Grangemouth A 4.5-0.5 Dunfermline A - 17/2/16

1. Uby Archibong 1/2 Ian Robertson
2. Alan Bell 1-0 Andy Forbes
3. Graham Hamilton 1-0 Calum Smith
4. Doug Will 1-0 Bryan O’Rourke
5. Ian Mason 1-0 Glynis Grant

Well the match went as expected with 4 of Dunfermline's A-team unavailable (only 2 would have been available if the match had been played some other week so would have made little difference).

However the B squad gave it a go. Other than Calum who went wrong early the others made Grangemouth work just a wee bit for their wins. In fact a relieved Ian M was down to his last 2 minutes before finally breaking through to beat Glynis in the last game to finish.  Bryan was 2 pawns up against Dougie but it always looked like Dougie’s active pieces were well worth the sacrificed material.  Andy had an opportunity to make it interesting against Alan with a d4 move that would have exploited the weak white squares but his actual choice left him a piece down for not enough compensation but required some care from Alan to net the point.  Ian and Uby had another open and entertaining game.  The complexity made it difficult to be totally accurate with computer assessment at the game end showing Ian to be still +1.5 after missing a move (26h3!) which would have been +5 in my favour and earlier missing another obscure but utterly winning move (24Rb5). However a couple of moves earlier Uby would have got to +2 himself if he had played his queen to a more subtle square (20Qc8!).  As it was the difficulty in assessing how much time remained on the analogue clock meant I should offer a draw which Uby generously accepted though he may well have won on time had he continued.

The full Board 1 game

White: Ian Robertson  Black: Uby Archibong

1c4 e5 2Nc3 Bb4 3e4 Nf6 4Nf3 0-0 5d3 Bc3+ 6bc Re8 7Be2 h6 8g4 c6 9g5 hg 10Bg5 d5 11Nd2 Be6 12cd cd 13 Rb1 b6 14 Bf3 Nc6 15ed Bd5 16Rg1 e4 17Be4? (better was de) Ne4 18 de Be4 19Ne4 Re4+ 20 Kf1 Qe8? (better was Qc8) 21 Bf6 Qe6 22Rg7+ Kf8 23Qf3 Re8 24 Rh7? (Rb5 wins) Ne7?

25Rh8+? (25Bg7+ Kg8 26 Rh8+ wins the exchange) Ng8 26Rb4 draw agreed!  However if white found 26h3 taking away the g4 square black cannot defend.