Minnows 11 - 5 Badgers 30/01/13

This was a gallant fight by the Badgers against a sluggish Minnows. The exception was George whose smooth style held the home side together. Game of the match of course goes to Graham for his comprehensive win over Ian in the final round (over 600 points grading difference but Graham played like he was the higher rated player).

Minnows 11- 5 Badgers
Ian Robertson Draw Kenny McGeoch 
Iain Sneddon Draw Graham Kerr 
George Webb 1-0 David McGilvary
Jim Webster 1-0 David Marshall 
3-1 
Ian Robertson 1-0 David Marshall 
Iain Sneddon 0-1 Kenny McGeoch 
George Webb 1-0 Graham Kerr 
Jim Webster 1-0 David McGilvary
3-1 
Ian Robertson 1-0 David McGilvary
Iain Sneddon 1-0 David Marshall 
George Webb Draw Kenny McGeoch 
Jim Webster Draw Graham Kerr 
3-1 
Ian Robertson 0-1 Graham Kerr 
Iain Sneddon 1-0 David McGilvary
George Webb 1-0 David Marshall 
Jim Webster 0-1 Kenny McGeoch 
2-2 

No it was not an allegro match

The speed with which Stirling were despatched would suggest quickplay rather than a full time control league match. The away side were on the bus home by a quarter to nine a little over an hour and half after the match started. Bryan got proceedings off with a bang with mate in 12 moves with his opponents King the only piece to aim for the other half of the board (game below this report). Ian and Gavin played straightforward chess which by move 20 was more than enough to take down Steve and Dave who got their own bits in a tangle. The opening moves of Michael against Tony were hilarious with Tony passing up the win of a piece 3 moves in succession simply by advancing a pawn with Michael mistakenly believing he would get pressure on the pawn if it advanced. After that Michael played really well to negate the pressure on his position and a repetition of moves ended the game. Iain and Robin played out a subtle manoeuvring game which was very hard to assess. Although there was still play for both sides at the finish the draw looked a fair result.

Board 5 game:

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Ng5 d5 5 ed Na5 6 Bb5+ Bd7 7 Qe2 Bd6 8 Nc3 Nd5 9 Bd7+ Kd7 10 Qg4+ Kc6 11 Qa4+ b5 12 Qb5 mate

Dunfermline A Stirling A 
Ian Robertson 1-0 Steve Smith 
Iain Sneddon Draw Robin Hayles 
Gavin Saxton 1-0 Dave Hewitt 
Michael Roy Draw Tony Pitson 
Bryan O'Rourke 1-0 David Brodie 
4-1            

Dunfermline A get back in title chase 05/12/12

2 late draw offers secured victory for Dunfermline A over a weakened Grangemouth A. Dougie sacrificed a bit for 2 pawns but Ian's counter-sack of the same material was massively more effective. Ian v Iain was pretty stodgy from start to finish (in the opinion of spectators). Board 3 was wide open and enterprising but time trouble proved fatal for Gavin who missed several draws. Michael nicely won a pawn and had the better position but got short on time.Grangemouth new young player Ross was rather thrown in at the deep end at the last minute. He did well but Fred's experience told.

Grangemouth 2-3 Dunfermline 
Dougie Will 0-1 Ian Robertson 
Ian Mason Draw Iain Sneddon 
John Smith 1-0 Gavin Saxton 
Hugh Hanlon Draw Michael Roy 
Ross Heenan 0-1 Fred Ossowski 

SNCL ROUNDS 3 AND 4, 25/11/2012

Today was the day when we could put some daylight between us and our main rivals. We were playing the team above and below us in our division. As with all our other best laid plans, we somehow managed to mess things up. 

First up we had a team of very good improving and under-graded juniors to play. A win on boards one and five, plus a point squeezed from the other boards would have done. We were nervous and the kids just back from the World Youth games were confident. We got the win on board 5, but only a draw on board 1. We also lost on boards 2 and 3, leaving just me and only a win would do. I had been better, until kids do what kids do and found a good tactic. The game was then a dead draw and I turned down 2 draw offers, as I had to win for us to draw the match. I would have been fine with the draw, if the team had accumulated half a point more. So I ended up gambling, it was like buying a lottery ticket hoping that I could win enough for some food. This did not pay off and he played very well. As usual pushing too hard in a drawn position results in nothing. So a 3.5-1.5 loss to start with. 

This afternoon was a simpler, as we only had to beat adults. Though to his credit my opponent despite being very out-graded, played very solidly and gave me few chances. In the end I had to soak up some pressure to get a draw. Gary on board 2 had the same issue and ended up drawing. The rest of the team with the odd small hiccup along the way, managed to win. So a 4-1 win to us and we are in clear 2nd place and we just need to stay ahead of the 3rd and 4th team 1 point behind us to get promoted to div 2. Nect time we should leave the bag of spanners at home.

Bd	Grade	North Ayrshire Crusaders	(1)	vs	(8)	Dunfermline Knights	Grade	Comments
1	1855	MacDonald, Paul H	½	-	½	Robertson, Ian C	2102	Draw
2	1715	Deary, David	1	-	0	Forbes, Garry	1837	Home Win
3	1619	McCusker, Andrew	1	-	0	Carpenter, Paul A	1833	Home Win
4	1649	Deary, Daniel	1	-	0	McBride, John	1858	Home Win
5	910	McCusker, Kirsty	0	-	1	Sneddon, Iain D	1835	Away Win
			3½	-	1½

Bd	Grade	Dunfermline Knights	(8)	vs	(3)	Forth Valley B	Grade	Comments
1	2102	Robertson, Ian C	1	-	0	Anderson, Graham C	1574	Home Win
2	1837	Forbes, Garry	½	-	½	Cook, William M	1575	Draw
3	1833	Carpenter, Paul A	1	-	0	Gray, William B	1527	Home Win
4	1858	McBride, John	½	-	½	Hanlon, Hugh	1459	Draw
5	1835	Sneddon, Iain D	1	-	0	Brodie, David	1281	Home Win
			4	-	1

								Boards
			Matches					Played			Defaults			Score
Pos	Team	Team Name	P	W	D	L	Pts	W	D	L	W	D	L	Boards	%
1	1	North Ayrshire Crusaders	4	3	1	0	7	10	5	4	1	0	0	13½	68
2	8	Dunfermline Knights	4	3	0	1	6	10	5	5	0	0	0	12½	63
3	5	Lanark	4	2	1	1	5	8	5	6	1	0	0	11½	58
4	6	Inverclyde	4	1	3	0	5	9	5	4	0	0	2	11½	58
5	3	Forth Valley B	4	2	0	2	4	7	5	8	0	0	0	9½	48
6	7	Oban	4	0	2	2	2	5	7	8	0	0	0	8½	43
7	2	Dumfries and District	4	1	0	3	2	4	8	8	0	0	0	8	40
8	4	Hamilton B	4	0	1	3	1	2	6	12	0	0	0	5	25
			32	12	8	12	32	55	46	55	2	0	2	81

SNCL Division 3 Crosstable

Team	Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Plyd	Boards
1	North Ayrshire Crusaders	X	3½		4		2½		3½	4	13½
2	Dumfries and District	1½	X	2	3½		1			4	8
3	Forth Valley B		3	X	5	½			1	4	9½
4	Hamilton B	1	1½	0	X			2½		4	5
5	Lanark			4½		X	2½	3½	1	4	11½
6	Inverclyde	2½	4			2½	X	2½		4	11½
7	Oban				2½	1½	2½	X	2	4	8½
8	Dunfermline Knights	1½		4		4		3	X	4	12½

SNCL Division 3 Match Results

http://www.sncl.org.uk/div3.htm

Stirling's Bruce v Dunfermline's Minnows allegro match 12/11/12

We did not have such a good result and were extremely lucky not to have been hammered. A drawn match was just a bit unfair on Stirling.

I was lost in my first 2 games against Dave and Bill before both produced shockers. We were still one down with just Terry’s game going in a level position before Tony left a rook hanging. Terry might have missed it but Tony threw his hands in the air after his blunder thereby dropping Terry the hint he required!!

Ian

Bruce	8-8	Minnows
Paul Prescott	1-0	Terry Docherty
Tony Pitson	1-0	George Webb
Bill Cook	0-1	Iain Sneddon
Dave Hewitt	0-1	Ian Robertson
	2-2
Dave Hewitt	1-0	Terry Docherty
Paul Prescott	1-0	George Webb
Tony Pitson	1-0	Iain Sneddon
Bill Cook	0-1	Ian Robertson
	3-1
Bill Cook	1-0	Terry Docherty
Dave Hewitt	0-1	George Webb
Paul Prescott	1-0	Iain Sneddon
Tony Pitson	0-1	Ian Robertson
	2-2
Tony Pitson	0-1	Terry Docherty
Bill Cook	1-0	George Webb
Dave Hewitt	0-1	Iain Sneddon
Paul Prescott	0-1	Ian Robertson
	1-3

Stirling A V Dunfermline A 05/11/12

I was an utter idiot for asking people to meet at the club for pick-up on bonfire night. The place was heaving and although I had proposed an earlier pick up time than normal Michael still could not get through. By the time we sorted another rendezvous it was about 6.50 leaving Dunfermline for a 7.00pm start in Stirling! We all lost 35 minutes on the clocks so had to play the first 30 moves in 25 minutes.

Ian won on bd1 comfortably mostly following up from when Doug put a piece on a poor square in the opening of a Pirc Defence he was trying for the first time. Florin's flag fell as he made his 30th move so lost on time in a far better position. Iain with 4 moves still to make in about 10 seconds should probably have lost on time but instead Robin with 8 minutes left had a long think - and lost on time!! Michael fell to a neat combination by Graham which netted the exchange. Fred was slightly better even after his spectacular rook sac was declined but with him and Bill only having around 5 minutes of allegro time left each they agreed a draw rather than a lottery scramble.

Stirling A Dunfermline A 
Douglas Bain 0-1 Ian Robertson 
Steve Smith 1-0 Florin Toropoc 
Robin Hayles 0-1 Iain Sneddon 
Graham Anderson 1-0 Michael Roy 
William Cook Draw Fred Ossowski 
2.5-2.5