Dunfermline A's 1st match of the season (The ex champs V the current champs)

Dunfermline A   3-2     Cumbernauld A  

Ian Robertson   1-0     Steven Kelly   
Iain Sneddon    Draw    Mark Monaghan  
Fred Ossowski   0-1     Ralph Stirrat  
Stuart Black    Draw    George Thomson 
Bryan O'Rourke  1-0     Paul Hendry    

Top board was like a game from the 1970's which was the last time I played a main line Najdorf  open Sicilian.  It was a good choice as my opponent had been booking up all day in anticipation of me playing 3Bb5 lines.  Fortunately B-team captain Jim Webster had given me a right doing in several 5-minute games against this last week so I thought it was time to change.  Thank you Jim!  Steven still knew all the theory of the Najdorf but was most confused when a quiet pawn move ended his Q-side play freeing me to line up all sorts of piece sacs.  A simple but nice tactic was duly played on move 17 destroying Blacks k-side and netting a couple of pawns, an exchange and a continuing attack when Black's flag fell on move 26.   Iain demonstrated some lovely tactics on board 2 in a very modern looking Kings Indian Defence.  A careless move (b6) and a follow up inaccuracy let Mark snatch a temporary pawn but Iain then found the correct active sequence to regain the material to bring about a balanced ending.  Fred seemed to be doing ok in a quiet Italian opening but lost the initiative in the middle game giving Ralph the chance to exchange down to a Knight v Bishop ending.  White looked to be doing very well at this stage but Fred was disappointed not to have found a more accurate defence which may have held the position.  Unusually for Stuart he found himself with a position with broken pawns.  Normally he keeps them very neat!  The broken structure meant it was difficult for him to generate much initiative but with Queens and other pieces coming off early George did not have much to chase at either and a fairly quick draw was agreed.  The team were astounded by some of Bryan's manoeuvres in a weird hybrid English/Queens Indian set-up.  However patient defence, a careless h3 move by Paul and a brave but strong f5 by Bryan swung the initiative.  Paul was confused by the change of events and with his position coming under pressure blundered his Queen.  A good start for Dunfermline against last seasons champions.