned against him ending with a mate in one blunder.  Board four was mainly about a cagey but balanced ending. On five Michael was well on top but Hugh battled gamely to put his opponent under severe time pressure so that Michael was obliged to offer a draw.       

SNCL rounds three and four

With the exception of Cumbernauld, the Central League teams had some good results in rounds three and four of the SNCL. To be fair to Cumbernauld, they had to face two of the top teams in division one. One of which were another Central League team, the Kingdom Kings. The Kingdom Kings now have won their four rounds in division one and Forth Valley have also won their four rounds in division two. The Kingdom Knights are in clear 2nd place in division three, after scoring two wins, a draw and a loss in their four matches. 

The Knights started round three as slight favourites against Oban, but were soon looking like losers, after Stuart on board 4 and I on board two went wrong. Stuart turned his game around to win, after a few inaccurate moves by his opponent. I provided my opponent with a two move help mate on move 16, when I played R-g1, luckily he missed it and I went on to draw.

The round four match was against the team most likely to be fighting the Knights for the second promotion spot, Lanark. This was a roller-coaster match and fortunes varied. Fred and I on boards two/three threw away good positions to lose. Stuart on board four again turned around a worse position to win.  The captain on board five was trying to emulate my game in the morning and allowed a forced mate. Despite spending a long time looking at it, his opponent missed it and Peter drew. This bit of luck was crucial, as when Garry won on board one we drew the match. This means that we are one point ahead of our rivals for 2nd place, three points behind the leaders. Only three more match wins for promotion.

 Round four board one-five, Kingdom Knights V Lanark. Nice win by Garry.

Same match, board five-one. Peter you are a lucky boy! Black soon had tripled heavy pieces on the 7th rank. 

 An all Central League, division one, round four match up. Kingdom Kings v Cumbernauld, boards one-four visible. You are a lucky boy also Ian! Accidently sacking a queen for three pieces and getting away with it.

Same match, different view.

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Division one, round three

d	Grade	Kilmarnock	(7)	vs	(3)	Kingdom Kings	Grade	Comments
1	1946	Parks, Joe	0	-	1	Burnett, Andrew B	2171	Away Win
2	1811	Malkin, Kenneth	0	-	1	Robertson, Ian C	2137	Away Win
3	1797	Kleboe, James P R	1	-	0	Jenkins, Ben J	1914	Home Win
4	1618	Malkin, Jamie	0	-	1	Pyrich, George D	1907	Away Win
5	1463	McNicoll, John D	½	-	½	Kynoch, Russell J F	1858	Draw
			1½	-	3½

Bd	Grade	Cumbernauld	(8)	vs	(1)	Hamilton A	Grade	Comments
1	2185	Grant, Alan G	0	-	1	Redpath, Joe	2266	Away Win
2	1887	Marks, Ian A	0	-	1	Coffey, Patrick	2216	Away Win
3	1788	Kelly, J Stephen	0	-	1	Muir, Andrew J (IM)	2220	Away Win
4	1700	Parkes, Jack C	0	-	1	Walker, Duncan	2016	Away Win
5	1548	Thomson, George	0	-	1	Donohue, Tom	1954	Away Win
			0	-	5

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Division one, round four

Bd	Grade	Kingdom Kings	(3)	vs	(8)	Cumbernauld	Grade	Comments
1	2171	Burnett, Andrew B	1	-	0	Grant, Alan G	2185	Home Win
2	2137	Robertson, Ian C	1	-	0	Marks, Ian A	1887	Home Win
3	1914	Jenkins, Ben J	0	-	1	Kelly, J Stephen	1788	Away Win
4	1907	Pyrich, George D	½	-	½	Parkes, Jack C	1700	Draw
5	1858	Kynoch, Russell J F	1	-	0	Thomson, George	1548	Home Win
			3½	-	1½

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Division two, round three

Bd	Grade	Forth Valley	(4)	vs	(6)	Dumfries and District	Grade	Comments
1	1879	Mason, Ian C	1	-	0	Green, Michael L	1998	Home Win
2	1850	Will, Douglas	1	-	0	Walton, Robert J	1837	Home Win
3	1714	McGeoch, Kenny	½	-	½	Brown, David E	1925	Draw
4	1673	Smith, Stephen H	½	-	½	Saunders, Karsten	1540	Draw
5	1557	Anderson, Graham C	1	-	0	Sim, Robert C	1299	Home Win
			4	-	1

Division two, round four

Bd	Grade	Edinburgh 2	(7)	vs	(4)	Forth Valley	Grade	Comments
1	1765	Murdochy, Shivan	0	-	1	Mason, Ian C	1879	Away Win
2	1740	Sanderson, Mark	0	-	1	Will, Douglas	1850	Away Win
3	1564	He, Ben	½	-	½	McGeoch, Kenny	1714	Draw
4	1563	Gregory, Sam	½	-	½	Smith, Stephen H	1673	Draw
5	0	Zamvar, Vipin	1	-	0	Togneri, Robert G	1358	Home Win
			2	-	3

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Division three, round three

Bd	Grade	Oban	(1)	vs	(7)	Kingdom Knights	Grade	Comments
1	1844	Campbell, Alistair W I	½	-	½	Forbes, Garry	1768	Draw
2	1792	Campbell, Duncan A F	½	-	½	McBride, John	1766	Draw
3	1670	Flockhart, Hugh S	½	-	½	Ossowski, Francis G	1703	Draw
4	1501	Coope, Derek W	0	-	1	Blyth, Stuart	1664	Away Win
5	1369	Doris, Peter J	0	-	1	Horne, Peter	1407	Away Win
			1½	-	3½

Division three, round four

Bd	Grade	Kingdom Knights	(7)	vs	(6)	Lanark	Grade	Comments
1	1768	Forbes, Garry	1	-	0	Smalls, Jim A	1766	Home Win
2	1766	McBride, John	0	-	1	McLachlan, Ian R	1693	Away Win
3	1703	Ossowski, Francis G	0	-	1	Brown, Tom W B	1667	Away Win
4	1664	Blyth, Stuart	1	-	0	Brownlee, Ian G	1661	Home Win
5	1407	Horne, Peter	½	-	½	Benyon, Maurice	1462	Draw
			2½	-	2½