SNCL 2013/14 - Rounds 5 and 6

Crawford Macnab
23 February 2014

Round One - first team lost to Dunfermline Knights

In the morning we lost 4-1 to Dunfermline Knights.

I played e5 too early and got my king trapped in centre.
Nigel appeared to have better of opening but was blockaded and risky to go for win.
Rudolph created some threatening tactics at cost of material but opponent navigated to won position.
Thomas had long game with opponent having better position but little time. Tom tried to force opponent to spend time thinking with some traps but never quite enough.
David had a solid draw.

Dunfermline Knights Dunfermline Knights CSBOS 1 CSBOS 1
1
Ian C Robertson
2149 1 - 0
Crawford T Macnab
1805
2
Garry Forbes
1949 ½ - ½
Nigel Chapman
1774
3
John McBride
1785 1 - 0
Rudolph J Austin
1720
4
Paul A Carpenter
1800 1 - 0
Thomas Grundy
1678
5
Iain D Sneddon
1740 ½ - ½
David Stewart
1614
4 - 1

Round Two - first team drew with Forth Valley

Afternoon was against Forth Valley.
Nigel’s game had lots of material swapped off. Some chances down f-file were minimal.
Rudolph never got going and lost material too easily and with no tactics the game.
David had solid draw.
My game was interesting in that I had done some preparation to improve my play in same line we played in the Edinburgh league. This helped and I could have been more daring to grab pawn on h6. Instead he sacrificed rook on g2 to end up with him having three pawns for a piece. He declined swapping rooks and allowed my bishop to get to f7 and trap his king in the corner.

king trapped in corner

king trapped in corner

His plan was to push pawns on queen side so with limited time I hatched a plan to checkmate him!

Finally mate in corner

Finally mate in corner

Marched king forward, threat of mate with knight on g6 and finally mated with rook on h2!

CSBOS 1 CSBOS 1 Forth Valley Forth Valley
1
Crawford T Macnab
1805 1 - 0
Douglas Will
1912
2
Nigel Chapman
1774 ½ - ½
Kenny R McGeoch
1776
3
Rudolph J Austin
1720 0 - 1
Stephen H Smith
1750
4
Thomas Grundy
1678 ½ - ½
Ian C Mason
1733
5
David Stewart
1614 ½ - ½
Graham C Anderson
1670
2½ - 2½

As Tom says he got his money’s worth and was last to finish agreeing a draw in a blockaded bishop and pawn ending.

So overall not a bad day that keeps us in contention apparently for potential promotion or relegation!

Round One - second team lost to Thistles

In my opinion a great honour for Douglas to play Roddy McKay!
He did not disgrace but should have been bolder to play down h file against the King.
In the end weak white squares allowed a killer queen check on c4 that led to forced checkmate.

Look again at the grading differences. Could not be tougher!

Alistair had a tremendous result against Ian Marks who is a very experienced player. Did not see the end but looked level for a while. Great result.

Nick had tough game and battled on despite being material down.

John was exchange down I think and opponent gave exchange back to have edge in ending. Again battled very well.

Simon had great result against Alan Grant.
Simon’s king was lightly exposed with g pawn taking back on f3 but this never became an issue and draw agreed.
Alan pointed out a missed opportunity Simon had to win a piece earlier on!

Thistles Thistles CSBOS 2 CSBOS 2
1
Roddy M McKay (IM)
2291 1 - 0
Douglas S Heatlie
1563
2
Alan G Grant
2122 ½ - ½
Simon Bate
1552
3
Ian A Marks
2040 0 - 1
Alistair Forbes
1506
4
Alistair Maxwell
1957 1 - 0
John D Henderson
1435
5
Sai Kong Tsang
1856 1 - 0
Nicholas C West
1374
3½ - 1½

Round Two - second team beat Irvine

Simon appeared to have initiative and thought he had perpetual check in the back pocket but opponent did well to get king to safety and result in strong extra pawns.

Douglas showed good technique to convert a drawish endgame.

Did not see John’s game so he must have halved out early on.

Alistair had another solid victory with a strong pawn ahead in rook ending.

Nick was cruising but a few weaker moves let the advantage reduce a bit and draw was agreed to secure the team victory.

Great effort by CSBOS2 and unlucky that league has Stepps and Thistles that are heading towards the top division if they keep their squads together to climb through the leagues.

CSBOS 2 CSBOS 2 Irvine Irvine
1
Simon Bate
1552 0 - 1
Philip F Walsh
1806
2
Douglas S Heatlie
1563 1 - 0
Robert Loughran
1482
3
Alistair Forbes
1506 1 - 0
Robert Gourlay
1367
4
John D Henderson
1435 ½ - ½
Stephen L Clark
1266
5
Nicholas C West
1374 ½ - ½
Greg Gourlay
0
3 - 2

Well done to everyone.

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