SNCL Final round 7

The final round of the SNCL took place today and what a hard fought round it was for the Central League teams involved, Kingdom Kings, Kingdom Knights, Forth Valley and Cumbernauld. The Kingdom's currently consist of players from the Glenrothes and Dunfermline chess clubs. While Forth Valley are part Stirling and part Grangemouth. Cumbernauld is just Cumbernauld with the addition of Alan Grant.

Kingdom Knights whose board one Gavin had been poached by the Kingdom Kings, fielded a slightly weaker team to face their Central League rivals Forth Valley. A very competitive match ensued and the final result only became clear after I blundered with time running out on move 38. Rybka had it fairly even until then. The rest of the games had also been well contested, with a good win for Glenrothes Stuart Blyth on board four.

We were at first mystified by the result on board two, with Garry's time running out he was offered a draw, guaranteeing them at least a drawn match with board one still to finish. Then the news came in why, dead certs for promotion Edinburgh Uni had turned up a player short and lost 3-2. As a result Forth Valley only needed to draw the match with the Kingdom Knights to be promoted to div 2. Not that it mattered as they won the match against us 3.5-1.5. I bet Forth Valley were not expecting Edinburgh Uni to lose, it was a big shock. Well done to Forth Valley on promotion!

Bd   Grade   Kingdom Knights       vs            Forth  Valley      Grade
1      1769     John McBride           0 - 1           Ian Mason           1864
2      1698     Garry Forbes         0.5 - 0.5        Kenny McGeoch   1689
3      1659     Fred Ossowski         0 - 1           Stephen Smith     1660
4      1576     Stuart Blyth             1 - 0           John Smith          1640
5      1364     Peter Horne             0 - 1           Harvey Kelly        1514
                                               1.5 - 3.5
Knights white on odd boards.


The Kingdom Kings played Dundee City A in the first division. They are a good side and from the little I saw this was another very good match, with a number of interesting games. Two players from Dunfermline took part in this match, the poached Gavin who lost on Board five and Ian Robertson who had a nice win on Board two. 

Bd  Grade      Kingdom Kings          vs       Dundee City A        Grade

1     2192      Andrew Burnett     0.5-0.5  David Patrick          2145
2     2078       Ian C Robertson     1-0      David J Findlay       2172
3     1923       George D Pyrich      0-1     Edwin A Spencer    2095
4     1853       Russell J F Kynoch   0-1     Stephen W Hogg   2013

5     1849       Gavin Saxton          0-1     Gary Weir               1838

                                                  1.5-3.5

First named team white on odd boards.


Cumbernauld have been the most successful of the Central League teams. By drawing their last match with CBOS 2.5-2.5, they win div 2 and are promoted to div 1. There is not much between div 2-4, but div 1 is a big step up. Well done to them, lets hope they can hold their own next year.


Bd   Grade      Cumbernauld         vs         CBOS                     Grade
1     2185       Alan Grant             1-0        Richard Kynoch      1869
2     1877       Ian Marks            0.5-0.5    Crawford MacNab  1829
3     1795       Stephen Kelly      0.5-0.5    Simon Bate            1752
4     1666       Jack Parkes         0.5-0.5    Findlay Murray      1721 
5     1543       George Thomson     0-1      Dave Stewart       1620  
                                                  2.5-2.5
First named team white on odd boards.