Thursday 20 February 2014

Dunfermline A 2½ - 2½ Grangemouth A 19/02/2014


Dunfermline A
2 ½ - 2 ½
Grangemouth A
I Robertson (2149)
½ - ½
D Will (1913)
I Sneddon (1740)
½ - ½
J Smith (1739)
G Webb (1321)
½ - ½
I Mason (1733)
G Grant (1280)
0 – 1
W Gray (1496)
D Rodger (1239)
1 – 0
H Hanlon (1442)

Grangemouth had a hefty grading advantage on the bottom 3 boards and initially games developed in accord with grade.  

Board 4 was first finished when Bill’s steady pressure forced Glynis to an early collapse.  

Next finished was board 2 when Iain could not find a way to convert his earlier well won extra pawn and accepted a perpetual.  

Next to end was the strange board 3 game.  Neither player seemed to want open play. George lined up his 8 pawns on black squares and Ian set his 8 pawns on white squares.  The blocked position gave George the luxury to capture back a piece with his King on d2 at about move 10 and then walk his King back and forth along his own second rank while awaiting developments.  So much for the fallacy of Kings leading their armies into battle being a thing of the past! Credit is due to both players for plugging away for around 50 moves.  An excellent result for George against a player 400 points higher rated. 

Next finished was board 5.  Derek had kept his position solid but Hugh manoeuvred well to win a pawn and with more aggression with his rooks could have made it extremely difficult for Derek.  As it was Hugh got a bit negative and then a horror move cost him a whole rook which Derek converted with confidence.  

Final game to end was the see-saw battle on board 1.  Dougie’s early aggression should have cost him the game.  Ian had the option of capturing a sacrificed piece with King or Queen.  Taking with the King would not have won the piece outright but would have ended the game in Ian’s favour within a few moves.  Instead Ian chose to capture with the Queen after seeing a nice way to keep the piece but there was a flaw neither player had spotted which led to Dougie regaining the piece with advantage.  That advantage netted Dougie 2 pawns but active play gave Ian enough to set up a repetition.  The computer says initially that the final position was equal but after thinking a bit longer it suggests that even 2 pawns down in an ending Ian was a bit better.  However with only a few minutes left on the clock to play on would have been very risky and a draw was a fair reflection of both players’ efforts.            

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Badgers v Minnows 17/02/2014

This was a close one!

After being demolished in round 1 Badgers nearly got back for the win. As usual with this format there were plenty of errors.  Mention should be made of 2 in particular both involving Badgers board 4.  In round 3 Iain S was ahead in a RvP ending.  Instead of pushing his potential passed pawn for a likely win Iain opted to walk into a help-mate in 2 moves.  Lucky David, unlucky Iain

In round 4 it was top v bottom when Ian R played David.  All was going as predicted with Ian well ahead on material till suddenly David produced a Knight move which forced mate – or at least it should have.  Ian had only one check which was played giving David a choice (always good to give opponents a choice!).  The options were either play to a square allowing at least another check or go to a ‘safe’ square with no more checks and apparently no saving moves.  The former was a win but David chose the latter allowing Ian to put a piece where it could be taken any of 3 ways but each capture allowed a fatal repercussion.  Lucky Ian, lucky Minnows.    

Badgers
7 ½ - 8 ½
Minnows
F Biancalana
0-1
I Robertson
K McGeoch
½ - ½
I Sneddon
D McGilvary
0-1
G Webb
D Marshall
0-1
T Doherty

½ - 3 ½

F Biancalana
1-0
T Doherty
K McGeoch
1-0
I Robertson
D McGilvary
0-1
I Sneddon
D Marshall
0-1
G Webb

2 - 2

F Biancalana
1-0
G Webb
K McGeoch
1-0
T Doherty
D McGilvary
0-1
I Robertson
D Marshall
1-0
I Sneddon

3 - 1

F Biancalana
0-1
I Sneddon
K McGeoch
1-0
G Webb
D McGilvary
1-0
T Doherty
D Marshall
0-1
I Robertson

2 - 2





Update for the game above. Below is a pic from near the end, the rook on a1 is actually on e1.

My next move was Rf7+ Kg6 and then I played Rxb7.  David then came up with the winning Ng3!  I played Bf7+ and David went wrong.

Thursday 13 February 2014

Dunfermline Minnows V Grangemouth Tigers 12/02/14

Minnows gave a debut to 10 year old Ben otherwise both teams had their regular players.  In round 1 Ben’s win on time helped give the home side a winning start with the 3-1 score repeated in the next 2 rounds through slightly greater consistency by Minnows (commonly known as having more luck!).  That determined the outcome of the match but Grangemouth did win the final round and this time it was Doug and Ian getting fortunate wins for Tigers.

Minnows
10-6
Tigers
Ian Robertson
1-0
Doug Will
John McBride
½ - ½  
Ian Mason
George Webb
½ - ½  
Bill Gray
Ben Volland
1-0
Hugh Hanlon

3-1

Ian Robertson
1-0
Ian Mason
John McBride
1-0
Bill Gray
George Webb
1-0
Hugh Hanlon
Ben Volland
0-1
Doug Will

3-1

Ian Robertson
1-0
Bill Gray
John McBride
1-0
Hugh Hanlon
George Webb
1-0
Doug Will
Ben Volland
0-1
Ian Mason

3-1

Ian Robertson
1-0
Hugh Hanlon
John McBride
0-1
Doug Will
George Webb
0-1
Ian Mason
Ben Volland
0-1
Bill Gray

1-3

  

Saturday 8 February 2014

KO result, Dunfermline beat Grangemouth on board count. 5th of Feb 2014

Dunfermline won on board count.

Grangemouth
3 ½ - 3 ½
Dunfermline
D Will
0-1
I Robertson
I Mason
½ - ½
I Sneddon
W Gray
½ - ½
F Ossowski
H Hanlon
1-0
B O’Rourke
C Welsh
½ - ½
G Webb
K Kleinman
1-0
G Grant
Default
0-1
Default

It was quite a surprise to travel with 6 players and lose 2-1 on the night with 3 draws and yet Dunfermline won the match.  It certainly helped that Grangemouth defaulted board 7.  This happened in advance so the Dunfermline board 7 did not have to travel.

First finished was board one when Dougie’s enterprising early piece sacrifice alas simply left him a piece down for nothing much.  Next finished was board 4 where Bryan was in trouble early and Hugh won convincingly.  Draws followed on boards 2 and 3 with Dunfermline doing the pressing on 2 and Grangemouth pressing on 3 but the defenders held.  By this time it was looking good for Dunfermline as George was now winning and Glynis had been winning throughout missing several crushing moves to finish the game. Then Glynis aimed for a promising king and pawn ending which she then totally miscounted.  George was still easily winning but with less minutes on the clock showed his experience checking to see if a draw would suffice for the team and then offered a draw rather than make a time trouble error.       


Monday 3 February 2014

Stirling A 3-2 Dunfermline A 27/01/2014

A third successive 3-2 defeat for Dunfermline A probably ends any hopes of winning the league this season.  All 3 matches could have gone in our favour just as easily.  On this occasion board 5 was first finished when opposite side castling led to out and out attack but Tony got there first.  Next up was board 1 when Ian got an easy position almost from the start and had a huge winning advantage when Stephen blundered to end the misery.  Board 4 was next and Doug looked a bit better but his ambitions to go for the win led to a failed sacrifice of a piece.  Iain and Stuart were however by this time doing well but somewhere they each missed best, likely winning, continuations and Stirling held both games to take the match.  

The board 1 game

White: Stephen Smith – Black: Ian Robertson

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 h6 4. e5 c5 5. Nge2 Nc6 6. f4 Nge7 7. Be3 Nf5 8. Qd2
a6 9. O-O-O b5 10. Bf2 b4 11. Nb1 Qa5 12. a3 Rb8 13. dxc5 Bxc5 14. Bxc5 Qxc5
15. axb4 Nxb4 16. Nec3 Ne3 17. Qd4 Na2+  White resigns




Stirling A
3-2
Dunfermline A
Stephen Smith
0-1
Ian Robertson
Graham Anderson
½-½
Iain Sneddon
Robin Hayles
½-½
Stuart Black
Neil Irving
1-0
Douglas Rew
Tony Pitson
1-0
George Webb