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        

Dunfermline B Stirling C 24/10/12

There was no luck for Stirling C after a brave show. The home side controlled boards 1, 3 & 5 but board 2 could have gone either way after Douglas sacked the exchange to gain the white squares. This paid off with a neat mate using a knight and the white square bishop.Robert played a combination one move too early. If he had shut George's bishop out first the board 4 result could have been reversed (based on pub analysis!).

Dunfermline B Stirling C 
Fred Ossowski 1-0 Jono Blake 
Douglas Rew 1-0 Mick Bloor 
Bryan O'Rourke 1-0 David Brodie 
George Webb 1-0 Robert Leckie 
Glynis Grant 1-0 Tom McKay 
5-0 

Allegro League Dunfermline Sharks V Dunfermline Minnows 16/10/2012

Home Team			Away Team
Dunfermline Sharks			Dunfermline Minnows
Name	Colour	Score	Name	Colour
Florin Toropoc	W	0-1	George Webb	B
Mike Roy	W	1-0	Ian Robertson	B
Stewart Brisbane	W	1-0	Terry Doherty	B
Matthew Stewart	W	0-1	Gavin Saxton	B
Round 1 Score		2-2
Name	Colour	Score	Name	Colour
Matthew Stewart	B	0-1	George Webb	W
Florin Toropoc	B	0-1	Ian Robertson	W
Mike Roy	B	1-0	Terry Doherty	W
Stewart Brisbane	B	0-1	Gavin Saxton	W
Round 2 Score		1-3
Name	Colour	Score	Name	Colour
Stewart Brisbane	W	0.5-0.5	George Webb	B
Matthew Stewart	W	0-1	Ian Robertson	B
Florin Toropoc	W	1-0	Terry Doherty	B
Mike Roy	W	0-1	Gavin Saxton	B
Round 3 Score		1.5-2.5
Name	Colour	Score	Name	Colour
Mike Roy	B	1-0	George Webb	W
Stewart Brisbane	B	0-1	Ian Robertson	W
Matthew Stewart	B	1-0	Terry Doherty	W
Florin Toropoc	B	1-0	Gavin Saxton	W
Round 4 Score		3-1
Final Score		7.5-8.5

Dunfermline v Badgers Brook 10/10/12

Jonathan for Badgers and Iain for the home side were unlucky not to get a half point. It would not have affected the overall score which was a very fair reflection of a well fought match. Florin won a piece but making progress was awkward. Iain passed up regaining a pawn sac to go for mate but Andrew’s king slipped away to mid board and the extra pawn was the eventual decider. Ian on B1 was very slightly better throughout according to fritz but there was nothing disastrous about Kenny’s position. Stuart dropped a pawn against Gavin and to compensate went full bloodied for a kill but was fended off by clever defence. Graham outplayed Michael winning an exchange which he put to very neat use.

---

Dunfermline			Team	Badgers Brook
Name	Grade	Pnum	Result	Name	Grade	Pnum
Ian Robertson	2102		½-½	Kenny McGeoch	1839	14326
Florin Toropoc	U/G		1-0	Jonathan Rowney	1821	8493
Iain Sneddon	1835		0-1	Andrew McHarg	1723	20886
Gavin Saxton	1748		1-0	Stuart Ward	1649	23079
Michael Roy	1689		0-1	Graham Kerr	1546	10613
	TOTAL		2½-2½

Dunfermline's 1st match of the season

A few Dunfermline players looked out of practice. Results could have been different with Florin and Ronnie both blundering in drawish positions. Gavin took his 11-move disaster in good spirit. Knight on rim is dim they say so reposition the beast. Alas Gavin's steed didn't have anywhere to go other than the box. Michael also showed rust with an oversight or two after the opening. Ian had a steadily increasing edge most of the game and won after negotiating the final time scramble. Good to have another strong player in Elaine playing in the Central League.

1. Elaine Bamber (2095) 0-1 Ian Robertson (2102)

2. Ian Marks (1922) 1-0 Gavin Saxton (1748)

3. Steven Kelly (1803) 1-0 Florin Toropoc (estimate 1750)

4. Ralph Stirrat (1658) 1-0 Michael Roy (1689)

5. Ronnie Wallace (1482) 0-1 Fred Ossowski (1647)

Nevermind, Murray has won his first Slam. What a match!!!

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