Central League titles

The Central League trophy winners for 2011/12 are:

Division One - Grangemouth
Division Two - Dunfermline B
7-Board KO - Grangemouth
U1500 KO - Stirling
Allegro - Dunfermline Minnows

Dunfermline B are the Div 2 champs

Last night Dunfermline B became Division 2 Champions without moving a piece. After Stirling C had twice cancelled the final match to be played at very short notice and with the League AGM only a fortnight away they were happy to concede. A disappointing way to end the season but it would have been unfair to further delay until Stirling C were back at full strength particularly if Dunfermline did not then have their full team available.

(Given how Dunfermline are so accident prone at the moment, it is a shame that the title deciding final fixture was not played. Who knows what might have happened!)

Central league Cup KO, Dunfermline V Grangemouth gggrrrr

Bang bang!!!


That is the sound of Dunfermline shooting themselves with both barrels after failing to win from what looked (sorry was!) a dominating position. A quick win on board 1 and well controlled play on board 2 cancelled out the poor play on board 6 and slackness on board 7. However with board 5 always going to be drawn and Dunfermline winning on the others it looked good for the home side. Alas shortage of time meant Michael offering a draw while a piece up but with Fred a rook ahead and with a crushing position it should not have mattered. Alas Fred had a bit of hallucination believing he was only an exchange ahead and so set about a spectacular self destruct sequence.

I Robertson 1-0 D Will

J McBride 1-0 I Mason

M Roy Draw M Monaghan

F Toropoc Draw J Smith

F Ossowski 0-1 G Allison

WS Brisbane 0-1 W Gray

G Webb 0-1 H Hanlon

3-4

Grangemouth V Dunfermline, oops.

There was trouble at the mill last night and It was all over by 9.00pm. I have not seen such a result in the six years that I have played for Dunfermline. Must have been because I was not playing. ;)


D Will 1-0 I Robertson
I Mason 1-0 M Roy
M Monaghan 1-0 F Toropoc
J Smith 1-0 F Ossowski
G Allison 1-0 G Webb
5-0


Grangemouth are the Central League champions again.


Let's hope Dunfermline can make more of a match of it next week in the KO final but the omens are not good. I walked into an opening trap. Michael was hasty and dropped a pawn. Florin played a combination in the wrong order and George and Fred also gave away material needlessly. We surely cannot play so poorly again (the well recognised infamous last words).

Cumbernauld V Dnfermline, Central League Cup and league match double header

Interesting match that combined a league match on boards 1-5 and a cup knock-out on boards 1-7. Two for the price of one. Both team were not at full strength, but the Cumbernauld side suffered most with their two best players AWOL.

 I know the captain was at times worried, but I told him not to worry. I felt I was much better, even though as happened, I often end up playing a rook down for a while against David. Ian and Michael on boards 1 and 3 were also winning and I was sure we would scrape the points needed on boards 4-7 to complete the victory. 

Short match report from the captains log.

A convincing win for Dunfermline at the end but both Stewart and Fred should have lost and with these the first games to finish that would have put Dunfermline under considerable pressure. Michael and Ian used their extra space well. John had control most of the way though it looked double edged when he left himself short of time towards the first time control. George was always just level. Bryan left himself with some weaknesses early on but snatched a couple of pawns and got a lovely mate with bishop and rook (and with just a touch of help from his opponent).

League and Cup double header

Cup: Cumbernauld 1.5-5.5 Dunfermline

League: Cumbernauld 1-4 Dunfermline

1. B Ralph Stirrat (1717) 0 – 1 Ian Robertson (2092)

2. B David Johnstone (1664) 0 – 1 John McBride (1752)

3. B David Bonella (1588) 0 – 1 Michael Roy (1730)

4. W Ronnie Wallace (1474) Draw Fred Ossowski (1618)

5. W George Thomson (1473) Draw Stewart Brisbane (1565)

6. W Derek McAteer (1261) Draw George Webb (1442)

7. B David Flaherty (1129) 0 – 1 Bryan O'Rourke (1341)

Therefore, we win the league match 4-1 and the cup match 5.5-1.5.

SNCL Final round 7

Chess Scotland have been unusually slow in publishing the SNCL final results. When they are available the results can be shown here.

At this time all I know is that the Kingdom Kings went down and the Kingdom Knights were relegated by half a board point. A bit annoying when you know that Fred on board five turned down a draw and then blew a better position to lose. This is the story of our season, as a lot of draws have been turned down only to lose. Not to mention the games lost from winning positions.

Sometimes it makes sense not to worry about the team result and just to accumulate board points in some of the tougher matches. That won't apply next year though as we should have a team strong enough to bounce straight back up and winning matches is essential. For the first time in three years we won't have Edinburgh Uni pitting their strongest team against us and weaker line ups against our rivals. The best time to play them is during the University champs in February, which they won this year. Also the strong teams Dundee City B and Edinburgh 2 have been promoted out of the 3rd to the 2nd div.

Three pics and a vid from the final round.

Your position stinks

 I have a cold, I can't smell anything and the position of the guy next to me smells much worse.

 Besides my opponent has used up all of his time looking at crap variations, I can sniff a swindle, here I go!

Dunfermline B V Stirling B 21/03/2012

After the Dunfermline team secured the allegro league championship, it seems that the Dunfermline B team will stumble towards securing the 2nd div title. All they have to do is draw or beat the Stirling C team in their final match. Report from last nights match below.

Dunfermline B had a 5-0 victory in sight. Incredibly they converted that into a 2.5-2.5 tie!

Charlie misunderstood his clock and calmly lost on time while he was a pawn ahead. Glynis was 2 pieces ahead and could simply have made it 3 pieces ahead but generously allowed a perpetual check! Stewart also allowed a repetition while better. Fred missed umpteen opportunities to win a king and pawns ending when he was a passed pawn up. On top board Florin got an early initiative and won quickly as his opponent consumed all his time desperately searching for some freedom.

F Toderec 1-0 T Pitson

F Ossowski draw D Hewitt

S Brisbane draw G Anderson

G Grant draw M Roe

C Stewart 0-1 G Allcock  

Stirling Wallace V Dunfermline Minnows, allegro match 19/03/2012

Dunfermline Minnows are the allegro league champions yet again. This time on board scores, but the maths were that the Minnows had only to scrape a narrow win to be champions.

The final battle last night resulted in a 11-5 win against Stirling at Stirling. I ducked out of this one, as I was confident the Minnows would win without me and the team performed well.

Wallace	5-11	Minnows
Gordon Allcock	0-1	Ian Robertson
John Blake	1-0	Calum Smith
David Brodie	0-1	George Webb
Steve Smith	1-0	Terry Doherty
	2-2
Steve Smith	0-1	Ian Robertson
Gordon Allcock	1-0	Calum Smith
John Blake	0-1	George Webb
David Brodie	0-1	Terry Doherty
	1-3
David Brodie	0-1	Ian Robertson
Steve Smith	0-1	Calum Smith
Gordon Allcock	Draw	George Webb
John Blake	Draw	Terry Doherty
	1-3
John Blake	0-1	Ian Robertson
David Brodie	0-1	Calum Smith
Steve Smith	Draw	George Webb
Gordon Allcock	Draw	Terry Doherty
	1-3

With one match to go the league standings are:


League Table

	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Game Points	Match Points
Dunfermline Minnows	4	3	1	0	43.5	7
Grangemouth Tigers	4	3	1	0	40.5	7
Stirling Bruce	4	2	0	2	31	4
Stirling Wallace	3	0	0	3	15.5	0
Dunfermline Sharks	3	0	0	3	13.5	0

Copied from the Dunfermline website http://www.integellus.co.uk/parschess/index.html

Dunfermline A V Stirling A 7th March 2012

Captains report.

A good demonstration of teamwork – 2 A-Team, 1 B-Team and 2 C-Team players combining to grab the win. Charlie was the hero overcoming a deficit of 2 pawns and many grading points. Bryan just lacked precision at crucial moments while Dave’s pieces homed in on his King like magnets. Fred played with great energy and used his central pawn mass to decisive effect. After making an error Michael got carried away and decided on an all or nothing bash. Steve kept calm and won smoothly. In the final game to finish I just kept niggling away at various weak spots with Kenny getting ever less co-ordinated. He rushed a move and a piece fell.

I Robertson 1-0 K McGeoch

M Roy 0-1 S Smith

F Ossowski 1-0 R Hayles

B O’Rourke 0-1 D Hewitt

C Stewart 1-0 D Brodie

Java game viewer

Weird, the java game viewer used to work in this blog and now it does not. Yet it does work in my other Blogger account.

What is going on?

SNCL 26th Feb 2012

The SNCL rounds five and the penultimate round six took place that the Glen Pavillions on Sunday the 26th of Feb 2012.

With having to face the strong Edinburgh 1 team in round six, my team the Kingdom Knights needed a miracle to have a chance of surviving. A secret plan was hatched to strengthen the team with an IM, which happily came off. Now we thought we had a chance. That is until Gary, our normal board two, phoned on Friday to say that all flights out of the Channel Islands were grounded by fog. Our chances had just taken a nosedive.

Round five was against bottom of the table Dumfries and District. They are not a bad team and like the Knights faced a bit of bad luck along the way. They probably expected to beat us and would have had a shock when an IM sat down on board one. Whoever lost this match was sure to be relegated, so the pressure was on.  Early on it was Dumfries who had the advantage. The match was on knife-edge for sometime, but then Dumfries crumbled and the Knights rode out as 4.5-0.5 winners.  

A win was great, but it was not enough and we had to get something from the Edinburgh 1 game. Our IM made an efficient job of quickly dispatching their board one, as did their board five to Peter. One game all then. Things did not look good, Paul was losing on board two and Michael was struggling on board three. I was holding my own against a higher rated junior opponent, but assumed the match was going nowhere. That is until Michael was suddenly winning on board four and my opponent offered me the draw. 

With a drawn match, our miracle escape act is now half complete. We are relying on other results, but a win in the final round seven gives us a chance of staying up. Not the best position to be in, but a lot better than no chance.

The Kingdom Kings in the first division are having a difficult season. With their board one player at the Scotland rugby match, life got even tougher. They could only draw with two of their relegation contenders, Gifnock and Greenwood. This also leaves them on second bottom and relying on other results. The difference for them is that their final round is against the strong third placed team Edinburgh West and the teams just above, including the Central League teams Cumbernauld and Forth Valley, will probably do enough to survive. Not a good place for a team that has won the first division a few years back.

That just leaves the fourth division. Forth Valley 2 will be promoted by winning their last game and the Kingdom Knaves may reach mid division with a final round win.

A good overview of all of the SNCL potential comings and goings can be found here http://www.chessscotland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=240
and all of the league info here http://www.sncl.org.uk/

Selected info copied from the SNCL site for future reference.

Division one league tables copied from http://www.sncl.org.uk/div1.htm

SNCL Division 1 League Table

								Boards
			Matches					Played			Defaults			Score
Pos	Team	Team Name	P	W	D	L	Pts	W	D	L	W	D	L	Boards	%
1	8	Dundee City A	6	6	0	0	12	17	10	2	1	0	0	23	77
2	4	Hamilton A	6	5	0	1	10	19	6	4	1	0	0	23	77
3	6	Edinburgh West	6	3	1	2	7	12	6	11	1	0	0	16	53
4	5	Forth Valley	6	2	1	3	5	4	11	13	2	0	0	11½	38
5	3	Giffnock and Clarkston A	6	2	1	3	4	7	6	12	2	0	3	12	40
6	1	Cumbernauld	6	2	0	4	4	8	10	12	0	0	0	13	43
7	2	Kingdom Kings	6	0	3	3	3	6	11	13	0	0	0	11½	38
8	7	Greenwood	6	0	2	4	1	7	6	13	0	0	4	10	33
			48	20	8	20	48	80	66	80	7	0	7	120

Bd	Grade	Greenwood	(7)	vs	(2)	Kingdom Kings	Grade	Comments
1	2088	Frew, Elliot	1	-	0	Kynoch, Russell J F	1920	Home Win
2	1775	Roy, Ali	½	-	½	Pyrich, George D	1908	Draw
3	1754	Gillespie, David M	0	-	1	Jenkins, Ben J	1842	Away Win
4	1748	Gillespie, David P	0	-	1	Brisbane, W Stewart	1565	Away Win
5	1703	McGovern, Patrick	1	-	0	Selbie, Peter	1293	Home Win
			2½	-	2½

Bd	Grade	Kingdom Kings	(2)	vs	(3)	Giffnock and Clarkston A	Grade	Comments
1	1920	Kynoch, Russell J F	1	-	0	Giulian, Rosie A	1764	Home Win
2	1908	Pyrich, George D	0	-	1	MacQueen, Andrew	1727	Away Win
3	1842	Jenkins, Ben J	1	-	0	Campbell, Iain S	1627	Home Win
4	1306	Grant, Glynis	0	-	1	MacQueen, Stuart	1538	Away Win
5	1293	Selbie, Peter	½	-	½	Mitchell, Mike	1400	Draw
			2½	-	2½

Division two league tables copied from 

http://www.sncl.org.uk/div2.htm

SNCL Division 2 League Table

								Boards
			Matches					Played			Defaults			Score
Pos	Team	Team Name	P	W	D	L	Pts	W	D	L	W	D	L	Boards	%
1	4	Edinburgh University	6	5	1	0	11	17	8	5	0	0	0	21	70
2	1	Edinburgh 1	6	4	1	1	9	16	6	8	0	0	0	19	63
3	8	CS Bos 1	6	4	1	1	9	9	14	6	1	0	0	17	57
4	7	Kilmarnock	6	2	3	1	7	10	8	11	1	0	0	15	50
5	2	East Kilbride	6	2	1	3	5	10	8	12	0	0	0	14	47
6	6	Stonehaven	6	1	1	4	3	8	12	8	0	0	2	14	47
7	5	Kingdom Knights	6	1	1	4	3	8	8	14	0	0	0	12	40
8	3	Dumfries and District	6	0	1	5	1	5	6	19	0	0	0	8	27
			48	19	10	19	48	83	70	83	2	0	2	120

Bd	Grade	Dumfries and District	(3)	vs	(5)	Kingdom Knights	Grade	Comments
1	2023	Green, Michael L	0	-	1	Burns-Mannion, Stephen R (IM)	2308	Away Win
2	1750	Walton, Robert J	0	-	1	Carpenter, Paul	0	Away Win
3	1596	Marchbank, Stuart	0	-	1	McBride, John	1752	Away Win
4	1558	Saunders, Karsten	0	-	1	Smith, Calum V	1558	Away Win
5	1297	Sim, Robert C	½	-	½	Horne, Peter	1448	Draw
			½	-	4½

Bd	Grade	Kingdom Knights	(5)	vs	(1)	Edinburgh 1	Grade	Comments
1	2308	Burns-Mannion, Stephen R (IM)	1	-	0	Brechin, Hugh R	2045	Home Win
2	0	Carpenter, Paul	0	-	1	Kynoch, Richard J P	2024	Away Win
3	1752	McBride, John	½	-	½	Murdochy, Shivan	1894	Draw
4	1730	Roy, Michael	1	-	0	Ridge, Michael	1892	Home Win
5	1448	Horne, Peter	0	-	1	Sykes, Chris	1822	Away Win
			2½	-	2½

Division four league tables copied from 

http://www.sncl.org.uk/div4.htm

								Boards
			Matches					Played			Defaults			Score
Pos	Team	Team Name	P	W	D	L	Pts	W	D	L	W	D	L	Boards	%
1	7	North Ayrshire Crusaders	6	5	0	1	10	15	3	6	6	0	0	22½	75
2	1	Forth Valley 2	6	4	0	2	8	13	5	6	6	0	0	21½	72
3	2	CSBOS 2	6	4	0	2	8	11	7	10	0	0	2	14½	48
4	4	Corstorphine	6	3	0	3	6	13	3	13	0	0	1	14½	48
5	8	SJC	6	2	1	3	5	7	1	16	6	0	0	13½	45
6	5	Giffnock and Clarkston B	6	2	0	4	4	6	6	12	5	0	1	14	47
7	6	Kingdom Knaves	6	1	1	4	3	7	7	16	0	0	0	10½	35
8	3	Bon Accord	6	2	0	4	-2	8	0	1	1	0	20	9	30
			48	23	2	23	48	80	32	80	24	0	24	120

Bd	Grade	Kingdom Knaves	(6)	vs	(2)	CSBOS 2	Grade	Comments
1	1431	Morris, Ian G	1	-	0	Heatlie, Douglas S	1587	Home Win
2	1341	O`Rourke, Bryan	½	-	½	Bate, Simon	1560	Draw
3	0	Skellern, Barry	0	-	1	Russell, Graeme R	1491	Away Win
4	1130	Stewart, Charlie	½	-	½	Forbes, Alistair	1440	Draw
5	954	Connelly, Joe	0	-	1	West, Nicholas C	1278	Away Win
			2	-	3

Bd	Grade	Forth Valley 2	(1)	vs	(6)	Kingdom Knaves	Grade	Comments
1	1550	Hewitt, David A	½	-	½	Morris, Ian G	1431	Draw
2	1529	Anderson, Graham C	1	-	0	Newton, Calum	1148	Home Win
3	1519	Gray, William B	1	-	0	Stewart, Charlie	1130	Home Win
4	1511	Hanlon, Hugh	1	-	0	Connelly, Joe	954	Home Win
5	1252	Brodie, David	1	-	0	Innes, Leon	0	Home Win
			4½	-	½