Wednesday 28 March 2012

SNCL Final round 7

Chess Scotland have been unusually slow in publishing the SNCL final results. When they are available the results can be shown here.

At this time all I know is that the Kingdom Kings went down and the Kingdom Knights were relegated by half a board point. A bit annoying when you know that Fred on board five turned down a draw and then blew a better position to lose. This is the story of our season, as a lot of draws have been turned down only to lose. Not to mention the games lost from winning positions.

Sometimes it makes sense not to worry about the team result and just to accumulate board points in some of the tougher matches. That won't apply next year though as we should have a team strong enough to bounce straight back up and winning matches is essential. For the first time in three years we won't have Edinburgh Uni pitting their strongest team against us and weaker line ups against our rivals. The best time to play them is during the University champs in February, which they won this year. Also the strong teams Dundee City B and Edinburgh 2 have been promoted out of the 3rd to the 2nd div.

Three pics and a vid from the final round.

Your position stinks

 I have a cold, I can't smell anything and the position of the guy next to me smells much worse.

 Besides my opponent has used up all of his time looking at crap variations, I can sniff a swindle, here I go!


Thursday 22 March 2012

Dunfermline B V Stirling B 21/03/2012

After the Dunfermline team secured the allegro league championship, it seems that the Dunfermline B team will stumble towards securing the 2nd div title. All they have to do is draw or beat the Stirling C team in their final match. Report from last nights match below.

Dunfermline B had a 5-0 victory in sight. Incredibly they converted that into a 2.5-2.5 tie!
Charlie misunderstood his clock and calmly lost on time while he was a pawn ahead. Glynis was 2 pieces ahead and could simply have made it 3 pieces ahead but generously allowed a perpetual check! Stewart also allowed a repetition while better. Fred missed umpteen opportunities to win a king and pawns ending when he was a passed pawn up. On top board Florin got an early initiative and won quickly as his opponent consumed all his time desperately searching for some freedom.

F Toderec 1-0 T Pitson
F Ossowski draw D Hewitt
S Brisbane draw G Anderson
G Grant draw M Roe
C Stewart 0-1 G Allcock  

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Stirling Wallace V Dunfermline Minnows, allegro match 19/03/2012

Dunfermline Minnows are the allegro league champions yet again. This time on board scores, but the maths were that the Minnows had only to scrape a narrow win to be champions.

The final battle last night resulted in a 11-5 win against Stirling at Stirling. I ducked out of this one, as I was confident the Minnows would win without me and the team performed well.


Wallace
5-11
Minnows
Gordon Allcock
0-1
Ian Robertson
John Blake
1-0
Calum Smith
David Brodie
0-1
George Webb
Steve Smith
1-0
Terry Doherty
2-2
Steve Smith
0-1
Ian Robertson
Gordon Allcock
1-0
Calum Smith
John Blake
0-1
George Webb
David Brodie
0-1
Terry Doherty
1-3
David Brodie
0-1
Ian Robertson
Steve Smith
0-1
Calum Smith
Gordon Allcock
Draw
George Webb
John Blake
Draw
Terry Doherty
1-3
John Blake
0-1
Ian Robertson
David Brodie
0-1
Calum Smith
Steve Smith
Draw
George Webb
Gordon Allcock
Draw
Terry Doherty
1-3


With one match to go the league standings are:


League Table
PlayedWonDrawLostGame PointsMatch Points
Dunfermline Minnows431043.57
Grangemouth Tigers431040.57
Stirling Bruce4202314
Stirling Wallace300315.50
Dunfermline Sharks300313.50
Copied from the Dunfermline website http://www.integellus.co.uk/parschess/index.html

Saturday 10 March 2012

Dunfermline A V Stirling A 7th March 2012

Captains report.

A good demonstration of teamwork – 2 A-Team, 1 B-Team and 2 C-Team players combining to grab the win. Charlie was the hero overcoming a deficit of 2 pawns and many grading points. Bryan just lacked precision at crucial moments while Dave’s pieces homed in on his King like magnets. Fred played with great energy and used his central pawn mass to decisive effect. After making an error Michael got carried away and decided on an all or nothing bash. Steve kept calm and won smoothly. In the final game to finish I just kept niggling away at various weak spots with Kenny getting ever less co-ordinated. He rushed a move and a piece fell.

I Robertson 1-0 K McGeoch

M Roy 0-1 S Smith

F Ossowski 1-0 R Hayles

B O’Rourke 0-1 D Hewitt

C Stewart 1-0 D Brodie

Saturday 3 March 2012

Java game viewer

Weird, the java game viewer used to work in this blog and now it does not. Yet it does work in my other Blogger account.

What is going on?

SNCL 26th Feb 2012

The SNCL rounds five and the penultimate round six took place that the Glen Pavillions on Sunday the 26th of Feb 2012.

With having to face the strong Edinburgh 1 team in round six, my team the Kingdom Knights needed a miracle to have a chance of surviving. A secret plan was hatched to strengthen the team with an IM, which happily came off. Now we thought we had a chance. That is until Gary, our normal board two, phoned on Friday to say that all flights out of the Channel Islands were grounded by fog. Our chances had just taken a nosedive.

Round five was against bottom of the table Dumfries and District. They are not a bad team and like the Knights faced a bit of bad luck along the way. They probably expected to beat us and would have had a shock when an IM sat down on board one. Whoever lost this match was sure to be relegated, so the pressure was on.  Early on it was Dumfries who had the advantage. The match was on knife-edge for sometime, but then Dumfries crumbled and the Knights rode out as 4.5-0.5 winners.  

A win was great, but it was not enough and we had to get something from the Edinburgh 1 game. Our IM made an efficient job of quickly dispatching their board one, as did their board five to Peter. One game all then. Things did not look good, Paul was losing on board two and Michael was struggling on board three. I was holding my own against a higher rated junior opponent, but assumed the match was going nowhere. That is until Michael was suddenly winning on board four and my opponent offered me the draw. 

With a drawn match, our miracle escape act is now half complete. We are relying on other results, but a win in the final round seven gives us a chance of staying up. Not the best position to be in, but a lot better than no chance.

The Kingdom Kings in the first division are having a difficult season. With their board one player at the Scotland rugby match, life got even tougher. They could only draw with two of their relegation contenders, Gifnock and Greenwood. This also leaves them on second bottom and relying on other results. The difference for them is that their final round is against the strong third placed team Edinburgh West and the teams just above, including the Central League teams Cumbernauld and Forth Valley, will probably do enough to survive. Not a good place for a team that has won the first division a few years back.

That just leaves the fourth division. Forth Valley 2 will be promoted by winning their last game and the Kingdom Knaves may reach mid division with a final round win.

A good overview of all of the SNCL potential comings and goings can be found here http://www.chessscotland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=240
and all of the league info here http://www.sncl.org.uk/


Selected info copied from the SNCL site for future reference.

Division one league tables copied from http://www.sncl.org.uk/div1.htm
SNCL Division 1 League Table

Boards
MatchesPlayedDefaultsScore
 Pos  Team  Team Name  P  W D  L  Pts  W  D  L  W D  L  Boards  %
18Dundee City A660012171021002377
24Hamilton A65011019641002377
36Edinburgh West63127126111001653
45Forth Valley621354111320011½38
53Giffnock and Clarkston A6213476122031240
61Cumbernauld62044810120001343
72Kingdom Kings603336111300011½38
87Greenwood6024176130041033
482082048806680707120


BdGradeGreenwood(7)vs(2)Kingdom KingsGradeComments
1 2088 Frew, Elliot  1  -  0 Kynoch, Russell J F  1920 Home Win 
2 1775 Roy, Ali  ½  -  ½ Pyrich, George D  1908 Draw 
3 1754 Gillespie, David M  0  -  1 Jenkins, Ben J  1842 Away Win 
4 1748 Gillespie, David P  0  -  1 Brisbane, W Stewart  1565 Away Win 
5 1703 McGovern, Patrick  1  -  0 Selbie, Peter  1293 Home Win 
 - 


BdGradeKingdom Kings(2)vs(3)Giffnock and Clarkston AGradeComments
1 1920 Kynoch, Russell J F  1  -  0 Giulian, Rosie A  1764 Home Win 
2 1908 Pyrich, George D  0  -  1 MacQueen, Andrew  1727 Away Win 
3 1842 Jenkins, Ben J  1  -  0 Campbell, Iain S  1627 Home Win 
4 1306 Grant, Glynis  0  -  1 MacQueen, Stuart  1538 Away Win 
5 1293 Selbie, Peter  ½  -  ½ Mitchell, Mike  1400 Draw 
 - 
Division two league tables copied from 
SNCL Division 2 League Table

Boards
MatchesPlayedDefaultsScore
 Pos  Team  Team Name  P  W  D  L  Pts  W  D  L  W  D  L  Boards  % 
14Edinburgh University65101117850002170
21Edinburgh 16411916680001963
38CS Bos 16411991461001757
47Kilmarnock62317108111001550
52East Kilbride62135108120001447
66Stonehaven6114381280021447
75Kingdom Knights6114388140001240
83Dumfries and District601515619000827
4819101948837083202120


BdGradeDumfries and District(3)vs(5)Kingdom KnightsGradeComments
1 2023 Green, Michael L  0  -  1 Burns-Mannion, Stephen R (IM)  2308 Away Win 
2 1750 Walton, Robert J  0  -  1 Carpenter, Paul  0 Away Win 
3 1596 Marchbank, Stuart  0  -  1 McBride, John  1752 Away Win 
4 1558 Saunders, Karsten  0  -  1 Smith, Calum V  1558 Away Win 
5 1297 Sim, Robert C  ½  -  ½ Horne, Peter  1448 Draw 
½ - 

BdGradeKingdom Knights(5)vs(1)Edinburgh 1GradeComments
1 2308 Burns-Mannion, Stephen R (IM)  1  -  0 Brechin, Hugh R  2045 Home Win 
2 0 Carpenter, Paul  0  -  1 Kynoch, Richard J P  2024 Away Win 
3 1752 McBride, John  ½  -  ½ Murdochy, Shivan  1894 Draw 
4 1730 Roy, Michael  1  -  0 Ridge, Michael  1892 Home Win 
5 1448 Horne, Peter  0  -  1 Sykes, Chris  1822 Away Win 
 - 

Division four league tables copied from 
Boards
MatchesPlayedDefaultsScore
 Pos  Team  Team Name  P  W D  L  Pts  W  D  L  W  D  L  Boards  %
17North Ayrshire Crusaders650110153660022½75
21Forth Valley 264028135660021½72
32CSBOS 2640281171000214½48
44Corstorphine630361331300114½48
58SJC62135711660013½45
65Giffnock and Clarkston B6204466125011447
76Kingdom Knaves61143771600010½35
83Bon Accord6204-28011020930
48232234880328024024120

BdGradeKingdom Knaves(6)vs(2)CSBOS 2GradeComments
1 1431 Morris, Ian G  1  -  0 Heatlie, Douglas S  1587 Home Win 
2 1341 O`Rourke, Bryan  ½  -  ½ Bate, Simon  1560 Draw 
3 0 Skellern, Barry  0  -  1 Russell, Graeme R  1491 Away Win 
4 1130 Stewart, Charlie  ½  -  ½ Forbes, Alistair  1440 Draw 
5 954 Connelly, Joe  0  -  1 West, Nicholas C  1278 Away Win 
2 - 3

BdGradeForth Valley 2(1)vs(6)Kingdom KnavesGradeComments
1 1550 Hewitt, David A  ½  -  ½ Morris, Ian G  1431 Draw 
2 1529 Anderson, Graham C  1  -  0 Newton, Calum  1148 Home Win 
3 1519 Gray, William B  1  -  0 Stewart, Charlie  1130 Home Win 
4 1511 Hanlon, Hugh  1  -  0 Connelly, Joe  954 Home Win 
5 1252 Brodie, David  1  -  0 Innes, Leon  0 Home Win 
 - ½