SNCL rounds five and six

27/02/2011
Four Central League teams were in action today at the Scottish National League.

In the first division the Kingdom Kings were missing a number of key players. The replacements did their best, but in the end were seriously out-gunned and lost both matches. Hamilton A, would probably have won beat them anyway, but losing to Edinburgh West will cost them a second place finish in division one.

Also in div one, Cumbernauld drew one match and lost the other. That result should probably be enough to keep them in division one, unless they lose heavily in the last round.

In division two Forth Valley are now top with another two wins today. That is six wins from six and they are to be promoted for the second year in a row and are now heading to division one. Three out of the eight teams in division one next season will be Central League teams, amazing. We just need the Kingdom Knights to join them and we will rule half of div one.

The Kingdom Knights had to win their two matches today to keep up their second place spot in Div three. This they did and special mention must go to Gary Forbes, who was up against it in positions and opponents grades, in both games today. He managed to draw them and by doing so in the morning saved us from drawing with a re-enforced Corstorphine.

We were expecting to have to fight for the second promotion spot against Dundee City B during the final round next month. However, they had a narrow loss to Oban in the morning and then beat our other rivals Lanark in the afternoon. In turn Oban were hammered by the rampant Edinburgh University team in the afternnoon. As a result none of them can now catch us and we only have to turn up next month to get promotion to div two. :) Edinburgh Uni will be promoted with their top spot and I can see them going straight to div one next year.

First Division

Bd	Grade	Kingdom Kings	(3)	vs	(2)	Edinburgh West	Grade	Comments
1	2171	Burnett, Andrew B	0	-	1	Farrell, Neil R	2233	Away Win
2	2137	Robertson, Ian C	0	-	1	Neave, George	2174	Away Win
3	1858	Kynoch, Russell J F	½	-	½	Bell, Alan D	1955	Draw
4	1654	Webster, Jim J	½	-	½	Mayo, Kevin	1775	Draw
5	1553	Brisbane, W Stewart	½	-	½	Robinson, Martin E	1727	Draw
			1½	-	3½

Bd	Grade	Hamilton A	(1)	vs	(3)	Kingdom Kings	Grade	Comments
1	2216	Coffey, Patrick	0	-	1	Burnett, Andrew B	2171	Away Win
2	2266	Redpath, Joe	1	-	0	Robertson, Ian C	2137	Home Win
3	2220	Muir, Andrew J (IM)	1	-	0	Kynoch, Russell J F	1858	Home Win
4	2016	Walker, Duncan	1	-	0	Webster, Jim J	1654	Home Win
5	1954	Donohue, Tom	1	-	0	Smith, Calum V	1571	Home Win
			4	-	1

Bd	Grade	Cumbernauld	(8)	vs	(4)	Dundee City A	Grade	Comments
1	2185	Grant, Alan G	½	-	½	Constantinou, Peter (FM)	2336	Draw
2	1887	Marks, Ian A	½	-	½	Spencer, Edwin A	2214	Draw
3	1788	Kelly, J Stephen	0	-	1	Findlay, David J	2197	Away Win
4	1700	Parkes, Jack C	0	-	1	Patrick, David	2181	Away Win
5	1548	Thomson, George	0	-	1	Hogg, Stephen W	2071	Away Win
			1	-	4

Bd	Grade	Edinburgh West	(2)	vs	(8)	Cumbernauld	Grade	Comments
1	2233	Farrell, Neil R	½	-	½	Grant, Alan G	2185	Draw
2	2174	Neave, George	½	-	½	Marks, Ian A	1887	Draw
3	1955	Bell, Alan D	0	-	1	Kelly, J Stephen	1788	Away Win
4	1775	Mayo, Kevin	½	-	½	Parkes, Jack C	1700	Draw
5	1727	Robinson, Martin E	1	-	0	Thomson, George	1548	Home Win
			2½	-	2½

Second Division

Bd	Grade	Forth Valley	(4)	vs	(5)	Greenwood	Grade	Comments
1	1879	Mason, Ian C	½	-	½	Frew, Elliot	2148	Draw
2	1850	Will, Douglas	1	-	0	Gillespie, David M	1844	Home Win
3	1714	McGeoch, Kenny	1	-	0	McGovern, Patrick	1763	Home Win
4	1673	Smith, Stephen H	0	-	1	Gillespie, David P	1588	Away Win
5	1635	Smith, John	½	-	½	Deary, David	1530	Draw
			3	-	2

Bd	Grade	Edinburgh 1	(8)	vs	(4)	Forth Valley	Grade	Comments
1	1854	McIntee, Christopher	½	-	½	Mason, Ian C	1879	Draw
2	1832	Ridge, Michael	0	-	1	Will, Douglas	1850	Away Win
3	1765	Murdochy, Shivan	1	-	0	McGeoch, Kenny	1714	Home Win
4	1740	Sanderson, Mark	0	-	1	Smith, Stephen H	1673	Away Win
5	1703	Sykes, Chris	½	-	½	Smith, John	1635	Draw
			2	-	3

Third division

Bd	Grade	Corstorphine	(3)	vs	(7)	Kingdom Knights	Grade	Comments
1	1869	Massa, John A	½	-	½	Forbes, Garry	1768	Draw
2	1714	Timms, Michael A	½	-	½	McBride, John	1766	Draw
3	1200	Watson, David	1	-	0	Ossowski, Francis G	1703	Home Win
4	1186	Ruthven, Angus G	0	-	1	Morris, Ian G	1442	Away Win
5	907	Salvatore, Ernesto	0	-	1	Horne, Peter	1407	Away Win
			2	-	3

Bd	Grade	Kingdom Knights	(7)	vs	(5)	Irvine	Grade	Comments
1	1768	Forbes, Garry	½	-	½	Wiltshire, Richard	1996	Draw
2	1766	McBride, John	½	-	½	Loughran, Robert	1581	Draw
3	1703	Ossowski, Francis G	1	-	0	Gourlay, Robert	1520	Home Win
4	1618	Black, Stuart	1	-	0	Copeland, Robert	1480	Home Win
5	1442	Morris, Ian G	½	-	½	Congalton, David G	1287	Draw
			3½	-	1½

http://www.chessscotland.com/lgedata2011/sncl2011.htm

Clash of the allegro teams

23/02/2011
Both Dunfermline allegro teams were in action tonight against both of the Stirling teams.

The Dunfermline Minnows pretty much routed the Stirling Wallace team 13-3. The Dunfermline win did not seem much in doubt at any point. Especially, after Wallace failed to convert their best chance on paper of a victory in the first match and instead lost it 3-1. As a result, with one match left to play, the Dunfermline Minnows have more or less sewn up the Central Allegro League title.

The Dunfermline Sharks struggled in their four matches, with the Bruce team just about holding the edge all the way through. The Sharks needed to win the final matchup 3-1, or better to come away with anything. However, they instead lost it 3-1. Making a final score of 9.5-6.5 to Stirling Bruce. This is the side that the Minnows scraped past a few weeks back and they have a realistic chance of achieving second place in the league.

Details of the Dunfermline Minnows V Stirling Wallace match.

Round one
Minnows have the white pieces
Dunfermline Minnows          Stirling Wallace
Ian Robertson  2181  1  V  0  1417  Robert G Toqneri
John McBride  1728  1  V  0  1645  Stephen H Smith
Jim Webster    1652  0  V  1  1748  Kenny McGeoch
George Webb 1520  1  V  0  1389  David Brodie

Round two
Minnows have the black pieces
Ian Robertson  2181  1  V  0  1645  Stephen H Smith
John McBride  1728  0  V  1  1748  Kenny McGeoch

Jim Webster    1652  1  V  0  1389  David Brodie

George Webb 1520  1  V  0  1417  Robert G Toqneri

Round three
Minnows have the white pieces
Ian Robertson  2181  1  V  0  1748  Kenny McGeoch
John McBride  1728  1  V  0  1389  David Brodie

Jim Webster    1652  1  V  0  1417  Robert G Toqneri

George Webb 1520  1  V  0  1645  Stephen H Smith

Round four
Minnows have the black pieces
Ian Robertson  2181  1  V  0  1389  David Brodie

John McBride  1728  1  V  0  1417  Robert G Toqneri

Jim Webster    1652  1  V  0  1645  Stephen H Smith
George Webb 1520  0  V  1  1748  Kenny McGeoch


I don't have the details for the other match, but they will eventually appear on the Chess Scotland website http://www.chessscotland.com/lgedata2011/central2011.htm

High drama at Grangemouth. Grangemouth V Dunfermline played on the 9th of Feb 2011

The maths were simple, if Grangemouth won, or drew, they would almost certainly win the league. Even with two matches left to play. If Dunfermline won, they would most likely win the league, although with less room for a slip up. The closeness of the playing strengths pointed to a classic match, that was likely to ebb and flow. The match went onto live up to this billing.

The match started off in a dull way to begin with. Dunfermline claimed a draw by three fold repetition after only 14 moves. Given that it was one of the boards Dunfermline needed to win on paper, it was probably not the best decision. There was a query about the rules, but there were two arbiters in the room. Gavin who claimed the draw and the very experienced Donald Wilson, who impartially provided his advice and the game was declared drawn.

At this point all the other games were still in their opening phase, although Dunfermline looked to be slightly more comfortable. Then Michael on board five offered a dubious bishop sac, which if John had taken, would have seen him with a clear advantage. Luckily for Michael, John did not and his position fell apart. Although, Michael did try to make heavy weather of it.

My game on board three was level until move 35, Garry on board two, looked to have a difficult but defendable position and Ian was the exchange for a pawn up on board one. Had things stayed like that, this would have been enough for Dunfermline. However, chess is never that easy. Alan on board one managed to survive and draw and Garry on board two, went wrong. Now the match was finely poised at 2-2 with my match on board three against Doug becoming the focus of everyone. Things were looking good for Dunfermline, as I had secured a big advantage from move 35, which just got bigger. However, time was running short and the position was too complicated to work out in the time available. We were both flying by the seat of our pants. My 39th move Qg2 created the position below. According to Rybka, the advantage to white is in excess of +10.

Black has run out of moves and must offer material to prevent mate. Bg5 was the choice and my problem was can I take the bishop and avoid trouble on f2. A few minutes left on the clock and I had a meltdown, what do I do?. Qxg5 is more than +12, Nxd6+ is +8. The easy answer is that I played a poor move Nh6+, thinking that there must be a mate. This was not fatal, but later forgetting the Bh6, Rf4 discovered check was and Grangemouth won the match and the league by the unlikely score 3-2. Now I know what it like to score an own goal in title deciding derby game. 

A Bell 1955	.5	.5	I Robertson 2137
I Mason 1879	1	0	G Forbes 1768
D Will 1850	1	0	J McBride 1766
M Monaghan 1675	.5	.5	G Saxton 1723
J Smith 1635	0	1	M Roy 1705

Central League Allegro, Stirling Bruce vs Dunfermline Minnows, 31/1/11

A potential banana skin of a match for the Dunfermline team, as Stirling Bruce team are very capable. The 9.5-6.5 win would have been a lot closer had Jim Webster not won his game against Bruce's top board and Ian had his usual 4 win night. Paul Prescott's long play grade is actually 300 points more than Jim's

Paul Prescott 1762 1-0 Gavin Saxton 1847
John Blake 1573 ½-½ Jim Webster 1652
Dave Hewitt 1539 0-1 Ian Robertson 2181
Robin Hayles 1447 0-1 George Webb 1520
1½-2½

Prescott 1-0 Webb
Blake 0-1 Saxton
Hewitt 1-0 Webster
Hayles 0-1 Robertson
2-2 / 3½-4½

Prescott 0-1 Robertson
Blake 1-0 Webb
Hewitt 0-1 Saxton
Hayles 0-1 Webster
1-3 / 4½-7½

Prescott 0-1 Webster
Blake 0-1 Robertson
Hewitt 1-0 Webb
Hayles 1-0 Saxton
2-2 / 6½-9½

Individual scores
Stirling: Prescott 2, Blake 1½, Hewitt 2, Hayles 1
Dunfermline: Robertson 4, Saxton 2, Webster 2½, Webb 1