Stirling Bruce 2½ - 13½ Dunfermline Minnows 24/10/16

Congratulations to Dunfermline Minnows, who inflicted an absolute
gubbing on Stirling Bruce tonight. The Bruce team is lacking two of
its regulars this season and is under reconstruction as it were, but
even so a scoreline of this sort wasn't anticipated. It's the first
time in five seasons that Minnows have won this fixture, and almost
certainly the heaviest-ever defeat suffered by Bruce. Funnily enough,
amid it all, one of the two Bruce wins was by Graham against Ian -
courtesy of a fine swindle in a lost position, but a win against their
main man all the same.

Calum racked up a fine 4/4 score for Minnows, while young Carl played
the first two rounds for Bruce (and didn't disgrace himself by any
means) before going off at half time. It almost goes without saying
that Minnows were much the better team on the night. There have been
bigger wins in the league, but not many.

Stirling Bruce vs Dunfermline Minnows, 24/10/16

r1
Graham Anderson 1689  0-1  Jim Webster 1756
Bill Cook 1567  0-1  Calum Smith 1584
Robert Leckie 1250  1-0  George Webb 1466
Carl Zihan Kang 803  0-1  Ian Robertson (c) 2179
1-3

r2
Anderson  1-0  Robertson
Cook  0-1  Webster
Leckie  0-1  Smith
Kang  0-1  Webb
1-3 / 2-6

r3
Anderson  0-1  Webb
Cook  0-1  Robertson
Leckie  0-1  Webster
Dave Hewitt (c) 1516 0-1  Smith
0-4 / 2-10

r4
Anderson  0-1  Smith
Cook  0-1  Webb
Leckie  0-1  Robertson
Hewitt  ½-½  Webster
½-3½ / 2½-13½

Minnows had white in rounds 1 and 3

Individual scores -
Bruce: Anderson 1/4, Leckie 1/4, Hewitt ½/2, Cook 0/4, Kang 0/2
Minnows: Smith 4/4, Webster 3½/4, Robertson 3/4, Webb 3/4

Dunfermline A 1½-3½ Grangemouth A 10/10/16

1.       Ian Robertson 0-1 Uby Archibong

2.       Michael Roy ½ - ½ Alan Bell

3.       Stuart Black 0-1 Graeme Hamilton

4.       Jamie O’C0nnor 0-1 Dougie Will

5.       Fred Ossowski 1-0 John Smith

I was clearly better out the opening but went for too much too soon and Uby gradually took over the initiative. There was still never much in it but shortage of time proved a killer.  Michael and Alan was a bit of a see-saw with Michael comfortable but then got done tactically only for him to do the same to win Alan’s queen for a couple of pieces but offered a draw which may have been a time consideration or perhaps thinking he would not be able to break though.  Stuart looked fine for a long time but Graeme eventually got at the weakened king position.  Jamie said he felt good after the opening moves but got a bit negative after Dougie’s inevitable aggression and went down quickly.  Fred was not trying to do much but found a nice way to win queen side pawns after John dithered over where to put his pieces.      

Cumbernauld A 3 v 2 Dunfermline A 6/10/16

Sadly we went down when Michael lost having been winning earlier. All credit to David who sacrificed a piece for awkward counterplay which caused confusion and then he found a neat trick as Michael’s time dwindled.  Stuart held the draw after his opponent missed a neat way to win a pawn and probably the game. Once that chance went all the pawns got eliminated for the draw.  Fred said he got nothing out the opening and could not find any sensible way to continue after the forced exchange of queens so accepted the offer of a draw.  I felt under pressure throughout but apparently I was pretty much ok and perhaps a tad better at the end but having survived having to make my last 3 moves with only 4 seconds left on the clock I was relieved to just accept the draw.  I thought John was in trouble with all that pressure against the king so well done for surviving.

1 Stephen Kelly   =  Ian Robertson

2 Ralph Stirrat  =  John McBride

3 David Johnston 1-0 Michael Roy

4 Mark Monaghan  =  Stuart Black

5 George Thomson  =  Fred Ossowski 

Allegro League Showdown-11/04/15

Even with only the 3 final games of the season still running any one of Stirling Bruce, Grangemouth Tigers or Dunfermline Minnows could still win the league.  Tigers top 3 rated players were against Minnows 2,3 and 4 rated but Tigers needed to win all 3 games.  Minnows needed to score 1.5 from 3 while other scores favoured Bruce.

The first result was for Matthew who got a quick win over out of sorts Bill and thereby eliminated Tigers. Uby then overcame John leaving the title in the outcome of the Calum v Ian game.  After the usual ups and downs Calum emerged with an extra piece but the crucial factor was time.  When both players got to around 30 seconds each left Ian opted for a rook sacrifice forcing perpetual check.  That half was enough for Minnows who win the league by half a game point.

It was unfortunate that Tigers were missing a player for such an occasion though even without Hugh it still looked like Tigers had sufficient talent to get the 6.5 points they required. However this time the thrills and spills of individual games generally favoured the Minnows players and thereby enabled a successful defence of the title in the most dramatic finish we have had to the allegro league.

Minnows 11- 5

Round 1

Ian Robertson 1-0 Ubong Archibong

John McBride 1-0 Ian Mason

Calum Smith 1/2 Bill Gray

Matthew Stewart 1-0 default

Round 2

Ian Robertson 1-0 Ian Mason

John McBride 1-0 Bill Gray

Calum Smith 1-0 default

Matthew Stewart 0-1 Ubong Archibong

Round 3

Ian Robertson 1-0 Bill Gray

John McBride 1-0 default

Calum Smith 0-1 Ubong Archibong

Matthew Stewart 0-1 Ian Mason

Round 4

Ian Robertson 1-0 default

John McBride 0-1 Ubong Archibong

Calum Smith 1/2 Ian Mason

Matthew Stewart 1-0 Bill Gray

Dunfermline A 3-2 Cumbernauld A-14/3/16

The captain missed his first A team match through illness since September 1973! Maybe him not playing board 1 and me not playing board 2 helped the team.

Stuart Black 1610 1-0   Ralph Stirrat 1630 (W)
Stewart Brisbane 1530 ½-½George Thomson 1543 (W)
Matthew Stewart 1493 0-1 Steven Monaghan 1181 (B)
Bryan O’Rourke 1359 1-0  Dave Flaherty 1097 (W)
Peter Horne 1357 ½-½ Brian Kerr 1094 (B)

Dunfermline win 3-2

Dunfermline Minnows 7-9 Stirling Bruce, 22/2/16

Stirling got off to a flier, then just managed stagger over the line
despite a strong Dunfermline effort in r4 - the gap closed to 6-8
before two draws in the final two games.


Dunfermline Minnows vs Stirling Bruce, 22/2/16

Ian Robertson (c) 2174  0-1  Dave Hewitt (c) 1448
Jim Webster 1645  ½-½  John Blake 1596
George Webb 1497  0-1  Graham Anderson 1630
Ben Volland 1483  0-1  Bill Cook 1642
½-3½

Robertson  1-0  Cook
Webster  ½-½  Hewitt
Webb  0-1  Blake
Volland  0-1  Anderson
1½-2½  /  2-6

Robertson  ½-½  Anderson
Webster  ½-½  Cook
Webb  ½-½  Hewitt
Volland  ½-½  Blake
2-2  /  4-8

Robertson  1-0  Blake
Webster  ½-½  Anderson
Webb  ½-½  Cook
Volland  1-0  Hewitt
3-1  /  7-9

Minnows had white in rounds 2 and 4.

Individual scores
Minnows: Robertson 2½, Webster 2, Volland 1½, Webb 1
Bruce: Anderson 3, Cook, Blake, Hewitt all 2

A couple of Central League results

Division 1:

Stirling A v Dunfermline A, 29/2/16

Shivan Murdochy 1912  ½-½  Ian Robertson (c) 2085
Jim Shemilt 1778  1-0  Stuart Black 1610
Steve Smith (c) 1702  ½-½  Ben Volland 1543
Graham Anderson 1671  ½-½  Stewart Brisbane 1530
Bill Cook 1666  1-0  Matthew Stewart 1493

Stirling A  3½-1½  Dunfermline A

Dunfermline had white on boards 2, 3 and 5.

++++++++++++++

Division 2:

Badgers Brook B vs Stirling C, 29/2/16

Dave McGilvary (c) 1573  0-1  Craig Manson 1306
Robert McCord 1361  0-1  David Brodie (c) 1301
Derek Raffan 1251  1-0  Robert Togneri 1219
Dylan Gillies u/g  0-1  Michael Cook u/g
Mark Brown u/g  1-0  Sam Cook 488

Badgers Brook B  2-3  Stirling C

Stirling had white on boards 2, 3 and 4.

Grangemouth A 4.5-0.5 Dunfermline A - 17/2/16

1. Uby Archibong 1/2 Ian Robertson
2. Alan Bell 1-0 Andy Forbes
3. Graham Hamilton 1-0 Calum Smith
4. Doug Will 1-0 Bryan O’Rourke
5. Ian Mason 1-0 Glynis Grant

Well the match went as expected with 4 of Dunfermline's A-team unavailable (only 2 would have been available if the match had been played some other week so would have made little difference).

However the B squad gave it a go. Other than Calum who went wrong early the others made Grangemouth work just a wee bit for their wins. In fact a relieved Ian M was down to his last 2 minutes before finally breaking through to beat Glynis in the last game to finish.  Bryan was 2 pawns up against Dougie but it always looked like Dougie’s active pieces were well worth the sacrificed material.  Andy had an opportunity to make it interesting against Alan with a d4 move that would have exploited the weak white squares but his actual choice left him a piece down for not enough compensation but required some care from Alan to net the point.  Ian and Uby had another open and entertaining game.  The complexity made it difficult to be totally accurate with computer assessment at the game end showing Ian to be still +1.5 after missing a move (26h3!) which would have been +5 in my favour and earlier missing another obscure but utterly winning move (24Rb5). However a couple of moves earlier Uby would have got to +2 himself if he had played his queen to a more subtle square (20Qc8!).  As it was the difficulty in assessing how much time remained on the analogue clock meant I should offer a draw which Uby generously accepted though he may well have won on time had he continued.

The full Board 1 game

White: Ian Robertson  Black: Uby Archibong

1c4 e5 2Nc3 Bb4 3e4 Nf6 4Nf3 0-0 5d3 Bc3+ 6bc Re8 7Be2 h6 8g4 c6 9g5 hg 10Bg5 d5 11Nd2 Be6 12cd cd 13 Rb1 b6 14 Bf3 Nc6 15ed Bd5 16Rg1 e4 17Be4? (better was de) Ne4 18 de Be4 19Ne4 Re4+ 20 Kf1 Qe8? (better was Qc8) 21 Bf6 Qe6 22Rg7+ Kf8 23Qf3 Re8 24 Rh7? (Rb5 wins) Ne7?

25Rh8+? (25Bg7+ Kg8 26 Rh8+ wins the exchange) Ng8 26Rb4 draw agreed!  However if white found 26h3 taking away the g4 square black cannot defend.

Dunfermline A 1-4 Stirling A - 7/12/15

Oh dear. Dunfermline had out one of its stronger sides in the past couple of seasons and after the opening few moves it looked promising on all boards for the home side.  Alas first Ben’s sac of piece for several pawns backfired then with John’s position starting to look dubious and Stuart’s looking a bit messy and Michael showing no immediate progress, Ian felt obliged to turn down 2 draw offers only in time to allow Jim a mate in one!  John then fell thereby ending the match but not the entertainment.

Stuart by now had a queen for a couple of pieces but calmly left his queen hanging for nothing.  However Graham had no time left and lost when his flag fell taking the queen.  That left Michael to nurse home his extra pawn in a bishop v knight ending.  Sadly he allowed knight takes bishop exchange at the wrong moment and found himself in a lost pawn ending.  Some matches go for you and some against.  Just not Dunfermline’s evening.

1. I Robertson 0-1 J Shemilt
2. J McBride 0-1 N Irving
3. M Roy 0-1 S Smith
4. S Black 1-0 G Anderson
5. B Volland 0-1 Bill Cook

Grangemouth Tigers 9-7 Stirling Bruce, 25/11/15

Congratulations to Grangemouth Tigers who won a tight and
well-contested match where, unusually, the lead changed hands between
half-time and the finish. Probably the two main factors in
Grangemouth's victory were Uby's fine 4/4 and me having the poorest
night scorewise that I've had for ages, only managing a single draw,
against Hugh in the last round.

It was the third time in four seasons that the Bruce team has lost to
the Tigers, and Ian, Uby and co now look nicely placed in the league,
with two wins out of two and Stirling Wallace and Dunfermline Minnows
as their remaining opponents. Bruce are still in the chase but
probably need to beat both Dunfermline teams and hope that Tigers lose
somewhere along the way.

Hugh Hanlon 1361  0-1  Bill Cook 1642
Bill Gray 1581  0-1  Graham Anderson 1630
Ian Mason (c) 1800  ½-½  John Blake 1596
Ubong Archibong 2224  1-0  Dave Hewitt (c) 1448
1½-2½

Archibong  1-0  Cook
Hanlon  0-1  Anderson
Gray  0-1  Blake
Mason  1-0  Hewitt
2-2 / 3½-4½

Mason  ½-½  Cook
Archibong  1-0  Anderson
Hanlon  0-1  Blake
Gray  1-0  Hewitt
2½-1½ / 6-6

Gray  ½-½  Cook
Mason  1-0  Anderson
Archibong  1-0  Blake
Hanlon  ½-½  Hewitt
3-1 / 9-7

Tigers won the toss and had white in rounds 1 and 3.

Tigers: Archibong 4, Mason 3, Gray 1½, Hanlon ½
Bruce: Blake 2½, Cook 2, Anderson 2, Hewitt ½

Wallace V Minnows allegro match 23/11/15

Tonight's game between Wallace and Minnows brought the usual result,
but the 10-6 margin was more respectable than in many previous
encounters.

Round 1 1-3
Neil Irving 0-1 Ian Robertson
Mick Bloor 0-1 John McBride
Robert Togneri 0-1 Callum Smith
Steve Smith 1-0 Andy Forbes

Round 2 2-2 total 3-5
Steve Smith 0-1 Ian Robertson
Neil Irving 1-0 John McBride
Mick Bloor 0-1 Callum Smith
Robert Togneri 1-0 Andy Forbes

Round 3 1.5-2.5 total 4.5-7.5
Robert Togneri 0-1 Ian Robertson
Steve Smith 1/2 John McBride
Neil Irving 1-0 Callum Smith
Mick Bloor 0-1 Andy Forbes

Round 4 1.5-2.5 total 6-10
Mick Bloor 0-1 Ian Robertson
Robert Togneri 0-1 John McBride
Steve Smith 1/2 Callum Smith
Neil Irving 1-0 Andy Forbes

Dunfermline 2-3 Grangemouth 26/10/15

1. Ian Robertson (2085) 0-1 Uby Archibong (2224)

2. Mike Roy (1679) 0-1 Alan Bell (1956)

3. Jim Webster (1677) 1/2-1/2 Doug Will (1946)

4. Stuart Black (1610) 1-0 John Smith (1737)

5. Fred Ossowski (1572) 1/2-1/2 Ian Mason (1719)

Woe is me. Curses and more curses.  I was an exchange and pawn up against Uby but contrived to lose.  All credit to Uby for finding enough decent squares and coordination for his remaining pieces to get me thinking too long and into a bit of time trouble which ultimately caused the blundering back of the material but to lose the resulting equal rook + pawns ending was just idiotic.  Have I already said curses?  I really feel I let my teammates down after their sterling efforts against a strong Grangemouth team.  

Michael fell early on when Alan produced a smart tactic netting the exchange.  Fred then played out a solid draw with Ian in a game where most of the material came off fairly quickly.  Stuart played a superb game gradually taking command against John and then smoothly converting his slight material gains.  Jim against Dougie could have gone either way and a draw was probably the fair result but initial (pub!) analysis had us all finding more wins than losses for Jim. Dougie had the final chance with an extra piece but his time trouble prevented him finding the most accurate moves to convert and he had to give the draw before time expired.  Last to finish was my nightmare ending.

All in all a good fight but probably already eliminates Dunfermline from the league title. Once more - curses.

SNCL Results 25/10/15

We were lucky

Round 1 Corstorphine 2.5 - 2.5 Dunfermline

George missed a win and then lost and Peter struggled before losing badly. My opponent was unlucky not to hold the position.  Stuart played a well controlled game to win but from what I saw Stewart seemed a bit fortunate to draw

Round 2 Oban 2-3 Dunfermline

Only won this match because my opponent lost on time at move 29 when he was winning after I mucked up a really good opening. Peter won nicely and Jim and Stuart played out solid draws.   George was better again but his opponent managed to get play from a horrible position and then it all turned round

Minnows 10-6 Sharks allegro match 21/09/2015

A right toughie of a match.  Minnows got off to a great start but with John and George not having played for months and Ben still a bit hit or miss with his allegro play the end result was in serious doubt.  Minnows held on mainly due to Ben’s excellent win over Michael in round 3 and a fortunate win for John in the final round.

Ian Robertson (2174) 1-0 Michael Roy (1635)

John McBride (1809) 1-0 Stuart Black (1592)

Ben Volland (1483) 1-0 Peter Horne (1515)

George Webb (1497) 1/2-1/2 Stewart Brisbane 1469)

3.5-0.5

John McBride 0-1 Michael Roy

Ben Volland 1/2-1/2 Stuart Black

George Webb 0-1 Peter Horne

Ian Robertson 1-0 Stewart Brisbane

1.5-2.5 / 5-3

Ben Volland 1-0 Michael Roy

George Webb 1/2-1/2 Stuart Black

Ian Robertson 1-0 Peter Horne

John McBride 1/2-1/2 Stewart Brisbane

3-1 / 8-4

George Webb 0-1 Michael Roy

Ian Robertson 1-0 Stuart Black

John McBride 1-0 Peter Horne

Ben Volland 0-1 Stewart Brisbane

2-2 / 10-6

KO CUP FINAL-Dunfermline 3.5-3.5 Badgers Brook 11/05/2015

Dunfermline 3.5-3.5 Badgers Brook

1. Ian Robertson 1-0 Kenny McGeoch
2. Michael Roy 1-0 Mark Cooke
3. Fred Ossowski 0-1 Fabio Biancalana
4. Jim Webster 0-1 John Smith
5. Stuart Black 1/2-1/2 Graham Kerr
6. Stewart Brisbane 0-1 Dave McGilivray
7. Matthew Stewart 1-0 Kenny Aiston

Dunfermline win on board count.

Dunfermline avenged last season’s cup final loss on board count against Badgers Brook winning this time around by the same method. It always looked like it would be a tight contest with Badgers higher rated on boards 2-5 and Dunfermline higher rated on 1, 6 & 7. 

There was plenty excitement and drama.  An early loss befell board 4 as Jim seemed to have left all his good moves in Greece.  It seemed Dunfermline would level quickly on board 7 after Matthew’s clever play stopped Kenny regaining material. It took longer than expected but the result was never in doubt.  Next on top board Ian beat the other Kenny in a lively Kings Gambit where neither player got castled but Kenny found his king chased to the d5 square where it surrendered.  On board 3 history repeated itself - the two players met with the same outcome the previous week. Fabio's steady pressure won first the exchange then pawns started to fall. On board 6 Stewart was slightly better throughout but let his time drift looking for a killing move. He then lost on time after failing to claim a draw in a completely level position.  On board 5 Stuart and Graham had a right ding-dong battle.  Only they know who was better in a wide open position with several pieces in a precarious situation. The spectators believed both protagonists were losing!  A draw by repetition had to be the correct result. That left board 2 with Dunfermline needing a win. It looked good for Mark but with time running low for both players he missed that he could play a simplifying QxR tactic and was punished as Michael kept an extra piece and then found an impressive tactical finish.

Finally a big thank you to Badgers for their sportsmanship.  Michael had arrived from work just as the clocks were starting and immediately sat down without switching off his phone.  Inevitably it rang a minute into the match - which incidentally sent several players from both sides scurrying for their pockets! Badgers sportingly shrugged off the disruption and all games continued. 

UPDATE FROM D HEWITT:

Congratulations to Dunfermline on the cup win, and commiserations to
Badgers Brook - it sounds like another very close and exciting match
in a season that seems to have been stuffed with them. So of the five
Central League trophies, two this season have gone to Dunfermline, two
to Stirling and one - the big one, the main league title - to Badgers.
Will be interesting to see how next season plays out, with Grangemouth
likely to be more in contention if they can retain their top four of
Uby, Dougie, Alan and Ian, and Cumbernauld perhaps recovering from
their recent dip in form. It's all very close and competitive across
the various competitions and formats, which has to be a good thing.

Oh, and the final division 1 match last night saw Stirling beat
Cumbernauld 3-2 to take third place. Stirling were in trouble on the
three lower boards despite a hefty grading advantage, so the result
looked to be heading the other way before various late swings saw the
home team take the points.

Stirling A vs Cumbernauld A, 11/5/15
Jim Shemilt 1787  ½-½  Ralph Stirrat 1737
Steve Smith 1782  ½-½  George Thomson 1593
Robin Hayles 1584  ½-½  Derek McAteer 1233
Bill Cook 1556  ½-½  Steven Monaghan 1124
David Brodie 1236  1-0  David Flaherty 1117

Stirling had white on boards 2 and 3.

UPDATE FROM G KERR:

Congratulations to Dunfermline, a close and hard fought match...

That ding-dong battle, i was sure i was winning until i hung a piece, just took my eye off it, and in the end was lucky to get out of it with a draw...

Badgers Brook 2.5-2.5 Dunfermline A-27/04/2015 Very nearly but only second place

In their final league match of 2014-15 Dunfermline came so close to winning an unlikely Division One title.  Three and a half points were needed against the defending champs but the match ended in a tie after Fred turned down a draw but then lost in the last game to finish. A draw would have won the match for Dunfermline but also would have lost the title by a half game point.  Fred rightly chose to play on but ultimately could not fend off Fabio’s attack.  Many congratulations to Badgers Brook on their successful defence of the title.

In the earlier games a crushing win on top board was cancelled out by a careless loss on board 5 but Stuart then restored Dunfermline’s lead after John did not get sufficient compensation for the loss of a piece.  Alas no progress could be made on board 4 which started fairly blocked and continued that way thereafter and then came the gallant effort by Fred.

All in all a decent effort by Dunfermline who were missing a few of their higher rated players in several matches over the course of the season.

Badgers Brook 2.5-2.5 Dunfermline A

1. Kenny McGeoch 0-1 Ian Robertson
2. Fabio Biancalana 1-0 Fred Ossowski
3. John Smith 0-1 Stuart Black
4. Stuart Ward 1/2-1/2 Stewart Brisbane
5. Graham Kerr 1-0 Douglas Rew  

Dunfermline 3.5 - 1.5 Cumbernauld 8/4/15

Dunfermline 3.5 - 1.5 Cumbernauld

1. I Robertson 1/2 - 1/2 M Monaghan
2. J Webster 1/2 - 1/2 R Stirrat
3. S Brisbane 1/2 -1/2 G Thomson
4. B O’Rourke 1- 0 S Monaghan
5. win by default 1-0 loss by default

Sadly a late call-off left Cumbernauld short-handed.  Glynis now has 2/2 default wins after a similar situation against Cumbernauld in the KO a few weeks previously.  As for the games played it was a weakened and tired Dunfermline team who were rather gifted the points after Bryan grabbed an early piece and was always winning thereafter despite trying to keep Steven in the game for longer than he should have!  Then a surprising draw offer from George on board 4 was gladly accepted. George thought the position was a bit too blocked to make progress in the allegro finish but on further reflection it seems he was winning .  Ralph considered playing on after a fairly equal position arose following middle game exchanges but accepted a repetition.  On top board Ian won queen for rook and knight but Mark was able to set up a blockade where progress was problematic in the time left and a draw was agreed.     

Minnows 14 - 2 Badgers 25/03/15

Both sides were weakened with Minnows George Webb being replaced by young Ben Volland and also using the rusty Andy Forbes again.  However Badgers also suffered by only having one A-team regular available this time.  Although there were the usual close encounters and plenty of frantic finishes it was Minnows who pulled out the victories.  The score was 9-0 before Badgers got their first win.  The final score might have gone even more in Minnows favour had Kenny not ground out a very equal ending against Ben in the final game to finish.

Minnows 14 - 2 Badgers

Round 1

Ian Robertson 1-0 Kenny McGeoch

Jim Webster 1-0 Dave McGillivray

Andy Forbes 1-0 Robert McCord

Ben Volland 1-0 Gordon Walker

Round 2

Ian Robertson 1-0 Gordon Walker

Jim Webster 1-0 Kenny McGeoch

Andy Forbes 1-0 Dave McGillivray

Ben Volland 1-0 Robert McCord

Round 3     

Ian Robertson 1-0 Robert McCord

Jim Webster 1-0 Gordon Walker

Andy Forbes 0-1 Kenny McGeoch

Ben Volland 1-0 Dave McGillivray

Round 4

Ian Robertson 1-0 Dave McGillivray

Jim Webster 1-0 Robert McCord

Andy Forbes 1-0 Gordon Walker

Ben Volland 0-1 Kenny McGeoch

Stirling 3.5 - 3.5 Dunfermline 23/03/2015

Stirling 3.5 - 3.5 Dunfermline

S Murdochy 0-1 I Robertson
J Shemilt 1/2 F Ossowski
S Smith 1/2 J Webster
G Anderson 0-1 S Black
R Hayles 1/2 S Brisbane
J Blake 1-0 B O'Rourke
B Cook 1-0 P Horne

Dunfermline win on board count so face Badgers Brook in the final for the 3rd successive year.  Ian was in control most of the game but missed a win of the exchange - pointed out after by Jim.  However 2 pawns were won anyway which was enough to force resignation.  Boards 6 & 7 were lost after poor play by Bryan and Peter when they both surrendered better positions. Boards 2,3 & 5 were entertaining affairs where it was difficult to assess who was winning particularly on boards 2 and 5 as first one player then his opponent seemed to be better.  The major surprise was that all 3 games ended as draws.  The crucial game was board 4 where Stuart had rook & 4 pawns against bishop, knight and 4 pawns.  At first it looked good for Stirling but a small slip let Stuart push for a win which he achieved in a really tense finish with both players having less than I minute left on the clock.  

Grangemouth A 1.5 - 3.5 Dunfermline 11/03/2015

1. D Will 0-1 I Robertson
2. U Archibong 1-0 G Saxton
3. I Mason 1/2 F Ossowski
4. C Welsh 0-1 J Webster
5. D Fowler 0-1 G Grant

Grangemouth have found a strong player from Nigeria and Mr Archibong was originally on the team sheet to play top board but as he had not appeared by start of play and Gavin had his own car team lists were switched as Gavin was happy to leave early.  However he appeared 15 minutes late and both players then produced a really exciting game with plenty of sacs before Gavin succumbed to a fierce counter attack.  Jim had an easy win after breaking through Crawford’s odd pawn structure while Glynis looked to make heavy weather of her position before David allowed mate. Fred was generous at the end as he seemed to have a dominating position but with the team only needing a half point offered a draw before time got too short.  Likewise on top board Ian also only needed to draw but Dougie lost a couple more pawns to go with the one he mislaid earlier and gave up