Thursday 12 December 2013

Dunfermline A 2-3 Stirling A - 11/12/2013

Who says there is no White Christmas?

It was a case of home disadvantage as Dunfermline only got the white pieces in 2 games in a match where white won all 5.  I suspect that is a very rare occurrence.
On top board in a quiet exchange French opening Steve placed his pieces a bit too cautiously and then blundered on move 13 trying to stop his pieces from getting even more restricted.  On board 2 John only noticed Jim's destructive knight sacrifice too late and despite wriggling on there was no way to prevent the white attack.  An inadvertent double knight sacrifice by black resulting in the loss of 2 knights for nothing ended the game.  On board 3 Iain tried a counter attacking hippo formation but the beast proved too heavy to move much beyond its own 3rd rank.  Graham took aim at the black king side and won the black queen with a neat combination.  On board 4 Fred threatened to launch a king side attack.  This never happened as Robin insisted on placing his queen on an unprotected square on the queen side where the pin cost him a pawn.  Strangely he moved the same piece to the same square a couple of moves later and an identical pin cost pawn number 2.  Fred converted without much bother.  On  board 5 Jim came out of the opening ok but a couple of casual rook pawn moves and Jim's fear about getting an isolated d-pawn by advancing it let Neil get a big bind on the position which eventually cost black a piece and the game.


Dunfermline A   2-3     Stirling A     
Ian Robertson (2149)    1-0     Stephen Smith (1750)   
John McBride (1785)     0-1     Jim Shemilt (1810?)    
Iain Sneddon (1740)     0-1     Graham Anderson (1670) 
Fred Ossowski (1662)    1-0     Robin Hayles (1660)    
Jim Webster (1613)      0-1     Neil Irving (1657)     

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Badgers Brook V Grangemouth 09/12/2013

Badgers Brook
Team
Grangemouth

Name
Grade
Result
Name
Grade
Fabio Biancalana
1927
½-½
Alan Bell
1946
Mark Cooke
1942
1-0
Dougie Will
1912
Kenny McGeaoch
1776
½-½
Ian Mason
1762
Stuart Ward
1630
1-0
Hugh Hanlon
1442
Robert McCord
1308
1-0
Crawford Welsh
1259

TOTAL
4-1





Scoreline is a bit flattering for us, board 4 was the only one that wasn't close all the way.

Friday 29 November 2013

Dunfermline Minnows vs Stirling Bruce, 27/11/13

No luck for the other Minnows as Ian used up all their good fortune to survive 3 really poor positions.  Minnows had the chances to hold the match in the final round but it was not to be against the defending champions. 

Dunfermline Minnows 7 Stirling Bruce 9

Minnows won the toss and took white in the even rounds

round 1
Jim Webster 1553  0-1  Paul Prescott 1802
Ian Robertson 2189  1-0  John Blake 1657
Iain Sneddon 1715  ½-½  Graham Anderson 1593
Terry Doherty 1407  0-1  Dave Hewitt 1502
1½-2½

round 2
Terry 1-0  Paul-Was this the game with a colourful interlude? ;)
Jim  ½-½  John
Ian  1-0  Graham
Iain  0-1  Dave
2½-1½  /  4-4

round 3
Iain  1-0  Paul
Terry  0-1  John
Jim  0-1  Graham
Ian  1-0  Dave
2-2  /  6-6

round 4
Ian  1-0  Paul
Iain  0-1  John
Terry  0-1  Graham
Jim  0-1  Dave
1-3  /  7-9

Individual scores
Minnows: Ian 4, Iain 1½, Terry 1, Jim ½


Bruce: Dave 3, Graham 2½, John 2½, Paul 1

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Dunfermline A 2-3 Badgers Brook 13/11/2013

Ian Robertson (B) (2149)      1/2      Mark Cooke (W) (1942)  
John McBride (W) (1785)     1/2      Fabio Biancalona (B) (1927)    
Iain Sneddon (B) (1740)        0-1     Kenny McGeoch (W) (1776)       
Bryan O'Rourke (B) (1474)    0-1     Graham Kerr (W) (1629) 
Matthew Stewart (W) (1300) 1-0     Kenny Aiston (B) (1448)

The league table closed up again as Dunfermline dropped its first points.
On top board the computer says it was a fairly accurately played game till move 25 with Ian snatching a pawn and should later have done more with it.  That should have been academic however as, in the rush to the first time control, both players overlooked that Ian could have won a piece on move 28 by advancing his Q one square further along the diagonal.  

Board 2 was fairly closed throughout but John missed an interesting possibility of giving up Kt and B for R + 2 pawns which looked good.  

According to Kenny he thought Iain played too passively and ended up dropping a pawn or two.  Bryan's last move before the time control was a spectacular trapping of his own Q which was unfortunate as otherwise he still had a pretty tenable position.  

Matthew played very solid and took the pawns on offer while his opponent activated his pieces.   Matthew refused to return the material and instead he escorted the soldiers forward for a neat win.



Sunday 27 October 2013

SNCL round 2 at the Glen Pavilion in Dunfermline 27/10/2013

Dunfermline Sharks V the Dunfermline Minnows allegro match 07/10/2013

Home Team

Away Team






Dunfermline Sharks


Dunfermline Minnows






NameColourScoreScoreNameColour
Stuart BlackB-1.0Iain SneddonW
Francis OssowskiB1.0-George WebbW
Stewart BrisbaneB-1.0Ian RobertsonW
Peter HorneB-1.0Terry DohertyW
Round 1 Score1.03.0













NameColourScoreScoreNameColour
Stuart BlackW1.0-George WebbB
Francis OssowskiW-1.0Ian RobertsonB
Stewart BrisbaneW1.0-Terry DohertyB
Peter HorneW-1.0Iain SneddonB
Round 2 Score2.02.0













NameColourScoreScoreNameColour
Stuart BlackB-1.0Ian RobertsonW
Francis OssowskiB0.50.5Terry DohertyW
Stewart BrisbaneB-1.0Iain SneddonW
Peter HorneB0.50.5George WebbW
Round 3 Score1.03.0







NameColourScoreScoreNameColour
Stuart BlackW0.50.5Terry DohertyB
Francis OssowskiW-1.0Iain SneddonB
Stewart BrisbaneW1.0-George WebbB
Peter HorneW-1.0Ian RobertsonB
Round 4 Score1.52.5













Final Score5.510.5

Thursday 24 October 2013

Grangemouth A 1.5-3.5 Dunfermline A 23/10/2013

An unlucky Grangemouth made a good fight of this despite the handicap of a default.  Dougie lost on time when only a pawn down On board 2 Dunfermline were doing well but a mistake let Ian take the initiative and he probably would have won if he had a bit more time left.  On board 3 Bill come out the opening really well but lost his way (and 3 pawns) before Fred gifted his queen.  On board 4 Stewart's experience in tactical play gained him an early extra piece.  Bryan was happy at getting a free night.


Grangemouth A   1.5-3.5 Dunfermline A  
Dougie Will     0-1     Ian Robertson  
Ian Mason       Draw    Iain Sneddon   
Bill Gray       1-0     Fred Ossowski  
David Fowler    0-1     Stewart Brisbane       
Default 0-1     Bryan O'Rourke 

Thursday 19 September 2013

Dunfermline A's 1st match of the season (The ex champs V the current champs)

Dunfermline A   3-2     Cumbernauld A  

Ian Robertson   1-0     Steven Kelly   
Iain Sneddon    Draw    Mark Monaghan  
Fred Ossowski   0-1     Ralph Stirrat  
Stuart Black    Draw    George Thomson 
Bryan O'Rourke  1-0     Paul Hendry    



Top board was like a game from the 1970's which was the last time I played a main line Najdorf  open Sicilian.  It was a good choice as my opponent had been booking up all day in anticipation of me playing 3Bb5 lines.  Fortunately B-team captain Jim Webster had given me a right doing in several 5-minute games against this last week so I thought it was time to change.  Thank you Jim!  Steven still knew all the theory of the Najdorf but was most confused when a quiet pawn move ended his Q-side play freeing me to line up all sorts of piece sacs.  A simple but nice tactic was duly played on move 17 destroying Blacks k-side and netting a couple of pawns, an exchange and a continuing attack when Black's flag fell on move 26.   Iain demonstrated some lovely tactics on board 2 in a very modern looking Kings Indian Defence.  A careless move (b6) and a follow up inaccuracy let Mark snatch a temporary pawn but Iain then found the correct active sequence to regain the material to bring about a balanced ending.  Fred seemed to be doing ok in a quiet Italian opening but lost the initiative in the middle game giving Ralph the chance to exchange down to a Knight v Bishop ending.  White looked to be doing very well at this stage but Fred was disappointed not to have found a more accurate defence which may have held the position.  Unusually for Stuart he found himself with a position with broken pawns.  Normally he keeps them very neat!  The broken structure meant it was difficult for him to generate much initiative but with Queens and other pieces coming off early George did not have much to chase at either and a fairly quick draw was agreed.  The team were astounded by some of Bryan's manoeuvres in a weird hybrid English/Queens Indian set-up.  However patient defence, a careless h3 move by Paul and a brave but strong f5 by Bryan swung the initiative.  Paul was confused by the change of events and with his position coming under pressure blundered his Queen.  A good start for Dunfermline against last seasons champions.