Dunfermline A 2-3 Stirling A - 11/12/2013

Who says there is no White Christmas?

It was a case of home disadvantage as Dunfermline only got the white pieces in 2 games in a match where white won all 5.  I suspect that is a very rare occurrence.

On top board in a quiet exchange French opening Steve placed his pieces a bit too cautiously and then blundered on move 13 trying to stop his pieces from getting even more restricted.  On board 2 John only noticed Jim's destructive knight sacrifice too late and despite wriggling on there was no way to prevent the white attack.  An inadvertent double knight sacrifice by black resulting in the loss of 2 knights for nothing ended the game.  On board 3 Iain tried a counter attacking hippo formation but the beast proved too heavy to move much beyond its own 3rd rank.  Graham took aim at the black king side and won the black queen with a neat combination.  On board 4 Fred threatened to launch a king side attack.  This never happened as Robin insisted on placing his queen on an unprotected square on the queen side where the pin cost him a pawn.  Strangely he moved the same piece to the same square a couple of moves later and an identical pin cost pawn number 2.  Fred converted without much bother.  On  board 5 Jim came out of the opening ok but a couple of casual rook pawn moves and Jim's fear about getting an isolated d-pawn by advancing it let Neil get a big bind on the position which eventually cost black a piece and the game.

Dunfermline A   2-3     Stirling A     
Ian Robertson (2149)    1-0     Stephen Smith (1750)   
John McBride (1785)     0-1     Jim Shemilt (1810?)    
Iain Sneddon (1740)     0-1     Graham Anderson (1670) 
Fred Ossowski (1662)    1-0     Robin Hayles (1660)    
Jim Webster (1613)      0-1     Neil Irving (1657)