Dunfermline 3 - Stirling 2, Monday, 9th December

Monday, 9th December

Dunfermline 3 - Stirling 2

I Robertson 1 - 0 K Pandit 0

B Volland 0.5 - 0.5 J Shemilt

C Smith 0.5 - 0.5 S Smith

G Forero 0 - 1 G Anderson

G Greig 1 - 0 W Cook

Dunfermline was white on boards 2 and 5. 

Busy week for Dunfermline with a second match in only 5 days. A good result for the home team. A last minute game saw Gordon Greig joining the team replacing Gary Weir, who had to miss the match due to work commitments. 

First match to finish was a draw on Board three, where Calum had gone up a pawn, but settled for a draw and secured half a point for the team. Second game to finish was Board 5, where Gordon continued with his strong form and displayed another very good performance, he managed to win the exchange and a pawn to secure the win in the end game. Board one was a repeat of last Wednesday, when Ian had material advantage but was running out of time, although this time he managed to get the point. A very close game on Board 2, none of the payers could find a winning way and agreed the  draw. Last game to finish was Board 4, where the visitors got their only win of the day: a enjoyable game where white went a pawn up and had the initiative but black kept finding a way to get out of it until it couldn't any more.  Thank you Stilring for the visit. 

Dunfermline finish the first half of the season with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Well done team. Time now for the Christmas break. 

Dunfermline Sharks v Grangemouth Tigers - 20/05/19

This Allegro match was our last match of the season. A Tigers win would confirm them as Allegro champions with the Sharks considered underdogs. Although Dunfermline put up a good fight, the Grangemouth team proved too strong in this friendly encounter.

It was too much to expect a Dunfermline victory even without Grangemouth fielding their star man. We congratulate Grangemouth Tigers on their Allegro league victory and look forward to meeting them again next year.

Dunfermline Sharks.                  Grangemouth Tigers
Fred Ossowski        (B)    0         Alan Bell              1
Stewart Brisbane     (B)    0         Dougie Will         1
Mark McLintock     (B)    1         Ian Mason            0
Derek Rodger          (B)    0         Hugh Hanson      1
     Round 1                       1                                     3

Fred Ossowski        (W)    1        Hugh Hanson      0
Stewart Brisbane    (W)     0       Alan Bell             1
Mark McLintock    (W)     0       Dougie Will        1
Derek Rodger         (W)     0       Ian Mason           1
        Round 2                     1                                   3

Fred Ossowski        (B)     0        Ian Mason             1
Stewart Brisbane    (B)     1          Hugh Hanson      0
Mark McLintock      (B)   0         Alan Bell              1
Derek Rodger          (B)    0         Dougie Will          1
      Round 3                      1                                       3

Fred Ossowski        (W)    0        Dougie Will           1
Stewart Brisbane    (W)    0        Ian Mason              1
Mark McLintock     (W)   1        Hugh Hanson         0
Derek Rodger          (W)   0        Alan Bell                1
       Round 4                     1                                       3

Grangemouth 8 - 8 Minnows - 01/05/19

 Grangemouth 8 - 8 Minnows

U. Archibong              1 - 0              I. Robertson

A. Bell                        0 - 1              C. Smith

I. Mason                     1 - 0             G. Forero

D. Kitaev (29122)       0 - 1             G. Greig

                          

Uby                             1 - 0             Calum

Alan                            0 -1               Gonzalo

Ian M                           0.5               Gordon

Daniel                         0 - 1              Ian R

Uby                             1 - 0              Gonzalo

Alan                            1 - 0              Gordon

Ian M                          0 - 1              Ian R

Daniel                         0 - 1              Calum

Uby                             1 - 0              Gordon

Alan                            1 - 0              Ian R

Ian M                            0.5              Calum

Daniel                         0 - 1              Gonzalo

Well done to Uby 4 wins.

Thanks to young Daniel for volunteering to play.

 A Grangemouth Tigers victory over Dunfermline Sharks later this month will see them defend the title.

Under 1500 KO Final - 29/04/19

Dunfermline. Badgers Brook
Gonzalo Forero (B). 0. Mark Brown. 1
Stewart Brisbane. (W). 1. Kenny Alston. 0
Douglas Rew. (W). 1/2. Derek Raffan. 1/2
Gordon Greig. (B). 1. Dylan Gillies. 0
Mark McLintock. (B). 0. Gordon Walker. 1

This Final was played on Monday night at Dunfermline.
During the match there was some faulty moves but this is what you get with our grading level. This also made the match exciting and unpredictable.

After losing a pawn in the opening, Gonzalo gained two bishops for a rook, likely winning, but blundered a bishop. A deserved win for Mark as Gonzalo made too many errors.
Stewart dropped a pawn in the opening but got the pieces out quickly, recovering the pawn. Kenny could not get his rooks in the game, and lost two knights for a rook. The material told in the end.
Derek, up two pieces for a rook, sac'ed his remaining rook for a bishop and a mating attack but misplaced his knight giving Douglas a flight square. Last to finish Douglas held his nerve and reached a drawn endgame.
Dylan pushed too many pawns on the queenside in the opening allowing Greg to win one and prevent Dylan castling. Greg was able to build up a mating net on the open queenside.
On 5. Gordon's pressure on the kings side caused Mark to misplace a knight which was trapped, this proved decisive.

With the match drawn, we went to board count 6 each.
So we remove the bottom board and Dunfermline win.

Dunfermline players congratulated Douglas as he managed to obtain the draw under intense pressure from Derek and as last finished he also had the excited club audience to deal with.

Add by Stewart

It was tense watching particularly the top 3 boards which all found themselves with unbalanced rook plus pawn v 2 minor 
pieces positions. The 2 pieces aught to have won all 3 games but the 
rook and pawns had their say and honours were shared. 

Two Dunfermline SNCL Teams promoted - 24/03/19

Well shock and surprises.   Did any of us have ever imagine that from hauling together 2 makeweight Dunfermline teams that they would both get promoted!  Top billing goes to the Knaves in winning Division 4 which wasn’t a bad showing for a team cobbled together at the last minute to make up the numbers.  Gonzalo was top player with a super 4/5.  The team itself got 5 wins and a draw from the 7 rounds.

The Knights aimed to consolidate Division 2 status after winning Division 3 the previous season.  However a bit of good fortune found us playing against one of the main challengers in round 1 but who were slightly weakened on the day.  That win got Dunfermline off to a flier and although drawing 2 and losing one (to the eventual champions) of their next matches, three successive victories secured second place (ahead of our unfortunate round 1 rivals) and promotion to the top division for next season.  

Dunfermline v Cumbernauld A played at Dunfermline, 18 Mar 19

Calum Smith (c) 1612   1-0       Ralph Stirrat 1788

Douglas Rew 1452       1-0       Derek McAteer (c) 1429

Gonzalo Forero 1434    1-0       John Pearson 1495

Gordon Grieg 1396       1-0       George Ford 697

Mark McLintock 1201    1-0        - default -

Dunfermline 5-0 Cumbernauld A

Cumbernauld had white on boards 1, 4 and 5

The days start to feel a little longer as we go through March. One gets a sense that there is more time to accomplish things. Certainly, we found ourselves with the luxury of spare time yesterday as every match was finished by half eight.

First to finish was the top board. Ralph had seen my combination ending in me getting two pawns for a piece but overlooked that I was attacking his Ra1 as well as the c4 knight. We had a look at the game afterwards and found that Ralph need not follow the combination all the way through, he could pin/ win my bishop instead. We both agreed that I would have resigned. I had a look on the computer just now and I can wriggle... it goes back to two pawns for a piece. Not great, but salvageable. Hindsight, eh?

Board 2 was the last to finish. Derek dropped a knight/ rook exchange, put up a good defence, but ultimately succumbed.

To board 3, and a Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch Defence. Black soon got tied up a bit, white having a lot of centralised activity. The tactics came from this strong position, as they often do.

On board 4, Cumbernauld's George embarked on a series of exchanges only to see the "Bxh2+ leaving the queen en prise" motif when he was a knight down. Gordon then had significant pressure down the c-file, now two pieces to the good.

Thank you to Cumbernauld for coming through, some interesting, pacey games.

Grangemouth A 3-2 Dunfermline A - 20/02/19

1. Uby Archibong draw Ian Robertson
2. Alan Bell (default 0-1) Calum Smith
3. Graham Hamilton 1-0 Stewart Brisbane
4. Dave Wallace draw Gordon Greig
5. Duncan Glassey 1-0 Glynis Grant

It was unfortunate that Alan didn’t make it but also that had Dougie realised earlier he could have asked to step in.  He thought about asking me if that would be ok but I was engrossed in my game.  He had forgotten that it was actually Calum that was captain and could have discussed it direct!

Games themselves were good particularly Gordon’s excellent draw where he generated strong counter attacking position forcing David to opt for perpetual.  Glynis was pleased with her effort but a pawn conceded early was her eventual downfall.  Stewart may have missed a nice mid game tactic but seemed to be still doing rather well – 2 bishops for a rook before falling for a cheap shot dropping 2 pieces. Uby was still analysing where he might have done better – looked like he was going to spend several hours on it.  His slightly better position netted a pawn leaving each player with 2 rooks and a bishop but with Uby having 3 kingside pawns to Ian’s 2 pawns.  Ian sacked rook for bishop and pawn leaving almost zero winning chances and although Uby declined a draw there were really no practical chances left and after a further dozen moves or so the draw was agreed.   

NB. It appears that Dougie did become aware of the problems in time, but felt uncomfortable about changing the team so late on.